1. I thought this season could be different. I thought maybe the annual Boone Swoon wouldn’t happen. Not because I thought the clueless manager would get a clue in his ninth year on the job or that the “Run It Back” offense would be better than it was last year or that the piss poor defense that has defined this Yankees era wouldn’t constantly piss itself or that the bullpen would be trustworthy enough, but because I thought this rotation wouldn’t allow it to happen. What I didn’t account for was the manager, offense, defense and bullpen overpowering the rotation in baseball and making it irrelevant.

2. This weekend was bad. Very bad. The Yankees went from having the division lead to now being two games back of the Rays in the loss column. They were humiliated by a last-place Red Sox team that has had nothing to feel good about all season, and the Yankees gave them the four best days of their season. They lost a Cam Schlittler start in which they didn’t allow an earned run, they were dominated by Payton Tolle again, they lost a Gerrit Cole start because Cole can’t beat the Red Sox whether Rafael Devers is on the team or not and then came the grand finale: the worst loss of the season on Sunday night. The Yankees scored eight non-automatic-runner runs in four games at Fenway Park. They had three hits in each of the last three games of the series. They blew a two-run lead with Schlittler on the mound in the opener and then blew a two-run lead in the 10th inning in the finale, further improving their record and reputation as the worst road extra-inning team since the automatic runner was implemented.

3. The Yankees have now lost eight of 11. Their lead in the AL East has become a deficit for the second time this season. I thought the worst part of the weekend for Aaron Boone would be him walking onto the field in the 10th inning on Sunday with an infield glove for Amed Rosario to use with the winning run on third and one out and the current at-bat already in a 1-0 count. But then Boone sat in his office at Fenway Park and gave one of the most tone-deaf, disturbing postgame press conferences of his nine-year tenure.

“We got a really good freakin’ team,” Boone said. “We played crappy on this trip, feels bad, kind of pissed off.”

There’s nothing the Yankees love more than telling you how good they are when things go badly. Brian Cashman said the 2023 team that went 82-80, had the worst record by a Yankees team in three decades and missed the postseason entirely in a format in which 40 percent of the league gets in was “really fucking good.” After the 2024 World Series disaster, they spent the offseason telling us how good they were to win the AL pennant, never mentioning their path to a pennant was the AL Central road of the Royals and Guardians. Boone told us the 2025 team was “the best he ever managed” and that team had to play in the Wild Card Series and won one game in the ALDS. The front office decided to run it back with the same roster that got run out of the postseason, and now they want you to know how good they are after getting swept in a four-game series by the last-place Red Sox in a year in which there are two other teams in the AL above .500 and one of them is the White Sox.

4. At full strength, the Yankees have a good team. Not a “really freakin’ good” team and nowhere near a great team. After all these years, their lineup is still reliant on one bat, the rotation isn’t as sound as it’s made out to be, the bullpen has one truly trustworthy arm and after nine seasons, the manager continues to show why hiring someone who never coached, let alone managed at any level should have never been given the keys to a team coming off a Game 7 defeat with a chance to go to the World Series. He continues to speak like someone who has never won anything at the major-league level, wanting people to believe he knows what it takes to win when all he has known is postseason failure.

5. How could he only be “kind of pissed off?” He was more pissed about Jazz Chisholm bringing a lollipop out to second base (an antic he supposedly didn’t even know took place until after the game) than he was about losing four straight to a last-place team, losing eight of 11 and once again losing the division lead to the Rays. The weekend was ugly and these last two weeks have been uglier.

With no date in sight for Aaron Judge to be re-imaged and Giancarlo Stanton only going through “low-volume workouts,” the offense you see is what you get. Ben Rice and Cody Bellinger have failed miserably to carry the offense when it was needed the most. Rice is hitting .114/.139/.200 over the last nine games and Bellinger is hitting .135/.273/.162 over the last 11 games. The Yankees had a top-heavy lineup with Judge and Stanton and Trent Grisham in it, without them, they need Rice and Bellinger to not be the zeros they have been these last couple of weeks and to pray the clock doesn’t strike midnight on Paul Goldschmidt’s renaissance.

6. I have given up thinking Jazz Chisholm will do anything this season other than hit the occasional solo home run and then take 49 seconds to jog around the bases. Chisholm led off for the first time as a Yankee on Sunday night and was eventually ejected after arguing a check-swing call and throwing his helmet like the baby he is. When Chisholm isn’t sucking on lollipops at the plate or in the field or telling the media he’s going to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases or that the Yankees are going to win the World Series, he’s leaving every runner in scoring position stranded and flailing at breaking balls low and away. With each game that comes off the schedule, we are that much closer to the end of Chisholm as a Yankee.

7. I couldn’t sleep after Sunday’s loss and I found myself searching for the worst single-season OPS for a regular player in major-league history with Austin Wells now at .499. The players who finished a season with a lower OPS than Wells all played in the early 1900s. Barry Bonds had four seasons with a higher OBP than Wells’ current OPS. Despite Wells being the undisputed worst offensive player in all of Major League Baseball, over the weekend, Boone said, “I feel like he’s moving the needle right now, believe it or not.” Wells went 1-for-11 in the series and is 2-for-21 since coming off the injured list. We are now in the second half of the season as Sunday was the 83rd game and Wells has two doubles, four home runs and 10 RBIs. Stanton has six doubles, three home runs and 14 RBIs and last played on April 24.

