Tuesday’s loss to the Blue Jays brought more of the same for the Yankees: flashes of traffic on the bases to tease a potential offensive breakout followed by a deflating double play to once again raise the same frustrations that have been heard since Opening Day.
The Bombers, so far not living up to that nickname, bounced into three more double plays on Tuesday, bringing their season total to 14, the team’s highest mark at this point of the season since 1995, per Katie Sharp. The typically feared lineup has been anything but to start the season, and the rally-killing double plays have hardly helped.
“Any time you go through something like this, it’s frustrating,” manager Aaron Boone said after the game. “But it’s also part of the game, you have to fight your way through it.”
Boone believes if the Yanks were flashing their typical power and run-scoring output, the double plays wouldn’t stick out nearly as much, and even if they persist, the occasional home run would turn a near wasted rally into a crooked number.
“If we’re banging, not very [concerned],” Boone said of the team’s susceptibility to the double play. “Overall, we’ve pitched pretty well, and once we get it rolling offensively, you’re going to hit into your share of double plays. Especially with our team, we’re not the fastest as a group and we have a lot of guys who hit the ball hard. That’s going to come with it, even when we’re rolling.”
The Yankees are far from rolling, but there were flashes of optimism in Tuesday’s defeat, particularly with DJ LeMahieu and Aaron Hicks. Both have come out of the gate slow, Hicks far more severely than LeMahieu, but Hicks racked up three hits on Tuesday night, while LeMahieu went 2-for-3 with a walk. Giancarlo Stanton, also slumping, ripped a 120 mph single to score a pair of runs, but also bounced into a double play, fittingly encapsulating the Yanks’ struggles to begin the season.
“For the first several innings, [Hyun-Jin] Ryu was having his way with us,” Boone said. “Not a lot of hard contact. But I thought some of the at-bats in the final three innings against their high-leverage guys, I thought were real quality, and a couple of guys we want to get going, hopefully some quality at-bats, some real good contact there can be a spark and get us going.”
Those quality at-bats are what has been missing from a Yankees lineup typically known for working deep counts and wearing down pitchers. The lineup isn’t as deep as normal with the absence of Luke Voit, last year’s home run leader, but there are still plenty of proven bats that should be able to pick up the slack. So far, the results haven’t been there, and a 5-6 record is the result.
“Hitting is hard,” Boone said. “It’s a game of failure. We haven’t stung together at-bats the way we’re capable of yet, so it’s frustrating when you’re not scoring the way you’re capable of. You just have to keep your nose down and just continue to work to have quality at-bats and the results will follow from there.”
Boone and the Yanks would love to see those results sooner than later, but any slump is magnified when it’s to begin a season, with many considering it to be the start of a narrative rather than a blip on the radar. The Yankee offense, much the same in personnel as it has been the past three years, has the track record to instill confidence that eventually, the runs will come.
“We know what we’re capable of,” Boone said. “We know what we expect to do offensively. Hopefully a couple guys having success can get the ball rolling for us. I just want us to collectively really start grinding pitchers down. That’s when we’re at our best, and that’s what we haven’t quite done yet.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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