TORONTO — As the Yankees packed their bags in the cramped visiting clubhouse at Rogers Centre on Thursday night, on the heels of a brutal four-game sweep by the Blue Jays, Aaron Boone stopped in briefly to speak to his team.
The Yankees have lost 14 of their last 20 games and are tied with the Rays for second place in the division, but Boone’s message was one projecting confidence amid choppy waters.
“That we’re the best team in the league,” Jazz Chisholm Jr. said. “We knew we were going to hit a speed bump. But just block out the noise and go out there when we get back home in New York and do what we do. This happened here, but we’re going to leave this here.”
The Yankees arrived north of the border having won three of their last four games, hoping they were beginning to snap out of their June swoon, then got hit with four straight losses as the Blue Jays leapt them in the standings.
George Springer delivered the knockout punch in Thursday’s finale with his second two-homer game of the series while the Yankees went 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position, making it 9-for-50 across the four games.
Add in news of a high-grade oblique strain to Fernando Cruz and Clarke Schmidt headed for an MRI tube Friday because of forearm tightness, and the four-game set was something of a test to determine where rock bottom actually is.
“It sucks when you get your ass kicked in a division-rival series, on the road,” Boone said. “But we’re ready-made for this and we will get through this. We obviously know we need to play better. We need to do better. … We will stick together through this and embrace the adversity of it. This will make us stronger as we navigate through the season. I know nobody likes hearing that. But that’s what this is.”
Asked why this group is made to deal with the adversity, Boone cited the leaders in the clubhouse, such as Aaron Judge, who will make sure the Yankees stick together.
“There’s been years where we haven’t been equipped to go through this,” Boone said. “That group is, and we will.
“I know this group. I know the trust they have in one another. I believe in our process. We even just talked about it in there. It’s all part of it. Bring it on. You got to embrace the challenging times of it, especially playing in New York. That’s coming for you. But we lean into that all the time. I know these guys are prepared for it. I know these guys will handle it.”
Boone said he was looking for his players to be “unfazed” by the challenging stretch and not flinch.
“You can’t panic,” Judge said. “That’s not going to help the situation. We got work to do. It’s a baseball season. … We got to focus on a big series coming up against the Mets. That’s all we can do is keep focusing on the present and the game we got in front of us.”
