Yankees’ Concerning Postgame Comments Expose Bigger Problem After Game 2 Collapse

TAMPA — The Yankees find themselves in the same spot they were in last season. They emerged victorious over the Red Sox, went on the road to another AL East rival that had their number through the season, and fell down 0-2 in the best of five Division Series.

Game 2 saw a full collapse with the wheels for the Yankees coming off early. The Yankees committed four errors (really should be six), with three coming in the first inning. They allowed five runs with three of them unearned. They scored two runs total. Take away the free runs, their ace Cam Schlittler could have gone deeper in the outing. The errors changed the entire outcome for the Yankees, and their entire season in turn.

"Obviously, a really rough night to say the least for us." Yankees manager Aaron Boone said postgame. "We've got to get over it. We've responded all year to difficult times, and we've got to do that again. We've got to get ourselves up off the mat.

:Obviously, tonight was just not good enough for us and certainly not good enough to beat that club. We've got to get over it, and playing for our lives Tuesday night."

The last team to overcome a 2-0 Division Series deficit was the 2017 Yankees. A lot of parallels of that team can be drawn to this one with the amount of young blood on the roster. That team as well threw away a chance to tie the series before coming back to Yankee Stadium, though not with a comedy of errors. Can the Yankees follow the same path as that '17 team to come back and win the series? Sure. But the Yankees need to be better and need to have confidence they can do that.

"It obviously sucks and it's not the position we want to be in, we made it harder on ourselves." Yankees rookie shortstop George Lombard Jr. said postgame. "It's baseball, we know anything can happen. We're going to prepare for Game 3 and still have confidence in this team."

Lombard Jr. committed an error in the fifth inning that extended the inning which saw the decisive blow, a two-run single off the bat of second baseman Richie Palacios.

However, the Yankees are going to need to learn from their mistakes if they want to advance. It does not seem as if they fully are. Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. committed a first inning error on an ill-advised throw. Chisholm Jr. does not believe the throw was ill-advised, however.

"I'd probably still throw it, honestly." He said. "The play that was trying to be made. I feel like I could've made an even better throw"

This is similar to Austin Wells excusing his base running error on Saturday night, with him saying "You have to take risks. In that situation, obviously the risk was wrong. I took the risk, didn't work out."

These quotes are concerning because they suggest a level of comfortably when the team is in an uncomfortable position. One error or flaw and their season is over, plain and simple. With multiple players that are this comfortable, that is an indictment on the culture built within the Yankees clubhouse, and could be seen as an indictment on Boone, since this seems to happen year in, year out, without fail.

I mentioned that 2017 ALDS, that was the last time the Yankees won a postseason series that they did not hold home field advantage. They have yet to do it under Boone.

The Fat Lady has not sung yet because the series is over. She's getting her pipes warm as the Yankees hold a workout day at Yankee Stadium before they fight for their lives over the next few games.