Red Sox Thriving, Yankees Reeling

In a 162 game season it is difficult to say one game can epitomize the difference between two teams yet last night, while the Red Sox handled the Orioles 5-3, the Yankees made blunder after blunder and eventually fell to the Rays. In the middle of July this could easily seem trivial, but not only did the Red Sox move 6  games ahead of the Yankees, they did so on a night in which one of the Yankees stars proved unworthy of his pinstripes. Let’s summarize this real quick and then zoom out to show you what it means in the greater scope of things.

The Red Sox: On a night with rain delays and against a subpar competitor it would have been easy for the Sox to take their foot off the gas pedal, but instead the Sox got off to a 5-0 start and never relinquished their lead getting a strong outing from Rick Porcello and timely hitting.

The Yankees: With their Ace Luis Severino on the hill the Yankees came out of the gates sluggishly, allowing an early run and then a pair of 3 run innings in the middle of the game. The story of the night however was Gary Sanchez, who on the way to their 7-6 loss failed to chase a passed ball allowing a run to score from second and then in the 9th with the Yankees down 7-6 and two outs inexplicably failed to beat out a ground ball that would have scored the tying run.

For the Yankees there’s no other way to say it: This is a bad look…a real bad look.. When one of the faces of this new resurgent franchise shows a complete lack of effort in the middle of a heated division race it says a lot. Aaron Boone’s failure to reprimand him for his embarrassing behavior further exacerbates the problems going on in the Yankees camp right now as the division continues to slip out of their hands.

Meanwhile Alex Cora is holding his guys more accountable than ever on a game to game basis and establishing a culture that promotes winning and progress. One really telling difference between the Yankees and Red Sox performance has been the Red Sox ability to get up for any game while it seems like the Yankees seem to take nights off. The Yankees are 12-11 vs the Orioles and Rays while the Red Sox are 19-5-  a small sample that shows the difference between the Red Sox and the Yankees in the standings. At this point it certainly is not ludicrous to imagine the Yankees getting back into the race, but a culture shift in their clubhouse will be necessary in matching or even exceeding that permeating in Sox Nation right now.

Let’s see what shifts we see over the coming weeks.

Written by Paul McGovern