TORONTO — The great Yogi Berra once said, “It’s like déjà vu all over again.”
Is there a quote that better encapsulates the current stale state of the Yankees’ offense?
It feels like the team, buoyed by strong starting pitching but hindered by their hitters, has been playing the same game nearly every day for months. Saturday’s 4-1 loss continued that trend, as the Bombers got 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball from Cam Schlittler but scored only once against a Toronto team that threw a bullpen game.
Never mind that Simeon Woods Richardson and the debuting Ricky Tiedemann — the Jays pitchers who threw the most on Saturday — were at Triple-A less than a week ago. The former entered the game with a 6.23 ERA in the majors this season, while the latter, working his way back from Tommy John surgery, had a 12.00 ERA at Triple-A.
But any live arm will do against the Yankees right now.
“Broken record. Obviously, we know we gotta be better,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “This is who we got. These are our guys, and I continue to believe, wholeheartedly, looking at these names, they’re all capable of doing really big things for us. But we gotta go do it. We can talk all about that, but we gotta go make it happen.”
While Schlittler had to grind, Saturday marked the Yankees’ third straight loss despite their starters allowing just one earned run in each contest. Per Stathead’s Katie Sharp, they have now lost 14 games in which their starters went at least five innings and allowed one earned run or fewer this season.
The tidbit is a testament to how brutal the Bombers’ bats have been alongside one of the best rotations in baseball.
“That’s why I have the utmost excitement and optimism about our team, is because we can really pitch and we can really prevent you from scoring,” Boone said, though his bullpen gave up three runs on Saturday. “And again, I believe in a lot of the names on this card. And hopefully, along the way here, we get some guys back in the mix that add to that and fortify that, so I feel like the end product has a chance to be excellent. But we’re not there yet, obviously.”
The offense’s anemia dates back to May 31, Aaron Judge’s last game before going on the injured list with a stress fracture in his first right rib. Entering Saturday, the Yankees’ offense, which acquired Luis García Jr. and the struggling Heliot Ramos before the trade deadline, ranked last in K% (26.1%), average (.219) and on-base percentage (.285) since June 2, their first game without Judge. With Cody Bellinger and Giancarlo Stanton sidelined as well, the team was also in the bottom-five in OPS (.671), wRC+ (87) and runs scored (241).
On Saturday, the Yankees totaled just four hits — including an RBI single from rookie shortstop George Lombard Jr. — two walks and nine strikeouts.
“You’re going to go through the ups and downs in a season,” the slumping Ben Rice said after going 0 for 4 with two strikeouts. “I’d say we definitely wouldn’t ever expect it to go so long, but with that being said, we gotta agree with Boonie. Like we’re gonna come out of it, and once we get rolling, we’ll hopefully start stringing more wins together.”
“I don’t know,” Austin Wells added when asked what to make of the lineup’s prolonged struggles. “I feel like if I had an answer to that question, we’d probably just score more runs.”
Boone, meanwhile, doesn’t feel his hitters have been pressing. While they’ve been “really silent” at the plate over previous stretches, he actually believes they have been making solid contact the last few days while hitting into “tough luck.”
“These guys can hit,” Boone insisted as his eyes glossed over Saturday’s lineup card.
The manager repeatedly pointed to the piece of paper in his hand as he defended the names written on it on Saturday. But he also revealed that he may “shake up the order a little bit here and there” with the Yankees set to face Dylan Cease, a Cy Young candidate, on Sunday.
“I’m grinding on it a little heavier night in and night out right now, anyway, so we’ll see,” said Boone, not ready to specify what changes could look like.
The team isn’t flush with options right now, and the star power is limited until Bellinger, Stanton and Judge get back. But at this point, the Yankees have to try something different when the offense is disappointing on a near-daily basis.
“Maybe,” Rice said when asked if lineup changes could spark the unit. “I don’t have any idea how it would go, but whatever skipper wants to put out there is what we’ll roll with.”