Anthony Volpe stood in a quiet, mostly empty Yankees clubhouse and gave a one-word summary of the team’s stunningly bad run.
“Brutal,” he remarked. “We play to win and we expect to win.”
New York had a major league-best 49-21 record until June 12, but has subsequently gone 5-15. The Yankees squandered a three-run lead against the Boston Red Sox in their latest humiliating loss Friday night.
Masataka Yoshida hit a tying two-run homer off Clay Holmes with two outs in the ninth inning, and Ceddane Rafaela homered off Tommy Kahnle to give Boston a 5-3 win.
New York has dropped 14 of its last 18 games, dating back to June 15 at Fenway Park. The Yankees have struggled without Anthony Rizzo, who has been sidelined since June 16 with a broken forearm, and Giancarlo Stanton, who has been out since June 22 with a strained hamstring.
“Nobody’s playing to the level that they think they can,” said Holmes, who has had two save opportunities since June 9 and failed both.
New York has lost four straight games and is 1-6 in extra innings.
“It’s a difficult time and we’ve got to dig down and quick turnaround tomorrow, get ready to play and find out what we’re made of a little bit,” Aaron Boone, the Yankees manager, told reporters. “You’ll be tested often during the season with difficult situations. Which is clearly where we are right now.”
Volpe and DJ LeMahieu made a double mental error that cost the Yankees a run in the third inning, allowing the Red Sox to complete an inning-ending double play.
With Volpe on third and LeMahieu on first and one out, Ben Rice hit a crisp grounder to Gonzalez at first. Gonzalez hopped on the bag before throwing to Raffaela at second. But Volpe slowed down on the way home, and LeMahieu sprinted toward second instead of attempting a rundown and was tagged before Volpe crossed the plate.
“I just got to hustle all the way,” said Volpe, who thought the ball was foul. “Just got to be better.”
Boone told Volpe about his error.
“We got to play better than that, yeah, no question,” Boone informed the crowd. “We certainly understand and spend heavily in that, and we have to play clean baseball, especially when times are tough and resources are scarce. yeah. We’ve got to improve. Period.”
Holmes fired six consecutive sinkers to Yoshida and admits that his pitch selection should have been better.
“The sinker down into Yoshida, he probably saw one too many there,” according to him.
On June 13, Holmes gave up Maikel Garcia’s game-winning, two-run double in a 4-3 loss to Kansas City. Holmes has missed five saves in 24 attempts.
“If he threw a slider there, then could have been a different story,” she said.
Boston has won five consecutive games and 15 out of 20. The Yankees were 50-22 after winning the series opener at Boston on June 14, leading Baltimore by 3 1/2 games in the AL East and 14 games ahead of the Red Sox in third.
At 54-36, the Yankees sit three games behind the first-place Orioles and four and a half games ahead of Boston (48-39).
“You got to get beat down a little bit to kind of see what you’re made of,” captain Aaron Judge said Thursday, “and we’re going to find out real soon.”
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