If you were looking for the manager to hit the panic button, you're looking at the wrong manager. In fact, I'm almost certain Aaron Boone had that button dismantled and permanently removed from his office when he took over.
Not that Joe Girardi before Boone or Joe Torre before Girardi ever looked for it, either. Boone more closely resembles Torre for the manner in which losses bother him, but don't defeat his even-keeled spirit.
"We look at every day as an opportunity to go out and beat you down. That's the focus when you walk in the door," Boone said before the Yankees lost Wednesday to the Tigers to drop their record to a dismal 2-4.
The Yankees, to be fair, have already taken a season's worth of hits on the injury front. This week alone, they've lost Giancarlo Stanton, Miguel Andujar and Troy Tulowitzki -- who himself was replacing the recovering Didi Gregorius. While the Yankees have pitched well for the most part -- the patched-up rotation has a 2.32 ERA -- the injuries to position players have them scrambling just to fill roster spots. And the men trying to hold the lineup together have cobbled together a measly 20 runs in six games.
Control the strike zone. That's the mantra for Boone. Last year, he called it a kind of bumper sticker for his team philosophy. On Wednesday, the strike zone controlled them. Yankees hitters set a franchise record with 18 strikeouts in a nine-inning game.
What Boone talks about is an offensive philosophy designed to put his hitters in advantageous counts when they can get good pitches and drive them toward and over fences.
"It's something that we preach and believe in and kind of beat into each other," Boone said. "We want to control the strike zone. And if we do that, the results will follow."
But when hitters feel pressure, they tend to fall into that cliched pattern of trying to do too much. That has never been more evident than the last two losses to the Tigers, in which the Yankees were held to a total of two runs.
"Sometimes (not expanding the zone) can be the challenge, especially early in the season," Boone warned. "When you're wanting to get into that routine, wanting to get off to a good start, you've got to fight that urge to chase that result. The constant preaching from me is 'have good at-bats, have good at-bats.' And if we do that, with our talent, the results will follow.
"How do you do that?" Boone asked, before answering his own question. "You do it by trusting each other, trusting the plan and the game plan for that day and the work that you're putting in behind the scenes to get ready for each and every game. Now go out and let it happen. I feel like when we do that, the results will be there."
Panic? Not here, despite the brutal start against teams (the Orioles and Tigers) that combined to lose 213 games a year ago. The only button the Yankees are looking for is the ignition switch.
And maybe the one that calls the nurse to help with all these injuries.
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