Armed with the gigantic task of holding the fort while Aaron Judge recovers from an elbow injury, the New York Yankees made a mess of themselves in a big way this past weekend in a three-game series against the Miami Marlins. On Sunday, the Yankees were thoroughly outplayed by the Marlins on all sides of the ball, suffering a 7-3 defeat and a series sweep at the hands of the Marlins.
Now, it's not like the Marlins have a bad baseball team. They are hovering around .500 on the season, so it's not like the Yankees were that heavily favored heading into the series especially amid Judge's injury.
However, this is a continuation of the Yankees' poor play as of late, and they have now fallen to third place in the AL East standings. For first baseman Ben Rice, the team has to wake up from this rut they're in lest bigger consequences happen later in the season.
“I wouldn't say there's concern, but I would say, I think a little sense of urgency would be good for us going forward. Just to continue do what we can to win ballgames. And that's gonna be do all the little things. It's gonna be, hopefully, we sync up pitching and hitting. That's it,” Rice told reporters after the Yankees' loss, via YES Network.
“No, I wouldn't say that [we lack a sense of urgency]. But I would say, as we continue to move deeper into the season here, in this playoff race, we're gonna have to pick it up eventually.”
Poor pitching was what undid the Yankees most often during the month of July, and in August thus far, they haven't put it together on either side of the ball at the same time.
Yankees are running hot and cold on both ends of the ball
As Rice said, the Yankees are going to have to sync their hitting and pitching to avoid suffering the same fate they did in that three-game series against the Marlins.
That Saturday loss to the Marlins might be the Yankees' most frustrating of the year, mustering just two hits and no runs — an uncharacteristic showing for the team that's tied for the lead in total runs scored in all of MLB.
They have no choice but to soldier on, heading into a three-game set against the Texas Rangers next before yet another crucial series, this time against a division leader in the Houston Astros.
