They're Not Actually Going to Blow This, Are They?

On July 8, the Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 12-5 at Fenway Park. At that point, they led the American League Eastern Division by 15 1/2 games, and had the best record in all of Major League Baseball. If the standings from that day had held to the end of the season, the Yankees would have had home-field advantage all the way through the World Series.

Since that day, the Yankees have gone 12-25. This includes 5 walkoff losses, and 11 games in which they've scored 2 or fewer runs. Since July 30, they've gone 4-15. With the last 3 games all being losses at home to the Toronto Blue Jays, they now lead the Jays by 7 games, 6 in the all-important loss column.

They're not actually going to blow this, are they?

Gerrit Cole, the alleged ace, started yesterday afternoon. In the bottom of the 2nd inning, he was given a 1-0 lead when Jose Trevino doubled, and Estevan Florial, the latest in a long line of "can't miss" "prospects" who has thus far missed, got his 1st hit at the major league level this season, breaking an 0-for-16 skein. With 1 out in the top of the 5th, Cole had a no-hitter going. He had walked a batter and hit another, but hadn't allowed a hit. All was well. Not great -- it was only a 1-0 lead -- but well.

Then Cole allowed double, walk, double, single, single, double. As the great former WCBS-Channel 2 sports anchor Warner Wolf would have said, "Turn your sets off right there." The Yankees only got 3 more baserunners, and that's if you count a home run, hit by Gleyber Torres in the 8th, as a "baserunner," which was canceled out by Albert Abreu giving up a home run in the 9th.

Blue Jays 5, Yankees 2. WP: Adam Cimber (9-4). SV: Yimi Garcia (1). LP: Cole (9-6).

They might blow this.

After the game, Aaron Boone, whose job as manager appears to be to follow general manager Brian Cashman's orders as to strategy, and then to face the tough postgame questions so Cashman doesn't have to, told the truth: "We should be a little pissed off." Actually, if he were telling the whole truth, he would have said, "We should be really pissed off." He said:

We've been asked all these questions, and we can answer them until we’re blue in the face. We gotta go out and do it. I gotta quit answering these questions...

We got to play better, period. And the great thing is, it's right in front of us. It's right here. And we can fix it. It's right here. It's there. We can run away with this thing. We’ve got the dudes in there to do it. We’ve got to do it...

We’ve got great freakin’ players. It’s a tough stretch. Okay? We're all pissed off and frustrated about it. We've done it for four months. Okay? The offense has struggled for 12 days. Okay?

We’ve got great players. They know it. They know what they're capable of. It’s a tough time, and it's gut-check time, and it's hard right now. Everyone is yelling and screaming at them, and that's part of it.

But that's what gives me confidence. I know we're a great team when we're right. And we get it. And that's still right in front of us. Let's go grab it.

The Yanks try to avoid the sweep this afternoon. Nestor Cortes starts for us, Alek Manoah for them. There's 41 games left in the regular season. Let's turn this thing around. Let's go grab it. Okay?