The Yankees played a game, which means the Yankees’ season loss total increased by one.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. On Friday afternoon, I found myself wondering if the Yankees were to lose all six games against the Red Sox and Phillies over the next six days, would Aaron Boone still be the manager next Friday? The Yankees’ season has free fallen to the point where losing six straight to those two teams is a realistic result. Six straight losses would mean an eight-game losing streak, and it would mean the Yankees no longer hold a playoff spot.

2. The opposing starters for those six games would be Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford, Tanner Houck, Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler and Christopher Sanchez. The worst of the six starters the Yankees would face would be Bello, who is having a down year after a breakout season a year ago. If the Yankees couldn’t win the series opener at Fenway Park against Bello, the six-game road trip could unravel into an unfixable disaster.

3. The Yankees didn’t win that game. They lost 9-7 despite holding a three-run lead with eight outs to go. Their two “most trusted” relievers in Luke Weaver and Clay Holmes imploded and allowed five runs between the seventh and eighth inning and the Yankees lost another game and lost another game to the Red Sox.

4. The loss dropped the Yankees to 2-5 against the Red Sox this season. It was their third straight loss overall. It was their fifth loss in seven games since the All-Star break. It was their 13th loss in 19 games in July. It was their 24th loss in 35 games since June 13. On June 14, the Yankees held a 13-game lead in the loss column for a playoff spot. After Friday’s loss, it’s down to two games.

5. Nestor Cortes was awful again. He couldn’t make it through five innings (4.2 IP, 9 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 K) for the third straight start and fourth time in his last five starts. He put 12 runners on base in 4 2/3 innings, and yet, he didn’t think he pitched poorly, saying, “I threw a lot of good pitches.” He then went on to blame “soft contact” for the loss. He sounded a lot like Luis Severino talking about exit velocity after Alex Bregman’s home run in Game 2 of the 2022 ALCS. Why aren’t any of the Yankees accountable for their performances? Why are they always making excuses based on soft contact, exit velocity, catch probability and domed stadiums having the roof open? Maybe it has something to do with the way they hear their manager speak?

6. Two starts ago, Cortes put 10 baserunners on in 4 1/3 innings. Boone said, “He pitched well.”

Last start, Cortes put 10 baserunners on in 4 1/3 innings again, and Boone said, “I thought the profile of the stuff was there.”

On Friday, Cortes put 11 baserunners on in 4 2/3 innings, and Boone again said, “I thought he threw the ball well.” Cortes thought he pitched well. Boone thought he pitched well. I guess a 7.71 ERA and 2.355 WHIP is pitching well. Who am I to argue?

During the All-Star break, Cortes tweeted the following:

“Everyone talks down about the yanks but they wanna be us. It’s a privilege to wear pinstripes. Every year we are in contention. I’m blessed to be able to compete for a playoff spot and always be contenders at the end.“

I hoped and prayed a Red Sox fan had hacked his account and posted that message, but no, it was Cortes himself. And when you hear him speak after each miserable start it’s obvious he’s as delusional as anyone in the Yankees clubhouse, including his manager. Since that tweet, here is Cortes’ line: 9 IP, 17 H, 10 R, 10 ER, 4 BB, 6 K, 3 HR, 1 HBP, 10.00 ERA, 2.333 WHIP. Yes, everyone wants to be the Yankees.

7. Weaver is slowly turning back into the Luke Weaver the Royals waived, the Mariners let go, the Reds released and the Mariners let go again. The Luke Weaver who has a 4.93 career ERA.

After pitching to a 0.00 ERA from Opening Day through May 19 thanks to impeccable control (four walks in 20 innings), good fortune (line drives turning into double plays) and exceptional defense behind him, Holmes has been atrocious since. Since May 20, he has put 35 baserunners on in 20 2/3 innings and has pitched to a 5.66 ERA and 1.645 WHIP. Opposing batters are hitting .315/.361/.461 against him.

8. “It’s hard obviously, but I’m not going to keep talking about how hard it is and tough,” Boone said, apparently unwilling to discuss his team’s collapse.” “We’ve gotta close out games, and I’m absolutely confident we will.”

