The state of New York baseball could not be much worse after miserable weekends compounded what has been a collectively brutal month of August.
In the Bronx, the Yankees were lifeless in their 7-1 loss to the Astros in Sunday’s series finale, managing just three hits to drop the series in the Bronx, and very easily could have been swept after nearly giving away Saturday’s win. Across town, the Mets limp home after being swept by the red-hot Brewers, blowing a 5-0 lead on Sunday before losing on a walk-off home run.
The Mets have dropped seven in a row and 11 of their last 12, as their deficit in the NL East has suddenly ballooned to 5.5 games as the Phils have won three straight and widened their lead atop the division. The Mets are now just two games up in the loss column for the final Wild Card spot, as the Red have crept up and sit 1.5 games back.
For the Yankees, they are now tied with the Guardians in the loss column for the final playoff spot in the American League, desperately trying to hold off a Cleveland squad that sold off pieces before the trade deadline after losing star closer Emmanuel Clase for the year as the league investigates a possible involvement in betting on games. The deficit in the division is up to 6.5 games, a division they led by seven games in late May.
The Mets were entering their most hyped season in years after adding Juan Soto following their run to the NLCS in 2024. The Yankees, fresh off their first World Series appearance since 2009, stormed out to one of the best records in baseball through the first two months of the season, but have fallen off a cliff ever since. The hype has suddenly devolved into all-out panic.
Collectively, the Mets and Yanks have two of the four worst records in baseball over the past two months. The only two teams with a worse record in that span are the Nationals and Rockies, two of the worst teams in the sport.
Both Carlos Mendoza and Aaron Boone have voiced their belief that these teams will get things turned around, but time is running out, and while these teams have shown earlier in the season that they are capable of better, this has now been months of malaise that leads some to wonder what version of these New York squads is the real one.