It seems foolish to question the legitimacy of a first-place team, even one that loses six games in a row to two teams struggling to win more often than they lose.
But now, the Yankees have lost seven in a row. And for the first time in a month, they are no longer a first-place team.
Let the questions begin.
“I think you find out a lot about the makeup of your club when you go through tough times,” Manager Joe Girardi said after the Yankees lost, 8-3, to the Los Angeles Angels at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night. “I think you find out a lot more about your club now than when you’re going through great times.”
The possibility that the Yankees have already had their great times this season cannot be discounted, not just off this most recent loss, or the six they had d on their just-concluded trip. During that stretch, they lost two of three to the Angels, who reached .500 with their victory on Tuesday night, and then were swept in a four-game series by the last-place Oakland Athletics.
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In reality, this recent run of futility — which came after a six-game home winning streak — is not an isolated bump in the road. The Yankees’ struggles actually extend back about six weeks: They were 21-9 on May 8 and have gone 17-20 since.
And with the Boston Red Sox beating Kansas City on the road, the Yankees have fallen out of first place in the American League East for the first time since May 20.
“What it means is now we’ve got to catch them,” Girardi said. “There’s a long way to go, I understand that, but we need to play better.”
After their West Coast debacle, it was only natural for the Yankees to think that a return to Yankee Stadium, where they were 22-9 entering Tuesday night, would right their listing ship.
But despite a mini-Home Run Derby staged by Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez, the two brightest hopes for the Yankees’ future, this was a game that looked a lot like those played by Yankees teams of the recent past. Starter Michael Pineda faltered early, first baseman Chris Carter made a costly error, and Tyler Clippard, who was reasonably reliable as a setup man last season, continued to be a liability this year.
“Clip had another tough night,” Girardi said. “They seemed to be on everything.”
Girardi also left open the possibility that Clippard’s job as the seventh-inning specialist — the first link in a chain that, in a perfect world, leads to Dellin Betances and then Aroldis Chapman — may be up for grabs. It might mean two-inning duty for Betances until Adam Warren, who is on the disabled list with a shoulder strain, is ready to return.
“I think you can do that for a short period of time, but I think it starts to wear on guys physically, so I prefer not to do that,” Girardi said. “But we might have to look at some different things as we move forward.”
Clippard, who allowed a home run to Cameron Maybin, the first batter he faced upon entering the game in the seventh, and very nearly allowed homers to each of his next three hitters, was the most obvious culprit on Tuesday night. But he was hardly alone.
Clippard might never have been in the game had Pineda not thrown 49 pitches in the first two innings, an early workload that limited his night to five and two thirds innings, or if Carter had not allowed a second-inning grounder from Eric Young Jr. to skip by him for a two-base error that led to two unearned runs. And Pineda might not have left while trailing by a run had the Yankees’ offense not repeatedly failed to capitalize on the free base runners being given out by Angels starter Parker Bridwell.
After Judge — who earlier in the day had been invited by Major League Baseball to participate in its annual Home Run Derby on All-Star weekend — cut the Angels’ lead to 3-2 with his league-leading 24th homer, and Sanchez had tied it an inning later with his 12th, Girardi turned to the increasingly shaky Clippard to replace Chasen Shreve, who had closed out the sixth after Pineda left, having thrown 105 pitches.
Clippard allowed the home run to Maybin — the third home run he has allowed in his past five and a third innings — and was lucky that it was the only one. Kole Calhoun doubled into the gap in right-center field on a drive that bounced on the warning track. Albert Pujols flew out to the center-field fence. And Yunel Escobar tripled off Brett Gardner’s glove at the top of the fence in left-center field.
That gave the Angels a 5-3 lead, and when Jonathan Holder came on and promptly allowed a run-scoring single to Luis Valbuena, it was 6-3. The Angels added another run in the eighth and a solo home run by Valbuena in the top of the ninth, both against Holder.
“Whether the fans are booing or cheering doesn’t really matter,” said Clippard, who left the game to a shower of jeers. “It’s just frustrating and not fun. I’m sure it’s not fun for the fans, either. We’re in a little bit of a rut right now and we’ve got to get out of it.”
These recent performances raise troubling questions about which version of the Yankees seen thus far is the real one.
“I don’t think our first 60 games were an accident,” Girardi said. “We played pretty well during those games. Every team goes through their down periods, and it can be for a lot of different reasons. But I like that club in there. I’ve liked it from the beginning, and I still do.”