“This is when you find out a lot about your team, a lot about your individual players when you go through it,” Boone said, “who’s tough enough to withstand it.”

Well, this is the third straight season the Yankees have endured a mid-June-on collapse, and considering the roster is virtually the same, we know no one who was on the team the last two years is tough enough to withstand it.

9. “We’re in compete mode,” Boone said, “and I thought we competed really well tonight.”

I need to know what “compete mode” is. And if the Yankees are in “compete mode” now, what mode were they in prior to being in this mode? Were games before Friday’s not important? Did they not count the same? What was different about Friday than Wednesday or last week or last month that the Yankees entered “compete mode” on Friday?

If the Yankees “competed really well” and still allowed nine runs and lost by two runs then I think it’s time to pack up the bats and balls for the year. If “competing really well” is only good enough to get the Yankees their latest late-game collapse and latest season-crushing loss then how can anyone possibly think the season is going to turn around?

10. Boone refrained from saying, “It’s right in front of us,” after his team’s latest loss. He used the phrase on Wednesday, had Thursday off and then didn’t use it on Friday, so if the Yankees lose on Saturday, get ready to hear it again.

Instead, Boone went with a new one: “There’s definitely an end in sight and we’re gonna get there.”

Yes, there is. It’s looking like the end for the 2024 Yankees will be Game 162 of the regular season with no postseason baseball for a second straight year. That’s what in front of the Yankees right now if they keep playing the way they have since mid-June.

The Yankees were embarrassed by the Mets in a 12-3 loss and finished this season’s Subway Series without a win. They have lost four of six since the All-Star break and 23 of 34 dating back to June 13.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. Another game, another loss. At this point I expect the Yankees to lose every game the way a Rockies fan expects their team to lose every game. (Ironically, the worst team in the National League scored 20 runs against the Red Sox on Wednesday and won a series against them, something the Yankees have been unable to do.) The Yankees are 11-23 over their last 34 games, a .324 winning percentage over 21 percent of the season. In their last 40 games, they have a slightly better .375 winning percentage over a period of time equal to 25 percent of the season. Whether you want to look at it from a standpoint of one-fifth of the season or a quarter of the season, the Yankees have been a bad team for a long time.

2. That’s because collectively, the team is a group of losers led by the biggest loser of all in their manager. Outside of Juan Soto, of course. The generational superstar continues to produce in all situations and boasts a .306/.414/.571 slash line in late-and-close situations. (For comparison, Aaron Judge is batting .216/.322/.431 in late-and-close situations). Soto is a proven winner, having helped lead the Nationals to a World Series win over the Astros in 2019, a series in which he hit .333/.438/.741 with three home runs. (The Yankees as a team hit three home runs against the Astros in the 2022 ALCS.) He’s the only Yankee excused from criticism for this season.

3. On Wednesday night, having lost 22 of 33 since June 13, having lost three of five since the All-Star break and having lost every game to the Mets this season, you would think the Yankees, behind their so-called ace, would play, pitch and manage with urgency. They didn’t.

A day after Boone posted the worst lineup imaginable because of a left-handed opposing starter, he abandoned that lineup despite facing another left-hander. If the lineup he posted on Tuesday was what he thought was the best possible lineup to beat a lefty, why didn’t he go back to that same lineup on Wednesday?

4. Jahmai Jones was on the bench, J.D. Davis was oddly bumped down from cleanup to seventh, and Austin Wells and Oswaldo Cabrera were back in. Boone made sure to keep Ben Rice out though. He can start against Chris Sale or take the last plate appearance of a game against Jake Diekman, but he can’t face Jose Quintana or Sean Manaea.

