CHICAGO — Aaron Boone has spent weeks answering the same question in calm, measured tones. On Thursday, the Yankees manager was done being calm.
His pitchers had just turned in another strong afternoon. His hitters had wasted it. And when the questions turned, again, to whether help was coming before the trade deadline, the Yankees manager’s frustration boiled over in the visiting clubhouse.
The message was blunt and aimed inward. Not at the front office. Not at the market. At the players already wearing the uniform, the ones he believes should be doing more.
For a team scuffling without much of its lineup, it was a rare public flash of anger from a manager who usually shields his roster. The Yankees had just lost in a way that has become maddeningly routine.
A 7-word message after another wasted gem
The trigger was a 2-1 loss to the White Sox in 11 innings at Rate Field. It was the second straight extra-inning defeat and it split a four-game series the Yankees had opened by winning the first two.
Asked about the offense afterward, Boone did not soften it. He cut to the heart of the problem in a single, pointed line.
“Look, we got to score a freaking point,” Boone said. “We got to score. I mean, that’s the story, the beginning and end of it. We got to find a way.”
The numbers behind the outburst were ugly. The Yankees went 1-for-15 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 baserunners. The game was scoreless entering the 10th before both teams traded runs, and Chicago ended it on a walk-off walk.
The loss also carried an unwanted milestone. It dropped the Yankees to 1-8 in extra-inning games this season, the worst mark in the majors. They also hold a big league-high six extra-inning walk-off losses, with no other club above four.
Boone rejects the trade deadline as an excuse
The deeper story was what Boone refused to accept. Reporters kept circling back to the lineup’s need for outside help with Monday’s deadline looming. He bristled at the premise.
“What’s going to happen Monday will happen or not happen,” Boone said. “We have to score better. We have to do a better job offensively, period, and not looking over our shoulders for anyone. We have to find a way.”
He went further, putting the responsibility on the group in the room rather than on any player who might arrive by trade. It was a pointed vote of confidence and a challenge at the same time.
“We can’t expect or rely on anyone walking in to help us,” Boone said. “We got to find it in there. We have more than enough capable guys in there, we just got to be better across the board.”
His hitters echoed the accountability. Paul Goldschmidt, who went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts, three of them with runners in scoring position, did not hide from his own night.
“We just got to have good at-bats and hit the ball hard. It’s not rocket science; we just haven’t done a good enough job,” Goldschmidt said. “We can’t feel sorry for ourselves.”
The pitching keeps paying for the silence at the plate
Boone’s anger came with context. His starters keep delivering. Ryan Weathers threw seven scoreless innings on 106 pitches, allowing three hits and three walks with four strikeouts, and lowered his ERA to 3.99. His counterpart, Sean Burke, struck out 10 over six scoreless.
The bats gave that effort almost nothing. The Yankees managed just six hits. Trent Grisham’s RBI single in the 10th briefly put them ahead 1-0, but Angel Chivilli could not hold it, surrendering a game-tying single to Andrew Benintendi, a familiar name from Yankees deadlines past.
Self-inflicted mistakes made it worse. Jasson Dominguez doubled to lead off the sixth but overslid third and was tagged out on what should have been a triple. Jazz Chisholm Jr. was later erased on the bases and then left the game in the 11th with right hamstring cramps.
The offensive drought is not new. The Yankees have averaged just 3.4 runs per game since the All-Star break, though strong starting pitching has kept them at 7-6 in that stretch. Over the two losses in Chicago, they went a combined 4-for-31 with runners in scoring position and left 21 men on base.
The strain has reached the bullpen. For a second straight day, Boone kept closer David Bednar out of the game to protect an arm that had worked four of the previous six days. He defended the call as necessary for the Yankees over the long haul.
“We got to protect some guys along the way as we go through this, because we’re not going anywhere without some certain guys,” Boone said. “We got to make sure we do that. In a long season, it’s going to take everyone.”
The Yankees now open a three-game road series against the Cubs on Friday, chasing the Rays in the AL East with the deadline days away. Judge, Stanton and Bellinger may not return until September. Until they do, Boone’s message is clear. The offense he already has must be the answer.
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
