Mike Lupica, Daily News:
If the Yankees are going to show up for what is left of this season, they will show up this weekend against the Red Sox. They will do that knowing that even if they sweep the Red Sox, they will still be in last place in the American League East. On Aug. 20. The Yankees.
Since the All-Star Break of last season, when the Yankees were 64-28 and really did have a right to pound their chests and say World-Series-or-bust, they have a record of 95-96. . . .
Considering the organization's still-lofty opinion of itself and the way it picks its players and develops them — and considering the way Hal Steinbrenner has outspent everybody except Uncle Steve Cohen — they are every bit as much of a disappointment as the Repositioned Mets have been.
If the Yankees really don't show up this weekend against the Red Sox, if they somehow even get swept the way the Red Sox swept them the last time the teams played at Fenway Park, then Yankee fans can start marking time until pitchers and catchers. If they're still interested enough in their team at this point to do that. . . .
"The game is still littered with examples of teams that went on unlikely runs," Aaron Boone, who has to stand there and take it for the people who constructed this team, said . . .
Boone is right about teams that have made unlikely runs. The difference between most of those teams and what we have seen from Boone's Yankees is that those teams were actually good.
We keep hearing about injuries. It always seems as if Yankees injuries are supposed to be so much more serious than everybody else's, as if they still think they're better than everybody else at injuries, too. Even now the Yankees are still kidding themselves — that's at least one place where they still lead the league — that it was injuries that got them swept by the Astros last October. So you know what they did to improve the offense after that one? Nothing . . .
Brian Cashman said, and famously, after the trade deadline, "We're in it to win it." How about his Yankees — and who else's are they? — try to win a series first?
The beaten and battered Yankees [returned] home on Friday, trying once again to resuscitate a season they still believe is salvageable. . . .
Since the Yankees last played in The Bronx, they have lost seven of nine games, falling further out of the playoff race and under .500 for the first time in more than two years.
An agitated fan base awaits, especially if the Yankees are not able to quickly turn things around this weekend against the Red Sox. . . .
They are 1-9-3 over their last 13 series, the lone series win coming in a three-game sweep of the lowly Royals last month. That series was also the only time the Yankees have won three straight games since winning four straight from May 27-30.
Instead, the only streaking they have done lately is of the losing variety . . .
The Yankees' issues have been in plain sight for some time — led by their lineup's maddening inconsistency, along with a rotation that has taken its hits especially of late . . .
Jon Heyman, Post:
Many folks around the game will tell you the Yankees' problem is that they abandoned their scouting roots and swung too far into the analytics arena. . . .
That they will take a 60-62 record into the second game Saturday against their archrival Red Sox after an 8-3 series-opening defeat Friday is disturbing by any standard. . . .
Remarkably this year, they are still given a 2.4 percent chance to make the playoffs on the internet. That must be another computer error. . . .
This team is not only mediocre, but also painfully boring. It's uncertain why fans continue to pack Yankee Stadium. . . . [S]omehow, the Yankees rank second in attendance behind the Dodgers, who win every night. The Yankees are averaging 41,516 fans, which is more than most years this decade despite being dull — slow, too little contact, too dependent on the long ball. (From where I sit, it's also too loud at The Stadium. It's as if they're trying to replace quality with decibels.)
Red Sox - 430 000 001 - 8 12 0 Yankees - 001 000 020 - 3 10 1
Mark W. Sanchez, Post, August 18:
The first sounds heard were groans. As the Red Sox began to hit Jhony Brito, a here-we-go-again, collective sigh spread around Yankee Stadium.
Next came the boos as the game became a blowout minutes after it started Friday night.
The loudest early cheer was a mock round of applause when the Yankees finally recorded an out. . . .
The soundtrack that dominated the night was the quiet of resignation that filled the Stadium, 44,566 fans accepting what the Yankees, publicly at least, have not: This season seems gone before September, much less October, has arrived.
The Yankees might not have waved the white flag . . . but their whiffing bats might as well have had pale flags affixed to them.
In a season of rock bottoms, the Yankees dug a bit deeper when they were dusted, 8-3, by the Red Sox, losing a season-worst sixth straight game — and dropping a season-worst two games under .500. . . .
They were down 4-0 after one inning and 7-0 after two, and they only showed a sign of life . . . in the eighth inning. Their first two batters reached base in the ninth, but the Yankees left them stranded. . . .
The Yankees have scored a total of six runs in their past four games. . . .
The Red Sox were up, 4-0, after four batters, the last of which, Masataka Yoshida, smacked a three-run home run on his first pitch from Brito after a lengthy PitchCom delay.
Boston scored three more runs in the second, on an error and four straight singles. . . .
