Yankees Stuck in the Middle as Season Slips: Judge Still Believes, But Clock Is Ticking
Before the Yankees left Atlanta on Sunday night, hoping their offense had finally sparked to life, captain Aaron Judge stood tall in the clubhouse and offered a rallying cry: “Good time to start getting hot.” But three days later, inside the visitor’s clubhouse in Toronto, those words hung awkwardly in the stale air after yet another collapse. What was hot now wasn’t their bats — it was the frustration boiling over in the fanbase after another defensive disaster sealed a brutal series loss to the surging Blue Jays.
Despite going just 14-21 over the past six weeks, Judge insists the Yankees’ best is still ahead.
“Oh, it’s coming,” he said with a grin. “We haven’t hit our hot streak yet, but we’re going to. When it does, watch out.”
Optimism is one thing. Results are another. And right now, the Yankees are doing what they’ve done all too often during this tailspin — stumbling over their own feet. On Wednesday night, a key moment came when Jazz Chisholm Jr. failed to handle a throw, allowing George Springer to steal second with ease. Another game, another avoidable mistake.
The Yankees’ only stretch of good baseball lately? A five-game winning streak before the All-Star break. But that came bookended by two six-game losing streaks, and since the break, they’ve been more inconsistent than ever.
“As frustrating as it is and as pissed off as you are when we don’t play our best against a team ahead of us, we also have to understand it’s a series and we got to keep moving,” manager Aaron Boone said postgame, shortly after being ejected for arguing balls and strikes.
Boone continues to preach patience. The team continues to preach belief. But the product on the field has echoed last year’s flaws — sloppy play, fundamental breakdowns, and missed opportunities. It’s eerily familiar for fans still haunted by last season’s October meltdown.
“When it’s not perfect and you’re not just pounding teams, you got to do little things right within games to give you a chance to win those close ones,” Boone added.
Just a few weeks ago, the Yankees were 17 games above .500. Now they’ve slipped four games behind the Blue Jays in the AL East and continue to struggle against divisional opponents, posting an 11-18 record in AL East matchups. Perhaps some reinforcements will arrive before the July 31 trade deadline, but even a blockbuster deal won’t solve their deeper issues.
“I think it’s about everybody collectively saying, ‘I got to step up, I got to focus a little bit more. Go out there and just do my job,’ ” Judge said. “That’s what it comes down to: Do your job.”
The Blue Jays, now 7-3 against the Yankees this season, have already locked up the tiebreaker between the two clubs — a key edge if the standings tighten further down the stretch. They won’t meet again until early September, and by then, the Yankees could be fighting just to stay afloat.
The division that once seemed in their grasp is slipping away fast.
Boone, for his part, isn’t backing down.
“I still bet on our guys,” he said. “I do think there’s a steadiness to the group and a quiet confidence because we’ve been just OK for over a month now.”
But “just OK” won’t be enough. Not in this division. Not with the expectations this franchise carries. The Yankees don’t just need belief — they need execution. The clock is ticking, and if they don’t clean up their act fast, belief might be all they have left.