5. Boone decided to use Davis as his designated hitter for this one. Most teams use a slugger in that role, the Yankees use Jones and Davis. Why did Boone choose Davis over Rice? Here is his answer:

“Yeah, I mean, also want to get where you’re trying to leverage situations. I think you look at Manaea too, pretty small sample like you look at his career, it’s pretty stark the other way. So you kind of peel the onion back a little bit and is that what he’s going to be moving forward? We’re not trying to predict what happened yesterday. We’re trying to what happened moving forward, and the reality is we brought J.D. Davis, especially when Rizz went down, to be this kind of, and this is a guy that recently has had a good amount of success. So, but also trying to get young players in positions to where they can be successful as well. And to have, you know, leverage situations as the game unfolds too.”

You may think I made a few typos or forgot to include some words in there. Nope. That’s exactly how Boone answered the question of “What made Davis the call over Rice today?” The person with that thought process is in charge of the culture, clubhouse, lineup card and in-game decisions for the New York Yankees.

6. Gerrit Cole melted down in a big game on a big stage in spectacular fashion, which is what he does best. Cole started two of the four Subway Series games this season, lost both and allowed seven home runs. On Wednesday, he gave up three of those home runs and six earned runs in total, yet his manager had the balls to say, “I thought stuff-wise and fastball profile [were] good.”

7. The offense took another night off. It was the eighth time in July (18 games) the Yankees scored three runs or fewer. When the Yankees score four runs this season they are 53-13, an .803 winning percentage. Four runs. That’s all. Four measly runs and they have an 80 percent chance to win. And yet, in more than one-third of their games to date they weren’t able to do that.

8. Soto went 2-for-3 with a double, home run and walk and Gleyber Torres hit a home run and produced just his second multi-hit game of July. The rest of the offense went 2-for-25.

9. The two AVs — the Golden Boy Anthony Volpe and the unbenchable Alex Verdugo — combined to go 0-for-9 with four strikeouts. I keep hearing about how good Volpe has been since the All-Star break as if there isn’t 1,060 plate appearances worth of data of his suggesting a few good games isn’t him suddenly figuring out. And it was just last week Boone said Verdugo would “go on a heater” after the All-Star break. He’s 2-for-25 since the break.

10. Boone is a dreamer. A dreamer, a believer, a bullshitter and a delusional, happy-go-lucky, comfortable-with-losing moron all rolled into one. As the losses mount, the more agitated he gets that he has to answer questions about the losses. It’s as if he should only have to meet with the media when the team wins.

Following Wednesday’s humiliating 12-3 loss, Boone was as annoyed, frustrated and angry as he’s ever been as Yankees manager. He followed the lead of his general manager’s expletive-filled tirade over the winter by dropping expletives of his own, using “shit” twice in different tenses. Boone refrained from dropping an F-bomb, but did manage to throw in “frickin” two times in his response to a question about the team’s 11-23 collapse.

“We’ve got to play better. OK?”

Yes, yes you do.

“We have it right in front of us.”

Ah, the old “right in front of us.” Boone dropped his favorite phrase for the first time in 2024 on July 7. He used it for the first time last season on July 15, and in 2022, he used it on August 20. Once Boone resorts to telling everyone the season is still in their control, the season never recovers.

“We’re a really good team that has played shitty of late.”

A really good team? I wonder where he got that idea from? Maybe from his boss, the team’s general manager who told the media in the offseason the Yankees “are pretty fucking good” despite posting an 82-80 record, missing the postseason and being the worst Yankees team in more than three decades. Really good teams don’t go 11-23 during any part of the season.

“Of late” means this has only been a recent thing. The Yankees’ collapse dates back to June 13. That’s 21 percent of the season.

“We need to be better.”

We know. You keep saying that. Your captain keeps saying that. Your players keep saying that. Your pitchers keep saying that. And yet, no one is playing better.

“I’m not going to define stretch, this or that.”

I will define it. The Yankees have been a bad team since mid-June. Whether you want to go back 34 games or 40 games, they haven’t been good for at least one-fifth of the season.

“We gotta go win, right?”

That is the objective of the sport.

“And we’re right there. We’re watching other teams struggle around us.”

And there it is! The excuse! The Yankees think because the Orioles haven’t been playing well and because they are only three games behind them in the loss column that it excuses their own play since mid-June.

“We know we’ve got to be better. OK?”

Please stop saying this.

“We’re pissed off in there.”

