There’s No Denying That Yankees Are Struggling Real Bad

It really came after what was perceived as the worst. On June 3, Yankees pitcher Aaron Judge smacked his right foot into a concrete slab at the base of the right-field wall at Dodger Stadium during the eighth inning of a game against the Dodgers. A few days later, he was put on the injured list, missing the first quarter of the season.

There’s No Denying That Yankees Are Struggling Real Bad

On June 4, the impact was not completely understood. so that the Yankees could enjoy their 4-1 victory against the Dodgers on “Sunday Night Baseball.” The Yankees could be more convinced of their tenacity and resourcefulness if they manage it without Judge.

Well, we know the Yankees have been performing ever since Judge is missing from the team.

With 47 games left in the season, they will be five games out of the last American League wild-card berth going into the opening game of the series against the Marlins on Friday night.

Even if they haven’t demonstrated much in the way of getting hot, they have still continued to publicly profess confidence in their ability to do so.

“We just haven’t seen it yet,” Aaron Judge said Wednesday night after the Yankees lost a series to the miserable White Sox in Chicago. Seasonal ebbs and flows, lots of ups and downs. I got confidence in these guys.”

The Astros, Yankees, and Dodgers in order of winning percentage from 2017 through 2022 were: Astros,.622; Dodgers,.645; and Yankees,.595. In both the regular season and the postseason, they were the clubs the Yankees were pursuing.

The Dodgers, who combined a small-market culture of digging for edges in every area while toting a mega-payroll, stood in for what the Yankees aspired to be on the East Coast from the West Coast.

They were hoping Judge’s arrival after a nearly two-month layoff due to a ruptured toe ligament would ignite something.

Instead, since the returning AL MVP, they have a record of 5-8.

“I do think we do have the talent and the capabilities,” general manager Brian Cashman said on the day he basically stood pat at the trade deadline. “Saying it is one thing. Watching it lately hasn’t been anything close to what you’d feel comfortable with.”

Although Judge’s quest for 62 home runs helped the Yankees play around.500 baseball in the second half of last season, Cashman did not make any substantial lineup changes heading into this season.

The Yankees’ strong pitching staff, especially the bullpen, mostly masks the offence’s shortcomings during the first half of the season.

As a result of a combination of injuries, unavailability, and subpar performance, the rotation is now starting to reveal more flaws, forcing the Yankees to keep using Luis Severino even though his ERA surpassed 8.00 on Wednesday night.

“It’s no fun when you’re not just rolling like many of those guys have throughout their careers,” Boone said. “When it’s up and down, win one, lose one, win a couple, lose a couple, you’re kind of desperately trying to find that consistency. Because we know we gotta go on a good run.

“You also have to have a level of professionalism to have that process and mentality of every day coming in focusing on what you have to do and not getting too emotional about it, too. That’s a hard balance to strike and we need to.”

The Yankees maintain their belief that they are capable of going on a run despite a prolonged period that would appear to say otherwise.

 

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