The Yankees have scored three runs in 19 innings against the Tigers this weekend, after scoring seven in three games against the Blue Jays. So has gone the up and down Bombers offense, which averaged 4.17 runs per game during their six-game winning streak last week, but has put up just 10 in the last five games and gone 1-4.
So what is manager Aaron Boone to do?
“I think about changing things up a lot, and with the roster we have right now, I think we do change it up a bit and have different sorts of lineups every day,” Boone said after Saturday’s game. “But, if we’re going to be the club we expect to be, we need the guys we expect to carry a lot of the load offensively need to get going.”
To Boone’s point, the Yankees have used the same exact nine only twice this season according to Baseball Reference – April 27 and April 30 have the same starting nine in the same order, and that’s it – and only DJ LeMahieu has had a “steady” spot, leading off in 47 of his 48 starts and hitting second behind Brett Gardner in the 48th.
Quite a lot of flux, some of which has been necessitated by roster movement, but Boone doesn’t believe that necessarily contributes to the roller coaster.
“I don’t know what the number is, but we have guys who are capable; we just have to all rally around and be as buttoned up and prepared as we can be every day,” Boone said. “These are the guys that are going to have to carry us to where we expect to go.”
No matter the order, the Yankees are hitting .229 through 52 games entering Sunday, and perhaps their biggest bug-a-boo is situational hitting. That came to the forefront in Sunday’s loss, when they had the bases loaded and no one out in the second inning but scored just one run – on a double play ball.
“I think you can make that case early about trying to do too much, but I don’t think it’s so much that now,” Boone said of his team’s approach in those big situations. “I think it’s going up there and executing. When you get in a good situation or get a mistake pitch, you have to take advantage of it, and we haven’t been doing that.”
They haven’t been doing that to the tune of an MLB-high 50 double plays, that big one spurring a second straight loss to a Tigers team that entered the weekend as the second-worst team in the AL, behind only an Orioles squad that has lost 12 straight since beating the Yankees on May 16.
“Nobody wants to do that, but right now, we’re not really consistent. We’re all aggressive, but sometimes we’re too aggressive, and that leads to double plays,” Gleyber Torres said. “The key is to control the zone, but sometimes maybe we’re trying to do too much, and we’re not consistent.”
So, is it all snowballing?
“I don’t know, because I don’t think we really mounted enough to get into a good situation later in the game,” Boone said. “We were kind of chasing at that point. Certainly that can happen at times, but I don’t think that was the case today. Mize and Turnbull pitched well against us, and they’re a couple challenging outings, but bottom line is we have to get better.”
Once again, to that notion, Boone said that “if we’re going to be the team we expect to be, a lot of that is built around what we expect to be offensively. That has to improve and we believe it will, but we have to continue to work and make sure we’re making the necessary adjustments every day.”
However, of the 14 players with at least 50 plate appearances entering Sunday, eight are hitting below .200, and Miguel Andujar has had to go 8 for his last 26 (a .308 average over his last eight games) to raise his mark just to .224.
So when does a slump become a trend, and when does it become too late to turn it around?
“We’re talking about guys with track records, and in a large sense, most in their prime, so we know what they’re capable of,” Boone said. “We hope and trust and believe the integrity of 162 will work itself out, but hat said, we have to have the urgency to make sure we’re prepared and making the adjustments to start to turn this around offensively like we’re capable.”
The skipper is aware of the optic of a lack of urgency, noting that any team that is struggling to score runs will look flat. He knows they’re frustrated and working hard, though, but perhaps Torres had the most damning take of all, even with some optimism mixed in.
“We try to be consistent, and the last few games, we haven’t been. We always try to attack, but it feels like we’re maybe attacking the wrong pitches,” Torres said. “But tomorrow is another day. We’re working hard, and we’ll try to do better tomorrow.”
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