8. The Yankees called up Oswaldo Cabrera because he had been red-hot in June and hitting left-handed pitching extremely well. The Yankees faced three lefties in a row from Thursday through Saturday and Cabrera was on the bench all three games. Then they had him play against a righty on Sunday night after having not played in any game at any level over the previous four days.

9. Every game Anthony Volpe plays shortstop for the Yankees is a game they choose not to field their best team. Volpe’s arm is a disgrace for the position at the major-league level. I watched Bobby Witt Jr. finish turning an inning-ending double play on Sunday afternoon purely on arm strength that would have never been possible for Volpe and would have led to the inning being extended. Yes, it’s unfair to compare the best shortstop in baseball to the worst everyday player in baseball since his 2023 debut, but my point is that Volpe doesn’t defend well enough to justify his hitting, and if you haven’t noticed, his little hot streak is over and he’s back below the league-average line offensively. It’s only a matter of time until his season OPS is in line with his .665 career OPS. And when it is, we will still be watching him play every day for the Yankees as we remain trapped watching the same season unfold each year.

10. Last Monday, I listed the the tough opposing probables for the next 10 games and they are 2-5 in the first seven games of the 10-day stretch. Now they get to face Casey Mize and Tarik Skubal again to close out June before beginning a July littered with games against the Rays, Dodgers and Phillies, and also the .500-or-better Cubs, White Sox, Nationals and Pirates.

With no expected return date for Judge or Stanton or Max Fried and no immediate help for the bullpen, the offense and bullpen are going to have to hit and pitch better, the defense is going to have to play major-league-caliber defense and the manager is going to have to put the best team on the field as often as possible or this swoon will make previous swoons look like a walk in the park.

1. If I told you Cam Schlittler would throw five innings and allow no earned runs with nine strikeouts and the bullpen would throw four innings without allowing an earned run in the series opener against the Red Sox, you would have likely asked how many runs the Yankees won a shutout win by. But they didn’t shut out the Red Sox. They didn’t win. They lost 6-3 as the Yankees’ defense combined to allow six unearned runs in what was an unmitigated defensive disaster.

2. “We just didn’t do a good job taking care of the ball tonight,” Aaron Boone said. “It’s just not up to the way we’ve been playing.”

I disagree. The defense during the Boone era has always been questionable at best, and of late it has been very bad. Four errors on Thursday, one on Wednesday, two on Monday, two on Sunday, one on Saturday, one on Friday. What are you talking about, Boone?

The four errors were the most the Yankees have committed this season. It was the first game the Yankees allowed six or more unearned runs and no earned runs since 1913. The Boone era is full of memorable history.

3. Austin Wells made an error with another catcher’s interference, Schlittler threw a pickoff attempt to second base away, Amed Rosario let a ground ball go through his legs and Yerry De los Santos had a fielding error. Add in a couple of pop-ups that dropped in and the defense was even worse than the box score indicates.

4. Schlittler went to a lot of deep counts in the game in what was the first time the Red Sox have ever challenged him, but if Rosario fields the grounder that went through his legs in the fifth, the Yankees turn an inning-ending double play. Instead, that miscue led to four unearned runs in the inning and a 2-0 Yankees lead turned into a 4-2 deficit. Boone said the ball Rosario couldn’t handle was “in fairness, absolutely lathered,” which was an embarrassing comment. It’s the major leagues. It’s a play that has to be made. It’s a play that Ryan McMahon and Jose Caballero make. It’s a play that Miguel Andujar makes.

“Definitely a play there that I’ve just got to make,” Rosario said. “I take responsibility there.”

Who else would take responsibility?

5. The Rosario miscue led to the first run and the Red Sox tied the game on a sacrifice fly when Jose Caballero couldn’t make an accurate throw home on a shallow fly ball. The Red Sox don’t try to score there if Cody Bellinger is in left field there, but when you have an infielder playing the outfield, that’s what you get, and the Yankees love nothing more than to have their best shortstop not play shortstop.

6. Rosario was in the lineup because the left-handed Connelly Early started. But it made no sense that Rosario was allowed to hit against the just-entered Garrett Whitlock to lead off the eighth inning. The Yankees had two left-handed options on the bench and Boone inexplicably stayed with Rosario. He struck out swinging on four pitches.

7. Offensively, it was another poor showing. The Yankees struck out 10 times, which is bad, and yet it’s not as bad as they’ve been at making contact of late. Rosario, Cody Bellinger, Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells all struck out twice. Ben Rice went 0-for-5 and Bellinger went 0-for-4. It’s going to be hard to win when those two don’t produce. Add in the inability to make major-league plays defensively, and you get the kind of result the Yankees experienced on Thursday.

8. “It’s always tough when we lose,” Caballero said. “The good thing is, there’s always tomorrow.”

Spoken like a player under Annie Boone. There’s always tomorrow … It’s only a day away.

