The Yankees lost again Sunday as they were swept by the Miami Marlins for the first time in franchise history and now find themselves in third place in the AL East standings with a 60-52 record.
New York has gone 4-6 over their last 10 games and 25-32 since May 29. They're currently 1.5 games back of the Boston Red Sox for second place in the division and 4.5 games back of the Toronto Blue Jays for first place. With Aaron Judge's return from the IL expected to happen this week, it's time for the Yanks to snap out of their funk, and manager Aaron Boone knows it.
"Yeah I mean we're going into another tough opponent that's playing well. We got to do it, we got to find a way," Boone told YES Network's Meredith Marakovits after the loss. "Again, we swing the bats really, really good. Obviously the first night. Again, I thought today was better in the at-bat quality, getting shut down by a good pitcher. But we got to put it together more than anything.
"It's getting to be real gut-check time. It's getting late. It's certainly not too late for us. And I am confident that we're going to get it together. But that's all it is right now, it's empty until we start doing it."
Boone still believes this Yankees team can turn things around, but they have to find some consistency.
"I think we got a really good team out there and that gives me confidence," Boone said. "But it's on me, it's on us, it's on all of us to pull it out and pull it out together. I think we have the makings of a very good club, but obviously we haven't shown it consistently enough."
After Saturday's 2-0 loss, Jazz Chisholm Jr.discussed his baserunning mistake and mentioned he felt the team has been "pressing a little bit." Boone said Sunday he agrees they've been pressing at times and that it needs to end if they are going to get hot.
"Maybe at times, different stretches in here," Boone said. "I thought we went through a week defensively where we were pressing a little bit. The thing I'm still excited about, even though this weekend is, we've sured up the area in the pen that was a struggle there for a while. And I feel like that's going to reveal itself here.
"So yeah, when you have a lot of expectations and you feel like you're a good club and you're capable of doing a lot of things, that comes into play sometimes a little bit. But you go to get over that. That's part of being a good team, that's part of being a big leaguer is you got to deal with those kind of things. We have at times I feel like, but we got to go."
The manager said the mood in the locker room post-sweep was as you'd imagine, but the team needs to "dig out of it" and start finding ways to string wins together. Although, New York's schedule won't get easier as they start a three-game series on the road against the Texas Rangers on Monday before returning home to face the Houston Astros over the weekend.
"Definitely that's not a good feeling," Boone said. "You get beat up, you're coming out to try and salvage and you're behind the eight ball pretty quick. That's part of it. You got to pick yourself up, you got to dig out of it and be able to handle it. It's getting time where we need to start doing it and doing it in a consistent manner. Hopefully we start that tomorrow."
