The Yankees headed into Thursday’s game with a chance to wash away a recent losing streak with a huge series win against the first-place Rays, but instead were reminded of what has held the team back all season.
After two straight wins over Tampa, the Yanks settled for a split after another lackluster performance from the offense, which wasn’t able to pick up an unusually inefficient Gerrit Cole.
For the Bombers, it’s the latest example of another step back after teasing a trend in the right direction, and opened the door for more questions about who this Yankee team really is as a third of the season is now in the rearview.
“I think we’re competing well and doing some things well, but I don’t think we’re near where we need to be or where I think we’re going to get as a club,” Aaron Boone said after Thursday’s loss. “We need to keep grinding away and keep working at making improvements in all areas.”
The main culprit has been an inconsistent offense, which allowed Ryan Yarborough to go the distance on Thursday in the first complete game for the Rays in five years. To sum up the imbalance of the Yanks right now, seven of their top 12 players in WAR are pitchers, including five of the top seven.
“Some guys, myself included, have kind of underperformed a little bit so far,” Kyle Higashioka said. “But at this point in the season, we still have two thirds of the way left. I have all the faith in the world that we’re going to get hot.”
Parts of the Yankee offense has shown signs of getting hot and returning to typical production levels, only to once again fizzle out into a frustrating slump. Gleyber Torres was swinging a hot bat once he returned from the COVID-19 list, but now has just five hits in his last 30 at-bats. Gio Urshela went deep on Wednesday night, but is batting under .200 in his last 16 games. Now more than two months into the season, “slow out of the gate” is less and less applicable, and some previously proven bats are putting together uncharacteristically poor seasons so far.
“Hopefully we get hot at the right time, which is heading into a playoff run, hopefully,” Higashioka said. “We just have to keep the faith and keep grinding and making sure we’re working every single day to play our best.”
With the Rays holding their lead atop the AL East and the Red Sox still playing above expectations as the calendar switches to June, the Yankees can’t afford to “hope” anymore. The offense needs to awaken in a hurry if they are to keep that hope alive of winning the division and avoiding the state-of-the-team questions that continue to come their way as a result of more uncharacteristic performances that are slowly becoming not so uncharacteristic.
“We need to keep getting better,” Boone said. “We’re not a complete project yet. I still very much believe in what we’re capable of doing and what we will do, and the team we will ultimately become. But we have to keep working at it to get there.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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