Yanks must quickly fix '0' woes
REALITY is hitting the Yankees hard. Especially when they load the bases. The Red Sox are 10 games better than the Yankees and it’s not just the starting pitching woes the Yankees face. The Red Sox deserve to be where they are, all alone in first place in the AL East and the Yankees deserve to be where they are, well behind the Red Sox.
The Yankees need to focus on getting things as right as they can get them for the wild-card showdown that is coming. If they survive that game, they need to hope they have enough pitching and offense to make a strong playoff run. Wednesday night’s horrible 6-1 loss to the tiny-market Rays at Yankee Stadium brought some truths home for the Yankees about their hitting. There is a lot of work ahead especially when you consider the Yankees came into the night 13th in the AL in batting average (.223) with the bases loaded, which again haunted them in the fourth inning. “That is something we definitely have to improve on,’’ Brett Gardner told The Post. “There are a lot of aspects of our game that we need to get better at if we want to play deep into the postseason.’’ Indeed. Sure, Luis Cessa was dreadful again. Cessa lasted 3 ¹/3 innings, allowing seven hits and five runs as his ERA jumped to 5.60, but again this isn’t just about the pitching. With Aaron Judge out of the lineup with his wrist fracture the offensive woes are coming to the forefront. That is another area where the Red Sox have the Yankees beat. Trailing 5-1 in the fourth, the Rays tried to get the Yankees right back into this game as starting pitcher Jake Faria walked two of the first three batters. He was replaced. Chaz Roe immediately hit Neil Walker to load the bases. The Yankees were on the verge of getting back into the game but Austin Romine struck out look- ing for the second out and Ronald Torreyes squibbed to third for the final out of the inning.
Two walks and a hit batter and the Yankees got zilch.
If you are watching closely you should not be surprised. Again. The Yankees came into the night with that 13th worst bases-loaded batting average in the AL. Yankees hitters will have to carry more of the load. The team with the best batting average in the AL with the bases loaded is the Indians at .344, the Red Sox are right behind at .342 and then the Astros at .316.
The Red Sox are 119 points better than the Yankees with the bases loaded. The Mariners are one point behind the Yankees and then it’s the Royals — the only teams worse than the Yankees’ average with the bases loaded.
When your record is 75-45 some of this gets lost, but that is one telling statistic.
Aaron Boone knows the Yankees let a golden opportunity slip away.
“We just couldn’t get that hit tonight to push us over,’’ Boone said. “We created some traffic. One big hit in that inning, maybe things are a little bit different.’’
With runners in scoring position the Red Sox lead the AL with a .285 mark, the Yankees are eighth at .252.
So all this is justified. Individually, the Yankees do not have a .300 hitter. Mookie Betts leads the AL with a .352 mark. J.D. Martinez is not far behind at .333.
With Judge slowly recovering from his fractured wrist the Yankees offensive woes are plain to see. The biggest slump for the Yankees belongs to Greg Bird, who is hitting .215.
The schedule, though, will be kind the rest of the month.
The Yankees are in the Whack-A-Mole portion of their schedule, playing one bad team after another. At 61-59 the Rays are the best of the bunch that has included the White Sox, Rangers, then the Blue Jays, Marlins, Orioles, White Sox again and Tigers.
Tomato cans masquerading as major league teams all.
The Yankees simply must do a better job hitting with the bases loaded and with runners in scoring position.
There is no hiding that fact now.