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The New York Yankees have been sinking badly in the American League East for more than six weeks. At one point during the season, they had a significant lead in the division, and it seemed that teams like the Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox could only hope for a Wild Card spot.
However, the Yankees have fallen badly since the end of June and the Blue Jays have been in first place for several weeks and the Red Sox have passed them and moved into second place in the division. Manager Aaron Boone does not appear to have any answers as the team has made multiple mistakes in many of their losses. The Yankees lost all three games over the weekend to the Miami Marlins, and their brutal play in the Friday and Saturday losses was picked apart by former Yankee superstars Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez.
The Yankees had a 6-0 lead in the first game of the series before they fell 13-12 after the Marlins' 3-run rally in the bottom of the ninth inning. Newcomer Jose Caballero made a critical error that allowed the Marlins to tie the score and reliever Camilo Doval gave up the game-winning hit shortly thereafter.
A day later, Jazz Chisholm Jr. was doubled off first base following a pop up to second base. It was the kind of mistake that would not be tolerated at any level of organized baseball.
Jeter and Rodriguez blast Yankees
Jeter appeared embarrassed by his former team's poor play as he appeared on the Fox pregame show Saturday night.
“They make way too many mistakes,” Jeter said, per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. “And you can’t get away with making that number of mistakes against great teams. It just doesn’t happen. They had baserunning mistakes today – you saw [Trent Grisham] getting thrown out at home plate. You can’t continue to do it. You have to clean it up.”
Rodriguez believes that players need to pay a price for their frequent mistakes. “If any one of us made a mistake, we would be sitting our butt right on the bench,” Rodriguez said. “I see mistake after mistake, and there’s no consequences.”
Boone knows that criticism from his former stars is not surprising, but he said that players are being held accountable.
“I would disagree a little bit with the accountability factor, but the reality is, we’re focused every day on being the best we can be,” Boone said. “That’s how we have to do it. But I understand when it doesn’t happen, or we don’t have the record that I think we should have, or certainly people think we should have – that comes with the territory.”
