Let’s just say this isn’t the stretch of baseball you want if you’re a Yankees fan—or a Yankees player—unless your summer hobby is testing the limits of Bronx crowd patience.
Seven losses in the last nine games, a sputtering offense, and a defensive meltdown on Sunday that had even the most loyal pinstripe faithful groaning louder than the subway brakes under Grand Central.
Sunday’s 7-1 loss to the Houston Astros will be remembered for one play in particular: Cody Bellinger’s ninth-inning misfire. Astros batter Ramón Urías dropped a little blooper into no-man’s land in left field.
Three Yankees converged, but Bellinger ended up with it on a hop. The plan? Gun down José Altuve at the plate. The reality? The ball slipped from Bellinger’s hand, tumbled behind him, and rolled away like it was trying to escape the stadium entirely. The gaffe turned a 5-1 deficit into a 6-1 gap, and Mauricio Dubón’s infield single piled on one more for good measure.
Yankees Twitter (or X, if we’re being formal) pounced on the blunder like a cat finding an unattended bowl of milk. And while Bellinger’s been solid at times this season—20 home runs, .272 average, and a .810 OPS—his recent skid at the plate (2-for-17 over the last five games) hasn’t helped his case.
It’s not just Bellinger, though. The whole lineup is slumping. On Sunday, New York managed just three hits all game.
The loss dropped them to 62-56, a full 6.5 games behind the division-leading Blue Jays and 2.5 games out of the second Wild Card spot. Meanwhile, the defense has sprung leaks all over the field, committing six errors in nine games.
Even manager Aaron Boone hit a boiling point, getting tossed for arguing balls and strikes. And you know it’s bad when the skipper’s frustration rivals the crowd’s.
Right now, the Yankees look less like October contenders and more like a team desperately hoping to stop the bleeding before the season slips completely away.
And unless they find their swing and shore up the leather, this Bronx summer could turn from hot to downright blistering in a hurry.
