BOSTON — Aroldis Chapman faced the outfield, bent over at the waist, and held his pose. It was as if he’d done so for effect, demonstrating for all to see the universal sign for disbelief. The Yankees’ closer had just presided over a meltdown in the ninth, which led to the worst loss of the season.
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One inning later, the Red Sox walked off the Yankees, sending their free-falling rivals to a 5-4 defeat in the 10th. Wally, the fuzzy green mascot, walked the stands at Fenway Park carrying a broom to celebrate a dominating four-game sweep. The Yankees’ deficit in the AL East swelled to 9 1/2 games.
In the aftermath, Aaron Boone doubled down on the tactic that he believes will get him through the toughest test of his managerial career. He delivered a dose of relentless positivity, which a cynic might interpret as outright denial.
“We can’t let this define what’s been a great season for us,” Boone said after the Yankees’ dropped their fifth straight game, their longest losing streak of the season.
“No, will not,” he said later. “We’re too good.”
Boone dismisses the utility of gratuitous team meetings, nor does he intend to be throwing fits in front of television cameras. Besides, Phil Nevin, the Yankees’ fiery third-base coach, played that card last week. But since blowing a gasket, the Yankees have yet to win a game. So continued what’s been a season of extremes.
The Yankees are a good team. At 68-42 — 26 games over the .500 mark — they remain on the short list of teams that are good enough to win a World Series. This holds true even though they are banged-up and playing poorly. But it is also true that they’re flawed. Since June 22, they’re 18-20. While that sustained run of mediocrity is likely not reflective of their true talent, it has already changed the nature of their season. It’s clear that for now, the Red Sox are better.
What follows is no longer a chase for the division title. It is a fight to preserve the right to host the wild-card game. In that department, they lead the hard-charging A’s by just 2 1/2 games. The downturn makes it easy to scrutinize everything about the Yankees. That list includes Boone’s managerial style.
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“I hope they look at me as emotionally stable and understand that I’m going to be consistent and a lot of ways the same guy every single day,” Boone said earlier Sunday when asked of his approach to players during tough times. “I don’t want them to ever look at me, and anxiety comes from them through me. I think it’s really important that I’m consistent, consistent with who I am, consistent with how I treat them, consistent with how I talk to them. So, that’s I guess philosophically something that’s important to me.”
Consistency has not been the issue. But is Boone’s message striking the right tenor? The results have been far from convincing.
“I understand we’re in a tough spot,” he said before the game. “But I also understand and really believe that our guys know they’re really good, and know we’re really capable of doing special things. Obviously, from the division standpoint, we’re going to have to play a pretty lights-out brand of baseball. That’s apparent. But I don’t put that past us.”
In response, the Yankees dropped their fifth straight, extending their longest losing streak of the season. It came in wrenching fashion. In the seventh, they took a 4-1 lead with the help of an ill-timed walk to backup outfielder Shane Robinson and an error by Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts. But when Chapman came on in the ninth, he walked three batters, then watched as shoddy defense led to the tying run. Bogaerts hit a grounder to third baseman Miguel Andújar. He was slow to get the ball out of his glove. The throw bounced as it reached first base. Greg Bird failed to scoop it out of the dirt.
“I caught it,” said Andújar, who was charged with the error. “I wanted to get rid of it quickly. It was just a bad throw.”
On the mound, Chapman turned toward the outfield and rested his hands on his knees. Later, he said “there’s no looking back,” though in one of the worst moments of his season, it’s literally what he had done. It officially ended in the 10th inning on Andrew Benintendi’s run-scoring single off Jonathan Holder.
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Beginning with a series against the White Sox, the schedule gets much easier. But the Yankees remain banged up. Aaron Judge did not begin swinging a bat over the weekend as the Yankees had hoped, meaning that his three-week recovery for his wrist will likely drag on. Catcher Gary Sánchez remains in the early stages of coming back from a recurrence of his groin issue.
The weekend brought on another potential red flag. Giancarlo Stanton has been managing tightness in his left leg. It’s why he has been slotted as the designated hitter the last two games, a move that kept him off his legs. But it has also forced Robinson to play right field. That, in turn, kept Neil Walker’s veteran bat out of the lineup because Stanton had to DH. Against the Red Sox, the diminished state of the offense could not be hidden.
With that, the vanquished Yankees packed for their charter to Chicago. They bring with them a near-insurmountable deficit in the division, and a manager who has staked an entire season on the virtue of what he called emotional stability.
Said Boone: “I believe in the dudes in that room.”
(Photo Credit: Paul Rutherford-USA TODAY Sports)