9. Tomorrow in this instance is Friday and it will be Will Warren against Payton Tolle. Tolle dominated the Yankees for six innings in his April 23 start against them at Fenway Park. This is how the first four of those six innings went:

Strikeout
Strikeout
Strikeout
Strikeout
Groundout
Strikeout
Groundout
Flyout
Single
Walk
Single
Strikeout
Flyout
Strikeout

The Yankees finally broke through in the fifth inning when Jazz Chisholm hit the first pitch of the inning around Pesky’s Pole to tie the game at 1. Tolle pitched a 1-2-3 sixth inning and left with a 2-1 lead. The Yankees then went to work against the Red Sox’ bullpen in an eventual 4-2 win.

10. Tolle is really good, and against a lineup that is missing the right-handed bats of Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, it’s easy to envision him mowing the Yankees down like Early did on Thursday. Warren is going to have be really good and the defense is going to have to avoid producing six unearned runs for the Yankees to avoid a second straight loss to the last-place Red Sox.

1. A day after Jazz Chisholm was ridiculously playing defense with a lollipop in his mouth, the outspoken, 50/50 chaser with a .731 OPS stopped the Yankees’ three-game losing streak with a two-run, go-ahead home run in the sixth inning against the Tigers.

“I was looking for the pitch all night,” Chisholm said. “I missed it earlier in the game, so I was on it.”

The Yankees were able to overcome an early 2-0 deficit to take a 4-2 lead and hold on for a 4-3 win in Detroit.

2. Monday marked the second time this season Chisholm played in a game with a lollipop in his mouth, after taking an at-bat with one earlier this season. Aaron Boone claims he didn’t know about Chisholm batting with a lollipop in his mouth and also wasn’t aware Chisholm played defense with one either until after the game. Instead of defending Chisholm like Boone has with every opportunity (including the idiotic baserunning decision on the infield pop-up in Miami last year), Boone said Chisholm playing with a lollipop “pissed him off” and that he spoke to his second baseman about it.

“He can have all the lollipops he wants now,” Boone said after Tuesday’s game.

3. The home run was Chisholm’s sixth in June and 12th of the year, putting him just 38 away from his goal of 50. (He’s 27 stolen bases away from his goal of 50 steals.)

The Yankees needed the Chisholm home run because Carlos Rodon turned in a poor start: 5.1 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K. It was the eighth start of the season for Rodon and the fifth time he failed to go at least six innings. (He has yet to get more than 18 outs this season.) Yankees starters have only gone at least six innings in two of the last seven games.

4. A day after going 7-for-34 with two walks and 12 strikeouts the Yankees went 9-for-35 with two walks and 13 strikeouts. Every Yankee struck out at least once on Tuesday, Ben Rice and Jasson Dominguez both struck out twice and Spencer Jones struck out three times.

5. Fernando Cruz, Brent Headrick and David Bednar combined for 3 2/3 scoreless innings and the defense played a clean game. It was a much-needed win in a game against a really tough opposing starter in Casey Mize. With the Rays losing to the Royals, the Yankees are now two games up in the loss column in the division.

6. Austin Wells provided an RBI double in the sixth inning that ended up being the difference in the game. It was Wells’ second double of the season. Yes, you read that right: his second double of the season in the 78th game of the season.

7. Rice is 0-for-9 with four strikeouts in Detroit and his OPS has dipped under 1.000 as he’s no longer one of two players in the majors with an OPS of at least 1.000. Yordan Alvarez stands alone at the moment. (Rice is now third in the majors behind Alvarez and Nick Kurtz.)

8. The first thing I do when I see a series against the Tigers coming up is figure out if the Yankees will see Tarik Skubal. Unfortunately, they will on Wednesday (and again next week At Yankee Stadium). Skubal missed more than six weeks after needing elbow surgery and has been OK, but nowhere near his Cy Young-winning, dominant self since returning. That doesn’t mean he won’t be that version of himself against the Yankees.

9. There has been a lot of talk about the Yankees going all out for Skubal at this year’s deadline. If it takes some combination of Will Warren/Elmer Rodriguez and other starting pitchers, sure, go for it. If it involves George Lombard Jr., no thanks. Yes, Skubal at his best is the best pitcher in baseball, but he’s not at his best, had surgery last month and can be had for just money after the season. As a Scott Boras client, Skubal is going to free agency no matter what happens between now and the end of the season, so him going to the Yankees and pitching well or enjoying his time there won’t matter. Any team could use Skubal, even with one with the Yankees’ starting pitching, but they don’t need him to win a championship. Starting pitching won’t be the reason the Yankees don’t win the World Series.

10. Ryan Weathers gets the ball in the series finale and will look to build off his most recent dominant start against the White Sox. The last time Weathers was coming off a strong start he proceeded to have three starts in a row allowing five-plus earned runs, so there’s no telling what version of Weathers will show up on Wednesday. For as good as the Yankees’ rotation is and has been, right now, aside from Schlittler, there’s no telling what any of the other four starters will give you. But with Skubal on the mound, Weathers will need to be as good as he’s been all year for the Yankees to win this series.