Once again, the Yankees ended up on the wrong side of the scoreboard. And, once again, they were telling the same stories in the aftermath. It’s not over yet, they said. Never mind that their streak of futility, at eight contests and counting, is their longest in 28 years. There’s still a chance, they argued. Forget that there’s no logical reason for them to avoid their first losing campaign in three decades. With 38 games to go before the end of the regular season, they’re hoping to catch the proverbial lightning in a bottle and finish the way their forebears did in 1995. Among other things, however, general manager Aaron Boone is not Buck Showalter.
Still, the Yankees are right. For as long as there are set-tos left to play, they need to put their noses to the grindstone. Never mind that they’ve been this side of awful since reigning American League Most Valuable Player Aaron Judge suffered a freak injury in early June. In the intervening two and a half months, they’ve gone an atrocious 24-39, burdened by the worst offensive numbers in all of Major League Baseball. And the fact that they’ve had a run of bad luck doesn’t help, not with an overburdened bullpen and a roster replete with poor signings courtesy of general manager Brian Cashman.
“We[‘ve] got to be unbelievable the rest of the way,” Boone pointed after the Yankees got swept by the rival Red Sox over the weekend. As hyperbolic as it may sound, it’s arguably an understatement. They’re a whopping nine games out of securing the third AL wild card spot, with no relief in sight. Heck, they’ve become so desperate that promotion seems to be their only remedy at this point. They’re calling up outfielder Everson Pereira and shortstop Oswald Peraza from Triple-A ball in hopes that the infusion of fresh blood will trigger a turnaround
At least Boone knows enough not to “get big picture about it. You’ve just got to tackle the next day.” And for the Yankees, it means prevailing in the three-outing homestand against the similarly struggling Nationals. If they can get that done, they may yet be able to inject some life back into the dugout.
Hey, at least they’re trying, hard — but, unfortunately, not well enough, and nowhere near to justifying the payment of luxury taxes with the league’s second-largest payroll. In any case, they’ll be doing a lot of thinking in the offseason — with, presumably a lot of personnel changes as a result.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and human resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