Yes, I’m sure you’re really pissed. You told us the 2022 and 2023 teams were pissed too. Where did that lead to? In the first instance it led to you using “highlights” from the 2024 ALCS as motivation for your team in its own ALCS, and in the second instance, it led to you managing a team to a playoff-less season, despite 40 percent of the league making the playoffs.

“We got a lot of pride in there.”

That’s nice.

“We have a lot of expectations in there.”

No you don’t. Listen to yourself. Listen to any of your players talk after losses. All you and they talk about is tomorrow and the next game until there aren’t any tomorrows or games left. There’s no urgency and there certainly aren’t any expectations.

“So stretch, slump, recent. I don’t give a shit.”

Clearly, you don’t give a shit, considering you used a guy with a career 48 OPS+ as your designated hitter and leadoff hitter on Tuesday, and used a player released by both the Giants and A’s this season (who is 1-for-16 with eight strikeouts as a Yankee) as your cleanup hitter on Tuesday and then played him again on Wednesday.

“It’s, we’ve got to play better the rest of the way.“

For the last six weeks you have been saying you need to play better and you have only played worse.

“And it’s right there. I’ve said it’s right in front of us. It is.”

Yes, a third straight season collapse is right there.

“It’s right in front of us. Right?”

Yes, you just said that.

“For as bad as it’s been, we’re also in a great position.”

A great position? On June 14, you had a 13-game lead in the loss column on a postseason spot. It’s down to three games.

“And we’ve got to go play baseball the way we’re capable of playing.“

I think you’re playing baseball the way you’re capable of playing.

The Yankees lost another game and lost another game to the Mets. But they didn’t really have a chance in the 3-2 loss thanks to their manager.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. “You can’t predict baseball,” John Sterling famously said on the radio for decades. Unfortunately, John, sometimes you can.

The Yankees lost to the Mets four hours before the game started on Tuesday when they posted their lineup for Game 103 of the season at 3:05 p.m.

Jahmai Jones, DH
Juan Soto, RF
Aaron Judge, CF
J.D. Davis, 1B
Anthony Volpe, SS
Gleyber Torres, 2B
Alex Verdugo, LF
Carlos Narvaez, C
DJ LeMahieu, 3B

There were some dark lineups during the 2013 season when Eduardo Nunez, Ben Francisco, Kevin Youkilis, Travis Hefner, Lyle Overbay, Vernon Wells, Jayson Nix, Chris Stewart, Reid Brignac, Brendan Ryan, Brent Lillibridge and David Adams were Yankees, but Tuesday’s lineup would go toe-to-toe with any of those.

Boone thought loading up with seven right-handed hitters against the left-handed Jose Quintana would throw off the 35-year-old veteran, completely disregarding that every right-handed Yankees hitter other than Judge sucks.

And yes, this was Boone’s lineup. After the 2020 ALDS loss to the Rays, when asked if he’s a puppet for the front office, Boone said, “Ultimately, I’m writing out the lineup and I’m making these decisions.” Prior to the 2022 season, on CC Sabathia’s podcast, Boone said, “No one’s ever made a lineup for me. I make the lineup.” Any Yankees fan who has watched Boone mismanage and ruin countless games in his six-plus years as Yankees manager knows this was his lineup. There’s no Ivy League graduate, analytics guru or data scientist who would ever come up with, support or defend a lineup like Tuesday’s. 

2. After going 4-for-8 on Sunday and Monday, Oswaldo Cabrera was on the bench. The Yankees’ third-best hitter in Austin Wells (.844 OPS over the last two months) was also on the bench. Trent Grisham and his Gold Glove defense and ability to run into one was next to Cabrera and Wells on the bench (earlier this season Boone justified using Grisham against a lefty because he said Grisham is a reverse splits guy). Ben Rice, who was allowed to start against Chris Sale, would have apparently been overmatched by Quintana, so he too was on the bench.

A day after the Yankees plated their most runs (nine) in more than half a month, Boone couldn’t just let things stay as they were. If used, I didn’t expect the lineup from Monday to put up nine runs again since Monday’s game was likely just the type of random outburst the 2024 Yankees provide and nothing more, but couldn’t we at least find out?

