Back home after a late night on the road, facing a quality pitcher backed by athletic defenders, the Yankees couldn’t fight this feeling anymore: They really missed their injured guys.
The Yankees played tired and sloppy in losing to the lousy White Sox on Monday night, 6-2 at Yankee Stadium, and therefore falling 6 ¹/₂ games — six in the loss column — behind the dormant Red Sox in the AL East. When you tally as many hits as errors, three of each in this contest, you know you haven’t clocked much of a work shift.
“Overall, we didn’t play a clean brand of baseball tonight,” Aaron Boone said, in what amounted to a tirade for him. The rookie skipper also described the team’s late-game play as “crappy.”
While Masahiro Tanaka allowed four runs in seven innings to take the loss, this one goes primarily on the dilapidated lineup, which misfired every which way. Against White Sox ace Carlos Rodon, they went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, prolonging a “Not clutch!” narrative (matched somewhat yet not entirely by reality, as the Yankees occupy the middle of the AL pack in this category) that has plagued this group for much of the season. Their three errors all occurred late — Shane Robinson in the seventh and A.J. Cole and Luke Voit in the ninth, each of which led directly to a run, not to mention a strikeout-wild pitch in the ninth — prompting Boone’s criticism.
Let’s not get too hysterical. The Yankees’ record in their Summer Siesta dropped to a still excellent 15-6 with six games to go. However, you couldn’t miss the symbolism of the night: After beating up on the tragic Orioles, who are on track to be one of the worst teams in baseball history, the Yankees’ climb to a merely poor opponent challenged their depth.
Shoot, before the game, when I asked CC Sabathia about weekend folk hero Voit, the big lefty responded, “For us, we’ve got three of our best players down [Didi Gregorius, Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez] who are three of the best players in the league. Three of the top 10 guys at their position in the league. To have [Voit] come in and be able step up for us and give us a little spark is huge.”
Voit made his Yankees cleanup debut against the southpaw Rodon, a sign of how times have changed, and he failed to maintain his mojo, going 1-for-4 with a single and adding the ninth-inning gaffe. The 27-year-old has received an opportunity for regular playing time thanks to Greg Bird’s ineptitude. Robinson, meanwhile, has stuck around due to Judge’s fractured right wrist, and Giancarlo Stanton’s ailing left hamstring has created plentiful outfield time for both Robinson and Neil Walker, who had been strictly an infielder prior to this, his 10th big-league season. And catcher Kyle Higashioka, sporting an anemic .182/.250/.348 slash line, played in his 23rd game Monday thanks to Sanchez’s right groin strain.
Monday brought some good news. Sanchez homered in a rehab game for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, and Gregorius (left heel contusion) saw the team doctor and professed optimism that he’ll return shortly. The Yankees could use the reinforcements in time for their important trip through Oakland and Seattle next week.
En route to their four-game sweep of the Orioles in Baltimore, the Yankees played a day-night doubleheader on Saturday and a night game Sunday, which in turn compelled the team to not hold pregame batting practice Monday.
“I thought there was some sluggishness tonight,” said Boone, who attributed that in part to fatigue from their schedule.
“You’ve got to be able to fight that,” Boone added. As his father, Bob, could tell him from his days of managing mediocre Royals and Reds teams, though, some nights you just lack the manpower. This is a feeling they can’t wait to dismiss and can’t afford to keep.
