A new level of unsatisfactory play this campaign was reached by the reeling Yankees, when 10 different Toronto Blue Jays scored against them in one inning.
If the lineup's recent work was “not acceptable,’’ as Yankees veteran Brett Gardner deemed it Sunday, then the bullpen's Monday meltdown was next-level stuff.
"It’s just something where we’ve got to put a complete game together,’’ Chad Green stated after Toronto's 12-7 triumph. “That’s the most frustrating part about tonight.''
Inheriting a four-run lead, Green stumbled and Adam Ottavino made a spectacular mess of the sixth inning at Sahlen Field, a minor league park that was the setting for one of the more unsightly Yankee losses in recent memory.
“I definitely feel like as a team we’ve been pressing,’’ Yankees center fielder Aaron Hicks said before the series opener at Toronto’s temporary new home.
“We just want that one blowout game where it’s absolute.’’
This time, a struggling lineup carved out a 6-2 lead, getting it to the point where “we expect to win those games,'' Green said. "And in the past we have won those games.''
But nothing has gone correct lately for a Yankees
The club that has dropped four consecutive games, seven of their last nine and 14 of their last 19, a brutal stretch that leads to an almost unfathomable question.
Can the preseason favorites to win the AL pennant hang on to make the expanded postseason tournament?
For a second consecutive day, the struggling Gary Sanchez was benched from the starting lineup and Boone was not sure if he would sit the catcher again on Tuesday.
“I’ll talk through it with the coaches and see how we want to move forward,’’ said Boone, who particularly wanted a progress report from hitting coach Marcus Thames.
