It was a disastrous weekend at Yankee Stadium for the men in pinstripes.
In a boo-filled 8-2 loss against the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday, fans littered the field with baseballs and other objects in the eighth inning, causing a brief delay. On Saturday, the New York Yankees were unable to resolve Tyler Glasnow and the Rays won 6-3. On Sunday, the fans even laughed at Gerrit Cole when he walked off the mound after giving up a go-ahead double to a struggling Yoshi Tsutsugo in the seventh inning; the Rays won 4-2 and the Yankees left the field for another chorus of boos, instead of “New York, New York.”
First, give credit to Tampa Bay. The Rays are now 5-1 against the Yankees in 2021, having played them 8-2 last season, plus a victory in the American League Division Series. Including that series, the Rays have now won seven series in a row against the Yankees, going back to their final showdown of 2019.
However, the Yankees’ current problems extend beyond the Rays, but only have their number. The Yankees have the worst record in the American League, 5-10, which is the most games in a season that they have the league’s worst record since their start of 9-17 in 1991. While the general rule in baseball is to Not overreacting to the first few weeks of the season – as a reminder, the last time the Yankees started 5-10 in 1997, and they finished 96-66 and made it to the playoffs – you can look for patterns. It must be worrying that the Yankees have struggled in rotation, on defense, and on the plate.
– The rotation problems are documented. The starters have a 4.74 ERA; take Cole out and it balloons to 6.39. Mind you, Cole has started four of the team’s 15 games or 27%. The ratio will drop to about 20% at the end of the season assuming it starts at 33 out of 162.
– The current center-back lineup of catcher Gary Sanchez, middle infielders Gleyber Torres and Rougned Odor, and midfielder Aaron Hicks doesn’t feel like a championship-level defense. The Yankees can get around that a bit when Kyle catches Higashioka and eventually when DJ LeMahieu returns to second base after Luke Voit returns.
– The big surprise is an offense that only hits .210 / .296 / .346. It is the lowest batting average for the Yankees through 15 games since 1968 and the lowest OPS through 15 games since 1973. Strength should be the strength of the team, but their opponents have more home runs (21 to 16) and more doubles (22 against 19).
The slow start meant that manager Aaron Boone apparently shut himself down after Friday’s loss. When asked about it after the game, Boone said, “That’s for in there.”
But outfielder Clint Frazier said, “He’s so cold that when he speaks to us, everyone should listen.”
Frazier said they would cum on Saturday; instead, the Yankees have now run their losing streak to five in a row.
“I’m frustrated, personally frustrated,” said LeMahieu, the 2020 AL batting champion who hits .288 with one home run. ‘No one will pity us. No one is going to throw softer or easier for us. We have to find it in ourselves to keep getting better and play as we can. ‘
While LeMahieu concluded that the team was’ tight and squeezing ‘, Cole seemed to keep it going a bit more, saying,’ If you play this game long enough, you’re going to have some shit. You have to put on your boots and wade. through the mud. “
Indeed, the 1997 Yankees are a prime example of this. After that 5-10 start, they won eight of their next 10 to climb back over .500 before the end of April. Going back to 1996, here are the five best records from teams who started 5-10 or worse, courtesy of ESPN Stats & Information:
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2001 A’s: 102-60 (started 4-11)
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2002 Angels: 99-63 (started 5-10)
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2000 Giants: 97-65 (started 4-11)
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2018 A’s: 97-65 (started 5-10)
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1997 Yankees: 96-66 (started 5-10)
On the other hand … many more bad teams start 5-10, as you would expect. I looked at all the teams that started exactly 5-10 between 1996 and 2019, with a total of 62 teams. Their final mean record was 73-89. Aside from the three teams listed above, only four other 90 games would win: 2013’s Indians (92-70) and Rays (92-71), 2011’s Red Sox (90-72), and 2009’s Rockies (92 -70).
This Yankees team reminds me a bit of the 2019 Boston Red Sox. After a World Series title, the Red Sox team got off to a slow start, 5-10 to 15 games and 9-15 to 24. In a way, it recovered. Boston never got off the slow start, falling seven games behind first place. in late April and never got closer to three games the rest of the way, before finishing 84-78.
The Yankees are level with the Rangers for the lowest OPS in the majors at .642. I’m sure the Yankees won’t be in that position at the end of the season. Giancarlo Stanton, Frazier, Torres and Hicks all hit under .200. It will help get Voit back the lead of the 2020 Major League-homerun.
Torres is hard to figure out after hitting 38 home runs in 2019 at the age of 22 and looking like a future star. He actually improved his chase rate in both 2020 (from 31.3% to 20.1%) and again in 2021 (to 13.9%), and usually better record discipline leads to better grades; instead, he sits there with no home runs and one RBI. Maybe a more aggressive approach – he swung on the first ball more often in 2019 – works better for him.
Regardless, it’s 15 games in a really long season. Yankees fans are calling for Boone to be fired. Columnists joke that Jay Bruce shouldn’t have retired because he might have hit the cleanup this week if Boone wanted to shake things up. Twitter is full of comments like, “The Yankees are 5-10, but they seem worse” and “I’ve literally been waiting for a bad Yankees season all my life.”
Put this in your back pocket: The last time the Yankees had a losing season was 1992.
(And to mention that, it’s now a slot that the Yankees will win 12 out of 14 and move into first place on May 4. Thank me later, Yankees fans.)