Boone said this stretch will "reveal a lot about us," and the players insisted they still have faith. . . .
"We're all super dialed in, we're just waiting to turn this around" [Rortvedt said of the attitude in the clubhouse].
If they truly believe, they are among the last ones.
Happy to be home . . . the Yankees lost their sixth consecutive game on Friday.It didn't take long for onlookers to realize that the pinstripers were on their way to another defeat, as the Red Sox jumped on Jhony Brito and scored four runs before the Yankees ever recorded an out. The first came off the bat of Justin Turner, who picked up an RBI single before Masataka Yoshida lined a three-run homer to right field.The second inning then saw Gleyber Torres make an error on a routine grounder. That mistake preceded RBI singles from Rafael Devers, Turner and Yoshida. Just like that, Boston had far more runs than it needed in a 8-3 win.Brito only lasted 2.1 innings. The right-handed rookie allowed nine hits and six earned runs over 46 pitches. . . .Brayan Bello continued his run of dominance over the Yankees in his sophomore season.The righty had already allowed just three earned runs over 14 innings against the Yankees this year. On Friday, Bello twirled six innings of one-run ball while striking out four over 98 pitches. He permitted six hits and one walk. . . .The Yankees, fresh off a 2-7 road trip, have scored just six runs in their last four games, a span that includes two shutouts and a one-hit evening in Atlanta. The Yanks are now 60-62 . . .Boone has repeatedly said that the Yankees have the personnel, will to fight and work ethic to turn things around. Yet they haven't. Asked what's been missing, the manager left that up to reporters to figure out."You know what? I'll let you guys define that," Boone said.
Red Sox - 040 200 011 - 8 12 1
Yankees - 000 001 000 - 1 2 1
In the midst of a disastrous skid during what has been a disastrous Yankees season, manager Aaron Boone had a private chat with his team Friday night. . . .
After Boone's statement, his players made one of their own: This season likely is done.
Gerrit Cole, the Yankees' stopper, was stomped.
Their bats were buzzed.
Boone could not breathe life into a flatlining offense as the Yankees were smacked around in an 8-1 loss to the Red Sox in front of 42,599 mostly apathetic fans in The Bronx on Saturday afternoon.
The spiral continued for the Yankees (60-63), who have lost seven straight, are a season-worst three games under .500 and were 7½ games out of an AL wild-card spot . . .
The Yankees are beating no one . . . They certainly are not beating their chief rivals. They have dropped seven of eight games against the Red Sox this year. . . .
Hours before the game, Boone said he believed a "turnaround" was coming. What followed was Yankees batters stepping to the plate and repeatedly turning around to head back to the dugout.
Boston starter Kutter Crawford recorded 16 outs before the Yankees recorded a hit . . . The Yankees managed just one other hit, a meaningless single . . . in the seventh.
"We're sick animals in a lot of ways," Boone said of a club with a collapsed offense that has scored seven runs combined in its past five games. . . .
Sometimes they took too many pitches. Sometimes they tried too hard to make something happen, as when Isiah Kiner-Falefa attempted a bunt with lead-footed Giancarlo Stanton on first base in the second inning, but popped the ball up. Catcher Connor Wong caught it and doubled up Stanton at first. . . .
[The Yankees] did not take an at-bat with a runner in scoring position. . . .
With this offense, any slip from the pitching staff gets magnified, and Cole found a few banana peels.
The ace . . . picked a poor day to have his worst outing of the season. It was not the Big, Bad Red Sox who stymied Cole, but the little-known Nos. 8 and 9 hitters.
In the second inning, Cole loaded the bases on two hits and a walk. With one out, last-place hitter Luis Urias swatted a first-pitch cutter for a grand slam, stunning the crowd and burying the home team. It only Urias' third homer of the season, though it was his second grand-slam in two at-bats, after he hit one Thursday at Washington.
Two innings later, Wong blasted a two-run home run — just his eighth career homer — over the right-field wall. . . .
Hours before the game, Boone acknowledged the Yankees' clubhouse was worn but said, "We're OK."
Yankees players then did their best to contradict him.
Gary Phillips, Daily News:
Hours before the Yankees played the Red Sox on Saturday, Aaron Boone spoke about correcting course and teams that have gone on unlikely runs. . . .
"[We] compete every day with a mind that today's the day we turn it around," said the manager . . . Saturday was not the day the Yankees turned it around. Instead, Boston won, 8-1, as the pinstripers dropped their seventh straight game . . .
Gerrit Cole . . . found himself in trouble in the second inning, when a couple of singles and a walk set the stage for a Luis Urías grand slam. . . .
