NEW YORK — It was a version of the same scene that has played out many times inside the New York Yankees’ clubhouse over the last couple of weeks. There was no music. Players shuffled in and out of the showers. Suitcases zipped. Conversation murmured. Nobody was having fun.
That’s because the Yankees had lost again. Their 12-2 defeat at the hands of the New York Mets at Citi Field on Wednesday — complete with an 87-minute rain delay — meant so many things, and none of them great.
To wit:
• The Yankees have dropped nine of their last 12 games, including three straight.
• They lost their fourth straight series.
• They wasted Aaron Judge’s league-leading 30th home run. Judge’s blast was the 287th of his career, tying Yankees legend Bernie Williams for seventh in franchise history.
• They benched Gleyber Torres, only to lose.
• They saw star rookie starting pitcher Luis Gil stumble for the second straight start as concerns over his workload mount.
“It sucks,” manager Aaron Boone said. “You don’t like getting your teeth kicked in.”
“You’ve got to talk about things when they’re good,” Judge said. “You’ve got to talk about things when they’re bad. That’s how it goes.”
— Talkin’ Yanks (@TalkinYanks) June 27, 2024
The Yankees started a blistering 45-19 and had a 4 1/2-game lead in the American League East on June 6. That cushion dropped to one game Wednesday night with the second-place Baltimore Orioles winning over the Cleveland Guardians.
Gil gave up five runs in 4 1/3 innings. His command wasn’t sharp once again as he surrendered a third-inning, two-run shot to Francisco Alvarez, two doubles to leadoff man Francisco Lindor and walked four batters. It was the 25-year-old’s follow-up to a 1 1/3-inning, seven-run albatross against the Orioles on June 20. Gil’s ERA has jumped from 2.03 just two starts ago to 3.15.
He pitched just four innings last season, all of them in the minor leagues, as he recovered from a 2022 Tommy John surgery. He’s already thrown 85 2/3 innings this season. He said his arm isn’t tired.
“No,” he said via an interpreter. “Not at all. I feel very healthy, thank god, and like I mentioned before, I feel very strong.”
He agreed with Boone that his mechanics may have been the issue.
“Sometimes the rhythm and your mechanics might be a little off,” he said. “But there’s no doubt in my mind that working hard and having the repetition that you want, that I can get back on track.”
It didn’t help Gil that for the second straight night, the Yankees loaded the bases in the first inning and couldn’t drive in a run. They had just six hits and went hitless in seven at-bats with runners in scoring position, leaving nine runners on base. They hit into three double plays.
Judge said that getting swept in the Subway Series didn’t make matters feel worse for the Yankees, who are slated to start a four-game set with the Toronto Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre on Thursday.
“Not really,” he said. “It’s two games. You ask me that in April, you ask me that in September, it’s still the same thing. You never want to lose two games back-to-back like that, especially against a team here in New York. But we’ve got to show up tomorrow. That’s the biggest thing in this game. We’ve got an opportunity to rewrite the script the next day.”
Boone said the Yankees figured a swoon might happen after their hot start.
“Adversity is going to hit you,” he said. “We’ve got hit with it a little bit now. We have all the right pieces in there. Had a light shined on some things and we need to get better at some things and we need to get it going. But full confidence that we will. We’re just in a little bit of a rough patch right now and we’ll have an opportunity to turn it around tomorrow.”
Judge remained optimistic.
“As long as the guys in this room mentally stay locked in and focused on what we’ve got to do, it’s all going to work out,” he said.
(Photo of Aaron Judge reacting after hitting his league-leading 30th home run: Wendell Cruz / USA Today)
