Truly Hard to Believe

Can you believe this? The Yankees might be in the process of one of the biggest regular-season collapses in Major League Baseball history. And it might not even be the most embarrassing one in New York this season.

For all their big talk, and for all their big spending, the Mets led the National League Eastern Division by 10 1/2 games on June 1, fell to half a game up on July 23, got back up, and were up by as many as 7 games on August 10. Here it is, the morning of September 4, and they're only up 2 games.

The Yankees led the American League Eastern Division by 15 1/2 games on July 8. That lead is now down to 4, to 3 in the all-important loss column. It is truly hard to believe. But it has happened. And the worst may yet be to come.

Last night, away to the Tampa Bay Rays, Clarke Schmidt started for the Yankees. Whoever decided that this was a good idea needs to get slapped. He's a reliever, not a starter. He only pitched 4 1/3rd innings, allowing 2 runs. The bullpen went the rest of the way, allowing no runs on 3 hits and 2 walks.

And it didn't matter, because there was no hitting. Corey Kluber, yet another good pitcher that Brian Cashman let get away because he lost confidence in him, pitched a pretty good game. It shouldn't matter how good the other pitcher is: The Yankees have the resources to get players who can hit any pitcher, but they don't use those resources properly.

In the 1st inning, DJ LeMahieu reached on an error, and Giancarlo Stanton singled him over to 3rd. But, on the play, Stanton tried to stretch his hit into a double, and was out.

The Yankees didn't get another baserunner until the 6th, when Aaron Hicks reached on an error and Aaron Judge singled. They were stranded. Judge led off the 9th with an opposite-field home run, his 52nd of the season. But no more Yankees could reach base.

Rays 2, Yankees 1. WP: Kluber (10-7). SV: Jason Adam (8). LP: Schmidt (5-4).

Pardon my mixing of metaphors, but the Rays have stopped knocking on the door, and are now breathing down the Yankees' necks.

During the game, a graphic was put up on the YES Network: In the 41 games since the All-Star Break, Judge was batting .326, the rest of the team only .209; on-base percentage, .475 to .276; slugging percentage, .783 to .324. This is beyond ridiculous. It's ludicrous. (Spaceballs reference.)

The series, and this long, hard roadtrip, concludes this afternoon. Frankie Montas starts against Shawn Armstrong. And if you're optimistic about winning, in the immortal words of Bronx native and Yankee Fan Dion DiMucci, "I wonder why."

There are 29 games to go, and a once-beautiful season is in serious jeopardy.