Boone has ‘total confidence,’ but when will Yankees’ slide end?

The Yankees simply completed a 10-18 August, and regardless of final week’s five-game win streak, the struggles do not seem near ending. New York has misplaced 4 of its final 5 video games towards the underside two groups within the AL West, and the results are beginning to develop into all too actual.

With 31 video games remaining, the Yankees’ AL East lead over the Rays is down to 6 video games — the smallest lead since June 3. In what could possibly be a blessing or a curse, six of their subsequent 10 video games come towards Tampa. This weekend’s sequence towards the Rays might both enable the Yankees to pad their lead and exhale or generate much more strain on a crew limping to the end line.

In both situation, this is not the place the Yankees anticipated to be once they entered the All-Star break 64-28. On Aug. 1, the Yankees grew to become the primary crew to hit 70 wins this season. A full month later, they nonetheless have not eclipsed 80. The Dodgers, in the meantime, are sitting on 90 wins with greater than a month remaining. 

Together with the Dodgers, the Astros, Mets and Braves have surpassed the Yankees in wins — an unthinkable situation for a crew that was on a record-setting tempo earlier in the summertime. 

Whereas the Yankees can simply salvage the season and head into the postseason with a first-round bye, gaining home-field benefit past the ALDS is turning into unlikely. New York trails the Astros by 5 video games for the AL’s prime document. If that holds, the Yankees must begin (and sure end) the ALCS in Houston. That was an issue in each 2017 and 2019. This season, it seemed like an avoidable one. 

The Yankees led the AL East by a season-best 15.5 video games on July 8. With 9.5 video games already shaved off, a historic collapse is no less than inside the realm of chance. 

Yankees supervisor Aaron Boone instructed reporters after Wednesday’s loss that he has “total confidence” New York can get again to the place it was earlier within the season, explaining that “getting a couple of guys going” could possibly be sufficient to show shut losses into wins. This is not only a transient bump within the highway, although — the Yankees are 18-29 since July 9.