Urías, Boston's No. 9 hitter, had just two home runs prior to the at-bat against Cole, but he also hit a grand slam in his last game on Aug. 17. Urías became the first Red Sox player to hit a grand slam in back-to-back games played since Jimmie Foxx did it in 1940, according to ESPN Stats & Info.
The Red Sox got to Cole again in the fourth inning when Connor Wong hit a two-run homer to right. Cole's afternoon ended with that inning. . . .
The Red Sox scored again in the eighth when left fielder Greg Allen appeared to lose a flyball in the sun. Rafael Devers then hit a solo shot into Monument Park . . . in the ninth. . . .
Cole hasn't had many clunkers this season, but the Yankees' lineup certainly has. Such was the case on Saturday, as the aptly-named Kutter Crawford didn't permit a hit until . . . the sixth inning. . . .
The Yankees have scored just seven runs in their last five games. They totaled two hits on Saturday after getting one-hit on Tuesday. . . .
[In the second] Giancarlo Stanton drew a leadoff walk. But Kiner-Falefa, one of the Yankees' most consistent hitters, tried to bunt for a single. . . . Kiner-Falefa popped the bunt up to Wong. The catcher then doubled Stanton off at first.
The Yankees were already facing a four-run deficit . . . And even if Kiner-Falefa had laid the bunt down, Stanton is incredibly limited in his mobility. . . . Boone said Kiner-Falefa made the call to bunt . . . Boone called the bunt a "good play" because Rafael Devers was playing back. Devers was actually at the edge of the grass. . . .
The Yankees have won just one series since the start of July, and that came against the lowly Royals. Still, Boone has continued to insist that a run is possible. . . . [Why?] "Because." . . . Boone, irritated at the question, said . . . "I don't not think a turnaround is coming." . . .
Having already been swept by [Atlanta] this week, the Yankees will try to avoid more brooms on Sunday with a win over the Red Sox.
Peter Botte, Post:
As the baseball axiom goes, managers often make themselves look smart by calling a team meeting right before a game started by their unquestioned ace.
Gerrit Cole, however . . . was shelled for a season-worst six runs in four innings Saturday in The Bronx in a 8-1 loss to the Red Sox.
He was tagged for a second-inning grand slam by No. 9 hitter Luis Urias and a two-run shot by No. 8 hitter Connor Wong one inning later as the sinking Yankees suffered their seventh consecutive defeat to fall three games under .500 (60-63) with 39 remaining. . . .
Cole has had a few [bad starts] against the Red Sox since joining the Yankees in 2020.
Counting two playoff games, he is now 5-6 with an ERA over 5.00 in 14 starts against Boston in that span.
Brian Lewis, Post:
The Yankees haven't been this bad this late in over a quarter-century. . . .
Before [this] latest loss, it was the first time the Yankees were been two games under .500 this late in a season since Aug. 31, 1995. . . .
Boone insisted . . . "I feel like we're ok. And I do feel like the turnaround is coming." . . .
The Yankees came into Saturday having lost a season-worst six straight games – their longest skid since dropping seven straight from Sept. 4-10, 2021 . . .
Even the return of Aaron Judge hasn't helped, the Bombers are now 6-15 since the star's July 28 return from a toe injury. . . .
Mark W. Sanchez, Post:
Carlos Rodon is more frustrated than anyone about a season he termed a "pile of s–t."
The Yankees left-hander spent the first three-plus months of 2023 on the injured list with a left forearm strain and bouts of back stiffness.
He returned in July, posted a 7.33 ERA in six starts and left an Aug. 6 outing early with a left hamstring strain that forced him back to the IL. . . .
Rodon has yet to complete six innings in a start, and he has fought both opposing hitters and his own wildness, with 18 walks in 27 innings.
The 30-year-old, coming off back-to-back All-Star seasons that landed him a $162 million pact, has not yet shown the Yankees and their fans what kind of pitcher he believes he is. . . .
Rodon answered questions about the Yankees' and his own pasts . . .
"It just hasn't been good," Rodon said of his season.
Dean Balsamini, Post:
Ticked-off Bronx Bombers superfan Jon Borowski has had enough of the team's freefall — on pace for its worst season since 1992 — and is rallying the "hardcore fans" on social media to oust the team's embattled general manager Brian Cashman.
Borowski . . . has declared the Sept. 22 home game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, "Fire Cashman Night." . . .
[H]e decided to step to the plate and plan the protest when Cashman did virtually nothing to improve the floundering last-place club at the Aug. 1 trade deadline. . . .
"Bring your Fire Cashman signs, shirts, paper bags, voice! All game long, we make our voices heard!" Borowski wrote in a post on X, already collecting more than 700,000 views. . . . [He] added that if the GM goes, so should others beneath him, including . . . Boone — who he said is "drinking the Kool-Aid."
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