The New York Yankees suffered a humiliating loss against the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday and went down 0-1 in the four-game series. Coming off a commanding victory over the Oakland Athletics, the Bronx Bombers faced a tough challenge against an in-form team and the East toppers, the Rays. Despite Domingo German’s salient efforts, the bullpen succumbed under pressure and leaked seven runs as the Rays went home with an 8-2 win.
With that, the Yankees get further pushed down in the East rankings. While the club’s top brass maintains that the situation is under control, it does not take a genius to figure that it’s not. The team’s current state is way far from being okay. Apart from the obvious problem, such as injuries, the Yankees have an underlying issue that has been silently killing the team from under the rug. And it’s high time the team addresses that.
Yankees Left Field Issues Are Hurting The Team Big Time
Since the start of this year’s off-season, the New York Yankees found a major hole in the left field as Andrew Benintendi left to join the White Sox. The team was confident of finding a replacement in the free agency, except they couldn’t. Multiple talks and negotiations fell apart as the deadline closed, and the Yankees were left with no option but to turn to an underperforming Aaron Hicks to fill up the spot. Hicks has been struggling both offensively and defensively for the past few seasons. Ignoring all the worries, the Bombers instilled faith in him, which proved to be their biggest mistake.
Later, the Yankees tried to salvage the damage by adopting a revolving door approach wherein they shuffled multiple payers to find the ideal contender. Oswaldo Cabrera and Jake Bauers tried their luck on the left but could not really fit in. Jake tried his best by pulling out stellar plays. However, each time he suffered some kind of injury or discomfort which pushed him out of the contention. Now, the whole left field situation has turned into a big mess. The team has nobody to reply to, as the outfield depth has ceased to exist. With still a long way to march in the season, the Yankees must find a solution to the left field woes ASAP, or things will spiral down in a matter of seconds, and the Bombers will lose every opportunity to turn things around from there.
Aaron Hicks Unsure Of The Severity Of His Injury
New York Yankees’ prime left field contender, Aaron Hicks, finally made some use of the repeated opportunities. He smacked his first home run of the ongoing season last week. However, shortly after, he injured his hip. While running on the base paths, Hicks developed some discomfort in the hip area and left the game halfway through.
Later, the Yankees maintained that they were treating Aaron Hicks’ injury as a day-to-day issue and would not place him on the IL just yet. Meanwhile, the man in question, Hicks, spoke to the media and said he was still feeling some tightness in the hip. Moreover, the outfielder wasn’t too sure if a stint on IL would be necessary at this stage. Even the club has refused to offer any official word on the whole issue. Hence, Hicks’ participation in the foreseeable future of the season remains under wraps.