The Yankees were shut out for the sixth time in their last 25 games on Friday night, kicking off a crucial series with the Rays that has now seen their division lead dwindle to five.
Not surprisingly, the atmosphere in the Yankee clubhouse wasn’t a particularly lively one.
“Nobody likes to lose,” Aaron Judge said. “But we’re gonna see what this team’s made of…we gotta bring it every single day. We gotta bring it tomorrow, plain and simple.”
Judge was then asked: does he feel like the Bombers have been “bringing it” of late?
“It’s a long season. I can pick apart a couple weeks where we weren’t doing it and we are doing it, but that’s why they call this the dog days of summer,” Judge said. “This is when whether you’re feeling good or not feeling good, we gotta bring it no matter what. I’m not gonna sit here and go over if I’m thinking whether we are or not. All I gotta say is we gotta bring it. That’s it.”
If the Yankees don’t begin to “bring it,” the division lead can be down to as little as three games by Labor Day, though Judge still insists that the team isn’t looking up at the standings.
“I don’t pay attention to it,” Judge said. “Not really worried about the standings, because if we come here and show up and do what we need to do, we’re gonna look up at the end of the year and be where we want to be in the standings.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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