The New York Yankees lost their second straight game to the Washington Nationals on Wednesday, clinching another series loss to a losing team. The 5-2 defeat shrank their lead over the Baltimore Orioles atop the AL East to a half-game ahead of the Orioles' contest with the Los Angeles Dodgers Wednesday night.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone sounded off on the missed opportunity in the nation's capital, via YES Network.
“It's baseball. You know, Jazz [Chisholm Jr.] hit the homer, but otherwise, they kept us in the yard, just gotta try to keep creating as many opportunities as possible,” Boone admitted. “But you know, obviously we didn't do enough the last couple of nights with pushing runs across, and we lost the series. Tough one, we gotta regroup on the off day and get ready to start a little quick three-day-er. But just one of those ones where we weren't able to finish off some rallies.”
Scoring four runs over the last two games of a series against a non-contending team isn't a good look for a club with championship aspirations. The Yankees, who have played down to the level of their competition all year, have plenty to clean up as the stretch run approaches.
What went wrong for New York on Wednesday?
The Yankees' offense relies too much on their stars
Other than the newly acquired Chisholm, New York's lineup isn't consistent enough outside of Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, and Giancarlo Stanton. As a result, Boone constantly tinkers with it in high-leverage situations, such as when he subbed out the struggling DJ LeMahieu for Oswaldo Cabrera in the top of the ninth inning on Wednesday.
“Yeah, just felt like that was the right thing to do there,” Boone said. “Just trying to keep the ball off the ground a little bit too.”
LeMahieu, who's currently hitting .202, has a 53.7 ground ball percentage this season, via Baseball Savant. The MLB average since 2015 is 44.5%.
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Cabrera, who is hitting. 248 with eight homers and 35 RBI, has had more pop this year. The 25-year-old showed it off again in his pinch-hit at-bat, smacking a line drive that unluckily landed in Washington center fielder Jacob Young's glove.
Nationals southpaw Mackenzie Gore, who sports a 4.45 ERA and 1.55 WHIP, held the Yankees to two runs in six innings.
“He's got a good arm, big arm,” Boone admitted. “We know what he's capable of. Again, they got him deep into the game. He did a good job for 'em…he was able to get them out of some situations.”
It's one thing for the offense to get tamed by average pitchers in August, but if this continues much longer, New York is in for a rude awakening.