3. Boone penciled in Jones as his leadoff hitter. The 26-year-old with a career .535 OPS and 48 OPS+ who entered the game with just 44 plate appearances in 102 games this season was going to set the table for Soto and Judge. He hit a weak ground ball to third in his first at-bat, struck out on four pitches in his second and struck out again in his third. When his spot came up a fourth time, Boone had seen enough and removed him for a pinch hitter.

4. Protecting Judge, Boone decided the best man for the job would be Davis. Davis was released by the Giants in spring training. He then signed with the A’s and was released by them on June 23 after hitting .236/.304/.366. The A’s are on pace to lose right around 100 games again. Do you know how bad you have to suck to get released by them? Davis entered the game 1-for-13 with six strikeouts as a Yankee and hadn’t started a game since July 3. He struck out in his first at-bat, hit into an inning-ending double play in his second and struck out in his third. Guess what happened in his fourth trip to the plate? Boone removed him for a pinch hitter.

5. Carlos Narvaez got his first major-league start behind the plate. After singling in his first major-league at-bat over the weekend, he went 0-for-2 with two strikeouts. He was also pinch-hit for.

All three of Jones, Davis and Narvaez were removed early for pinch hitters. The trio went a combined 0-for-8 with six strikeouts and one double play.

6. “We’ll get the middle of the order settled here in the comings days,” Boone said. “It changes the equation a little bit.”

Certainly having Giancarlo Stanton bat behind Judge is a better option than Davis, but Stanton isn’t going to come save the season. The Yankees aren’t getting 2018 Stanton. And while Stanton has been good this season, it’s already been more than a month since he last played, so who knows how he will be for the remainder of the season, and if he will even be healthy for the rest of the year.

7. Soto and Judge were held down, and when that happens the Yankees don’t have a chance when the players who should be playing are playing, let alone when Boone gives away a game with an early-March, spring training lineup. Soto went 0-for-4 with a walk and the Mets walked Judge four times. In the one plate appearance in which they pitched to Judge he didn’t do anything.

That one plate appearance came in the ninth inning. Soto walked with one out against the wild lefty Jake Diekman and with Soto on first, the Mets couldn’t walk Judge and put Soto into scoring position as the tying run. Diekman’s first pitch to Judge was a 96-mph fastball in the zone and Judge took it, likely surprised that the Mets were pitching to him and that Diekman was able to throw a first-pitch strike after walking Soto on four pitches. Judge took a changeup for a ball, fouled off a changeup, took a fastball for a ball, and then at 2-2, took a second 96-mph fastball for strike 3 on the inner half.

Judge is a .216/.322/.431 in late-and-close situations this season (plate appearances in the seventh inning or later with the Yankees tied, ahead by one or with the tying run at least on deck). He’s a .325/.447/.662 hitter when the Yankees lead by more than four runs.

8. Was Boone surprised the Mets pitched around Judge in his first four plate appearances with Davis as his protection?

“Different teams, different approaches,” Boone said in an annoyed manner.

Yes, different teams, different approaches, indeed. While the Mets are willing to put Judge on first base and make someone else beat them, the Yankees are more than happy to continue to pitch to Rafael Devers and let him single-handedly beat them. In all four of Judge’s walks, he never reached second base.

9. The problems the Yankees went in to the All-Star break with thinking they would be magically resolved after a four-day layoff are still present. After splitting a home series against the willing-to-sell Rays, the Yankees remain winless against the Mets (0-3) in the 2024 Subway Series. The Orioles and Royals lost, but the Red Sox won, so the Yankees’ loss-column lead on a postseason spot is three games. It was 13 games on June 14.

10. After Wednesday’s season series finale against the Mets, the Yankees have Thursday off before heading out on the road for six games against the Red Sox and Phillies. The Yankees are 11-22 since June 13, and for as bad as things have been since then, they could get a lot worse if the offense doesn’t show up over the next seven games, or if the manager doesn’t allow it to.