The New York Yankees lost their third series in a row as a result of Sunday's 3-1 loss to the Atlanta Braves, marking the team's first rough patch of the season, and Nestor Cortes, who pitched seven innings and gave up three runs, gave insight into what the team is feeling at this time.
“Nobody is hanging their heads; nobody is panicking in here,” Nestor Cortes said, via YES Network. “It's just a rough patch that in 162 games you're going to go through. We've just got to figure out how to get out of it.”
"Nobody's hanging their heads, nobody's panicking." - Nestor Cortes on the Yankees' recent struggles
Cortes pitched well against the Braves, but the Yankees' offense struggled, mustering just one run against Atlanta's staff, led by Max Fried, who pitched six innings. The day started with Giancarlo Stanton going on the IL with a hamstring injury in the middle of a resurgent season. The Yankees traded for JD Davis from the Oakland Athletics just before the game started as well.
This rough patch started with a series loss to the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park last weekend, then continued during the week as the Baltimore Orioles took two out of three in the Bronx. Then the Braves came in and did the same. The Yankees are fortunate that the Houston Astros swept the Orioles to help them gain a game in the American League East. New York is 1.5 games up on Baltimore after Sunday's games.
Aaron Boone on how the Yankees can bounce back
Yankees manager Aaron Boone seemed confident in his team after the loss, and went into how the team can come out of this rut.
“Not that it's ever easy, because it's certainly not, but sometimes a little reminder of getting your lunch handed to you or getting popped in the mouth helps you get over the long haul,” Aaron Boone said, via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. “You keep that edge, keep that sharpness. It allows you to dig in on how a team attacks you and button those things up.”
In the last week or so, a few aspects of the Yankees have been taken advantage off. The weak arms of Jose Trevino and Austin Wells have been taken advantage of going back to the Red Sox series. Boston stole nine bases against Jose Trevino on Sunday.
The weakness of the bullpen has been on display as well, and that was a known issue before this rut, as the Yankees reportedly will be in the market for arms at this year's trade deadline.
Lastly, teams are catching on to how the Yankees are sequencing their pitches. The Braves jumped on fastballs early in counts, especially against Carlos Rodon on Friday. It will be interesting to see if the Yankees' starting rotation varies its looks moving forward.
The Yankees will play two against the New York Mets starting on Tuesday before heading to Toronto to play the Blue Jays in a four-game set next weekend.
