The Yankees Are Castaways

Very fitting that the Tom Hanks iconic movie “Castaway” was running concurrent to the Yankees game in Tropicana Field on Tuesday night. Or was it the Tampa Bay Rays game? As my friend texted me after the game, “We RoDONE.” The Yankees offense just was lights out, but Carlos Rodon certainly was not- a clear recipe for disaster. The kind of disaster that sent Hanks to a deserted island. Yes, the Yankees are going down the same rough seas, held captive by their own devices and sinking down the standings.

“You can hit some rough spots and we’re certainly as rough as they come right now,” Cashman said. “It can go the other way too rather quickly,” reported NJ.com before Tuesday’s 5-3 loss against the Rays. On a night that is memorable in Yankees history where Derek Jeter clobbered his 3,000th hit against the Rays back in 2011, things continue to spiral for the Bombers.

“As Cashman noted, this team has several areas to improve upon — those that he’ll need to address before this month’s trade deadline. But Rodón continues to dig his club into a hole every time he takes the ball these days. And to make it even more demoralizing, these starts are all following the exact same trend,” reported NJ.com.

Prior to this game, the Yankees went 1-5 over their last homestand which included a sweep by the Cincinnati Reds. And over the last 23 games, they have been the worst team in baseball. So what is the problem? Why are things going so bad? Is it mindset? Is it urgency? Both of these questions came up in the post-game show with Jack Curry and Bob Lorenz.

“It was a tidal wave of success here for the first two months and then you closed out June into July in a really rough patch for an extended period of time,” Cashman said. “We got to be playing better than we currently are right now,” reported ESPN. 

Is there a rescue in sight? How do the Yankees get on the lifeboat? First, they have to address the pitching which as Curry said, seems to have fallen off of a cliff. Then there is this sense of urgency or lack thereof. What happened to the DAWGS? What happened to the hustle? 

If the Yankees don’t right the ship, soon, they will be left for dead. Trades could help. Getting players healthy could help. And with the All Star Break fast approaching, perhaps just a break in the action is in order. “We’re going to be open-minded to a lot of different things,” Cashman said. “I’m not going to point out anything specific but we definitely have areas to improve upon and we’ll do our best. We just got to figure our way through this ourselves and hopefully we can add some outside pieces at some point,” reported ESPN.

It is a long season and only the fearless survive. Do the Yankees have those kind of enduring survival skills? Can they weather this storm? I want to say yes. But right now, I just see them sipping coconut juice and building fires like castaways lost and siloed but hopefully not defeated. 

–Suzie Pinstripe
BYB Senior Managing Editor
Twitter: @suzieprof