CHICAGO — The fury that Aaron Boone unleashed on home plate umpire Laz Diaz on Monday night mirrored how many Yankees fans feel about the state of the team — specifically the offense. 

Neither Diaz, nor the Yankees lineup, had a pretty game at the plate, though the latter had more to do with Boone’s club suffering its latest frustrating defeat. 

On a night when they were no-hit through 5 ¹/₃ innings and loaded the bases three times, the Yankees continued to squander opportunities as they fell to the White Sox, 5-1 at Guaranteed Rate Field. 

After stranding 15 runners in Sunday’s loss to the Astros, the Yankees (58-55) left 13 men on base in Monday’s loss to the lowly White Sox (46-68) that kicked off a nine-game, 10-day road trip.

They also went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position as they dropped to 5 ½ games out of the final playoff spot with 49 games to go. 

“It’s doable,” Gerrit Cole said after the Yankees wasted his seven strong innings. “Mounds are different sizes. The goal is just to get to the top. So, whatever it takes.” 

While Diaz did not lose the game for them, the Yankees were unhappy with his strike zone all night.

It built to a crescendo in the eighth inning in what was then a 2-1 game, when Boone was ejected — after Diaz made a called strike three on a pitch in the zone to Anthony Volpe — and subsequently lost it on Diaz, including mimicking his strikeout call and drawing lines in the dirt to demonstrate pitches missing the plate. 

“I was pretty upset,” Boone said after his sixth ejection of the season. “Like Gleyber [Torres’] first at-bat, he ends up walking on what I felt like was about six balls and it just continued all night. But look, it’s on us to still break through and we had our chances tonight. It’s not about the umpiring. We’ve gotta capitalize.” 

Boone also pointed to DJ LeMahieu’s at-bat in the seventh inning with one out and runners on the corners after Billy McKinney had pulled the Yankees within 2-1 on a bases-loaded sacrifice fly.

LeMahieu struck out on three pitches, two of which he watched go outside of the zone for called strikes, on the way to the Yankees stranding the tying run at third. 

“We were kind of getting on [Diaz] all night, for good reason,” said Boone, who was hopeful that his extended argument with Diaz — who was giving it back in return — would not lead to a suspension. 

The Yankees did not record a hit against Dylan Cease until there was one out in the sixth inning, at which point they had drawn seven walks but stranded all of them.

Cease walked the bases loaded with no outs in the second inning and escaped without allowing a run. 

Then, after LeMahieu knocked Cease out of the game with the Yankees’ first hit in the sixth inning, they went on to load the bases again with one out.

But pinch-hitter Isiah Kiner-Falefa flew out to shallow right field and Jake Bauers smoked a ground ball to first base that Andrew Vaughn made a diving play on, then beat Bauers to the bag to secure the third out.

“Ultimately we did a good job of setting the table, but we couldn’t punch through with a hit,” Boone said. “Part of that was [Cease’s] stuff was nasty and kind of effectively wild, so it made him difficult to hit. … 

“You got your ace on the mound, we gotta go throw some [runs] up there because [Cole] did his job tonight.” 

Monday proved that not even Cole can pull the Yankees from the depths of despair every time they need it.

The ace entered the night 9-0 when starting after a Yankees loss, but he gave up a two-run home run to Vaughn in the second inning that ended up being the difference.

Cole later gave up back-to-back singles to lead off the eighth that eventually came around to score on Tommy Kahnle. 

“It’s a grind,” Cole said. “There’s gonna be ups and downs all year. We just keep trying to fight to get that big upswing. It’s right there in front of us. We have the opportunity to do so, so that’s what we keep working towards.”