When you go from having the best record in baseball immediately into a tailspin by losing 15 of 20 games, there figure to be plenty of factors.
And the Yankees have had plenty since their reversal began in mid-June.
But nothing has been more stark than the disaster the starting rotation has turned into, going from the best in the majors to the worst, seemingly overnight.
Through 72 games this season, the Yankees’ rotation had the best ERA in the sport (2.77).
They had given up just 1.01 homers per nine innings, 10th-best in the league.
And they had the ninth-best WAR, according to Fangraphs at 6.4.
Since then, the rotation hasn’t simply been bad, it’s been by far the worst in the majors.
Over their last 20 games, they rank dead-last in ERA at 6.96 and have allowed 2.23 home runs per nine innings — the highest rate in MLB.
And while starters went a combined 35-13 in those first 72 games, they’ve been 3-13 since.
They’ve been without Clarke Schmidt since May 27 with a right lat strain, but that was supposed to be offset by the return of Gerrit Cole from the elbow injury that sidelined him during the spring.
Cole’s presence was expected to make what had been an elite rotation even better.
Instead, nearly the entire rotation has fallen apart.
Cole — as well as Tuesday’s starter in Tampa Bay, Carlos Rodon, and Wednesday’s starter, Marcus Stroman — have all underperformed over their last four starts, while Nestor Cortes has pitched to a 2.70 ERA over his past four starts and Luis Gil bounced back well Sunday following three straight implosions.
“Guys are gonna go through things,’’ pitching coach Matt Blake said during the just-completed homestand. “You just hope four of them don’t go through it at the same time and we’ve had some of that lately.”
Aaron Boone said following Sunday’s defeat that perhaps the rotation could build off Gil’s bounce-back start.
And Rodon was better — even if he wasn’t very good — in his most recent outing.
Until the group gets going again, the spotlight will remain on the Yankees — and their starting pitching.
It’s left the team staggering into its final road trip before the All-Star break with a series at Tampa Bay beginning Tuesday followed by one against first-place Baltimore at Camden Yards on Friday.
The Yankees have won four of six games against the Rays this season, but are just 2-5 versus Baltimore and lost three of four at Camden Yards earlier in the year.
“We can’t treat these series any differently than if we were playing well,” Cole said when asked about finishing the first half against Tampa Bay and Baltimore. “We’re aware of what’s going on. We know we’re not playing well, but that’s the tough part of the game. You have to approach every game like it’s a fresh day and not get too up or down. It’s challenging, but that’s what you have to do. It’s one of the hardest things to do in sports.”
And to be fair to the pitching, the offense hasn’t fared much better than the rotation lately.
Their team OPS stood at .772 through June 14, trailing only the Dodgers.
It’s just .700 since then, 21st in the majors.
Not only has the lack of length to the lineup been exposed with slumps by Anthony Volpe and Alex Verdugo, it’s been combined with the absence of the injured Giancarlo Stanton.
And even Aaron Judge and Juan Soto have shown they’re mortals at times.
Judge’s current 2-for-20 slide is nothing to be alarmed about, nor is the fact that Soto is 11-for-56 with four extra-base hits in his last 17 games, but no one outside of Ben Rice has been able to pick up the slack and it’s not realistic to think he can produce at a high rate as the league adjusts to him.
Boone said Sunday that Stanton was progressing in his comeback from his hamstring injury, and noted Austin Wells has shown promise at the plate recently, but DJ LeMahieu and Gleyber Torres haven’t found any consistency.
Just about the entire roster has slipped since mid-June, when the Yankees were on top of the world — and the American League.
It was just two years ago when the Yankees went from 61-23 and a whopping 15 ½ games ahead in the AL East on July 8 — two years ago Monday — to a .500 team the rest of the way and for most of 2023.
And no one could have predicted the sinkhole the Yankees have fallen into over the last three-plus weeks.
If they want to avoid the questions that plagued them in the latter parts of the last two seasons, they’d do well to stop the bleeding quickly.
“Hopefully we head into the All-Star Game on a good note,’’ Boone said Sunday.
If they don’t, expect a wild last two weeks before the trade deadline.
While bullpen help will almost certainly be on the way this month via the trade market, with more than half the teams in the majors still in the wild-card race, there will be more competition than ever among buyers before the end of July.
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