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Jorge Castillo, ESPN writer
NEW YORK – So far, the Yankees of 2024 have had two contrasting chapters. The one before June 15, when they crushed the opposition with the best record in the majors. Then there’s the current one, in which the team has the second-worst record in baseball since then, better than the Chicago White Sox, who are playing for the distant future.
A 12-3 loss to the New York Mets on Wednesday marked a new low for the Yankees.
The New York Mets, who have the best record in the majors since June 15, swept the four-game Subway Series at Yankee Stadium, which was half-filled with Mets fans by the end of the game. It was the first time the Mets had swept the Yankees in a season series since 2013. The Mets outscored the Yankees 36-14 in the four games.
Gerrit Cole, the American League’s Sa Young Award winner, was hit hard, scoring six runs, including three home runs, over five and two-thirds of an inning. The bullpen fared even worse. The offense was weak again.
Afterwards, Yankees manager Aaron Boone expressed frustration with his team’s poor performance, but he strongly insisted that he believed the team would turn around.
“We have to play better, don’t we? We have everything in front of us. We’re a really good team and we’ve been playing poorly lately. We need to be better,” Boone said.
“I’m not going to define a downturn, this or that. We have to win, right? And we’re on the right track. We’re watching other teams struggle around us. We know we have to be better. We’re very angry. We have a lot of pride. We have a lot of expectations. So, I don’t care about downturn, stagnation, or last place. It’s about us having to play better the rest of the way.”
The Yankees were 50-22 when they beat the Boston Red Sox on June 14. Since then, they have gone 10-22, while the Mets are 22-11. The Yankees (60-44) have dropped games late. They have been hammered early in the season. The team has regressed in every area. But the offense has struggled with Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, arguably the best hitters in the world, starting every day.
Since June 15, the Yankees’ second and third holes in the batting order—where Soto and Judge reside—have posted an OPS of 1.061. That ranks first in the majors. The other two holes have a combined OPS of .625, again surpassing the White Sox’s OPS.
The Mets (53-48) exploited the weakness in their 3-2 win Tuesday by playing strategically around Judge. The power hitter was stopped four times, once intentionally, in his first four starts before being eliminated in the ninth inning.
Judge said on Wednesday that getting out of the tough period “depends on the level of confidence,” noting that he believes the team’s confidence has taken a hit during the downturn.
“You can read body language sometimes, and there are certain times where, you know, we lower our heads a little bit – and you just need a little kick in the butt to get them moving again,” he said.
Despite the difficulties, the Yankees left for Boston for a three-game weekend series on Thursday night, trailing the Baltimore Orioles in first place in the American League East by just a game and a half, with 58 games remaining. The Yankees are expected to make moves before Tuesday’s trade deadline to upgrade their roster in the final stretch. They still have Soto, Judge and Cole, three of the sport’s best players, with a group of distinguished veterans around them.
As Boone often says, the Yankees still have it in them. The question now, nearly six weeks into this ugly stretch, is whether the team can turn the page on Act Three in time.
“Nothing I can say matters,” Boone said. “You have to do it. I’m confident we will. I know we’re going to walk away from this, but that’s all I’m telling you right now. So we have to do better.”
