After suffering a third-straight shutout loss on Tuesday, the New York Yankees have witnessed a low that would have been unthinkable just a week ago.
Even as franchise slugger Aaron Judge enjoys a career-best, historic season at the plate, the offensive slump pushed some fans at Yankee Stadium to boo him.
“Three shutout losses in a row is a first for the Yankees since September 2016 when they went 33 innings without a run over five games,” Randy Miller wrote for NJ Advance Media. “This was so bad that even Judge received a few boos from the crowd of 35,278 after his second, third and fourth at-bats while he was going 0-4 with three strikeouts.”
Judge is leading Major League Baseball in hits, is tied for the lead in homers and is first in the American League for RBIs. He has a .372/.469/.740 slash line and the Yankees sit in first place in the AL East division.
But he’s now gone 3-for-24 with 16 strikeouts in his last seven games and concerns are growing around the Yankees’ ability to turn things around.
“These last few days for us have been a struggle for a handful of guys,” manager Aaron Boone said, per Miller. “We’ve got to focus on the bat and get back on the track.”
The Yankees held a players’ only meeting after the latest loss in hopes that some soul searching might help them turn things around collectively at the plate. The team has a chance to score a run for the first time since a weekend matchup with the Boston Red Sox as they take on the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday.
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