Former Boston Red Sox superstar pitcher Pedro Martinez used to get tormented by the New York Yankees. Now, it's the boys in pinstripes getting tormented by their underperforming season, as they have not had a record of .500 or worse this late in a season since before Martinez even won a Cy Young Award.

The Yankees and their fans long for the late 1990s and early 2000s, when superstars were surrounded by other stars and few other teams could hold a candle to them and Martinez called the Yankees his daddies. These days, the Yankees are more like stink bombers. A nagging toe injury to Aaron Judge has left them without their best player for a massive chunk of the season. The remainder of the roster has been weak.

After the Yankees lost 5-0 to the Atlanta Braves, baseball’s new superpower, Martinez provided an analogy to explain how feeble and non-intimidating they are.

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“It's just unbelievable. It's hard to watch the Yankees go that way. I remember watching the Yankees early in the season, and when they were going well, they looked, like, so confident,” Martinez said. “It was like watching a bulldog beat up on a chihuahua when they were playing those teams. And now, they look like the chihuahuas to any other team, especially a good team like the Atlanta Braves. It looks like no match.”

While Martinez didn’t really look to twist the knife of his old rival, his words ring true. The Yankees have only two players aside from Judge that have over 200 plate appearances with an OPS+ over 100, Gleyber Torres and Jake Bauers. Gerrit Cole has been the only truly great starting pitcher and is leading the race for the American League Cy Young Award. Their bullpen has been one of the best in baseball but it hardly matters.

The Yankees just can’t get things right now. They infamously took Martinez's 2004 Red Sox squad that overcame an 0-3 deficit to reach the World Series as a source of inspiration last season. Perhaps the message would have resonated better if it weren’t the Yankees who choked that series away. At least, in that way, the team is implementing what they learned from the video as they burn their playoff hopes with every loss.