Schadenfreude 273 (A Continuing Series)

July 23-August 17

             W    L    GB
Yankees     16    6   ---
Rays        14    9   2.5
Orioles     12   10   4.0
Blue Jays    8   11   6.5
Red Sox      6   17  10.5	
 

August 18-September 8

             W 	  L    GB
Rays        14    6   ---
Blue Jays   16    7   0.5
Red Sox      9   12   5.5
Orioles      8   11   5.5
Yankees      5   15   9.0

Kristie Ackert, Daily News:

The reality is embarrassing. The Yankees have collapsed in every facet of the game. Monday night the bullpen blew up. Over the weekend, the defense gifted away games. Before that, baserunning and starting pitching cost them. Tuesday night, it was back on the offense that could not get the job done.

Hours after their general manager called a team meeting to discuss their epic slide, the Yankees' bats stranded 10 runners and the Blue Jays held them off for a 2-1 win at Sahlen Field.

It was the fifth straight loss for the Yankees (21-21). It was their 15th loss in their last 20 games and it brought their record back to .500. It was the first time since 1995 they have had a record of .500 or below during the month of September. ...

[T]he Yankees haven't played well as a team in weeks. They didn't play well Tuesday night either.

They got a strong start from J.A. Happ, who went seven innings allowing just two runs ... That should have been enough for a team built around power hitters, but even in this Triple-A ballpark, two runs was too much to overcome.

The Yankees had opportunities; they just squandered them.

They went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, including twice having the bases loaded and coming up with just one run total. ...

Gary Sanchez, who had been benched for two games because of the epic slump he has been in all season ... went 0-for-4 with one strikeout Tuesday night.

During their five-game losing streak, the hitters are 2-for-32 with runners in scoring position and have now gone 17 straight games without double-digit hits.

"I almost feel like it's embarrassing for us right now ..." a visibly frustrated Voit said. "You can't ever count us out. ... I feel like teams aren't really scared of us right now and it's kind of a sad thing because we're the New York Yankees."

George A. King III, Post:

Brian Cashman called a sit-down Tuesday with his struggling club and told the players he believed in them, but the clock was ticking loudly on a season that is headed toward one of the most disappointing in the storied franchise's history.

Then the Yankees showed their GM what it sounds like when bats die in a 2-1 loss to the Blue Jays at Sahlen Field in Buffalo. It was the team's fifth straight loss, its 15th defeat in the past 20 games ...

[Cashman:] "Making sure they know where they have to get back to. The bottom line is, we are on our own, there is no help coming ..."

After the Yankees stranded 10 runners and went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position Tuesday, Luke Voit ... admitted opposing teams no longer fear the Yankees ...

A 16-6 start has led to 21-21 and being three games behind the Blue Jays for second place in the AL East with 18 tilts remaining. ... [The Yankees] wasted seven runs Monday night and has been held to one run in three of the past four games ...

 Mike Vaccaro, Post:

"Every now and then, when I feel it's appropriate, I'm not afraid to gather the troops," Brian Cashman had said earlier in the day. ...

A few hours after Cashman channeled Knute Rockne ... the Yankees could only scratch a skinny run off the Blue Jays despite — all together now — lots of traffic on the base paths. ...

They are 21-21. ... 16-6 [has] become 5-15. None of that is an accident. The Yankees are a mess right now. They keep waiting for that narrative to change. They wait still.

"I know we're better than that," Aaron Boone said, in his nightly reckoning ... it's harder and harder for it not to sound like Mister Rogers doing a voice-over describing a 20-car pileup on the Cross Bronx Expressway. ...

You think you're aggravated with the Yankees right now? That's nothing compared to the Yankees right now. They've seen this 5-15 horror show up close. They see the record in the paper. They know the days are dwindling down to a precious few.

Kristie Ackert, Daily News:

Brian Cashman was not here for the wings or nearby Niagara Falls. The Yankees GM came to see firsthand his floundering ballclub and deliver a message before it dropped over the edge of this 2020 coronavirus-pandemic shortened MLB season.

Cashman ... addressed them after a horrific collapse Monday night and three weeks of their season spiraling downward. It was not the table-tossing, fire-and-brimstone speech that fans would like at this low point in the season, but it was a reminder of expectations. ...

The Bombers have dropped like a dead weight in the American League East standings until they are fighting just to claw their way back into a fight with the Blue Jays for second place and a playoff spot.

"The bottom line is we're on our own," Cashman said. "There's no help coming from anywhere ... [T]he work's got to be done now while the storm is upon us ... We haven't played well now for quite some time ... [I]t's time to go. Not that it wasn't time to go before ..."