Honeymoon over for Bombers’ 1st-year skipper
CHICAGO — This is a test. Whether Aaron Boone wants it to be or not. Will he cruise through it much as he did to get here in the first place? The Yankees ended their five-game losing streak Monday night by disposing of the terrible White Sox, 7-0, in the friendly confines of Guaranteed Rate Field (worst ballpark name ever). Lance Lynn excelled in his first start as a Yankee, tossing 7 ¹/3 shutout innings, and Gleyber Torres and Neil Walker each homered and drove home two runs. Hence they began the process of moving past the weekend’s devastating four-game sweep at the hands of the Red Sox at Fenway Park, launching an exceedingly cozy 26-game stretch in which they will take on the .500 Rays for three contests and seven teams well under .500 in the other 23. What they can’t bring back, though, is Boone’s honeymoon period. That’s over now, courtesy of the same franchise that he walloped with a big home run back in October 2003. His most significant challenge has arrived. “I don’t necessarily look at it that way from my standpoint,” Boone said before the game. “I’m uberfocused on this series, the White Sox, making sure our guys are in the right frame of mind. Trying each day to put our guys in the best position and places to go out there and have success. “So I don’t really even consider or evaluate whether it’s a test or not for me. This is about our guys and getting them in a good spot.” That’s all well and good, yet players look up to their manager at junctures like these, and ownership and the front office look down at the same area. Joe Girardi no longer manages these Yankees largely because the team’s decision-makers tired at his lack of grace under pressure.
Which brings us to the irony of Boone’s relentless positivity, a stark contrast to the Girardi grimace, which has appeared to generate more fan grief than any specific in-game tactics — although some of those set off alarms, too. The Yankees are 19-20 in their last 39 games, and they stand considerably closer to missing the playoffs (five games up on first team out Seattle) than winning the American League East (nine games behind the Red Sox).
“We know we’re really good, and the guys, I think, don’t have any doubt in there,” Boone said. “I think, to a man, we understand what we’re capable of.”
“You don’t want to drag negative stuff to the next day,” said Didi Gregorius, who contributed a double, single and walk on Monday night. “That’s what it is. Just focus on what you can control. “
Perhaps in time, Boone will learn how to sprinkle some reality into his positivity; his ’ 03 manager Joe Torre mastered that balance. Or maybe that won’t matter if enough players get it. Lynn, asked if he felt pressure to lift the Yankees out of their funk, acknowledged, “I would say no, but when you’re playing for the Yankees, it’s a little different. I came into this start knowing that I needed to do my job and I needed to do it at a high level.”
He did so, to reiterate, against one of the industry’s worst teams, and for these four weeks, it might be difficult to gauge the Yankees’ October readiness. They could sleepwalk their way to, say, an 18-8 showing in this stretch, steadying the foundation for a more competitive September when they’ll aim to wrap up home-field advantage for the AL wild-card game on Oct. 3.
Such a record would constitute a passed test for Boone, who loathes narratives like this. Such an aversion helped him land this plum job despite never managing, or even working in a baseball operations department, at any level.
“Look, it was a tough day coming in here just with the travel, I think,” Boone said, referring to the team’s 5 a.m. Monday arrival at its hotel here. “For the guys to come out and play well, I thought our energy was good, and we’ve got to keep it going tomorrow.”
For the next section of this test.