At the beginning of June, the New York Yankees were one of the best teams in the division, sitting pretty atop the American League East. Come July 12, the Bronx Bombers are trailing Baltimore Orioles, having won just seven of their last 25 games.
A first series win in nearly a month seemed presentable on Thursday at Tropicana Field. But the Yankees failed to get over the line, squandering opportunities with runners in scoring position to lose the series finale 5-4.
Yankees captain Aaron Judge, who has been the talisman of the team, doesn't feel down amid the team's underwhelming run and took positives from the series loss against the Rays. Judge said:
“Nobody likes losing, so nobody’s happy about it. But we’re not feeling sorry for ourselves or sorry for anybody else because nobody else is.
"We just got to keep showing up, doing our thing. It’s a couple games out of first place, and, now, we’re going to play a first-place team. We gotta take these good at-bats over to Baltimore.”
Although Aaron Judge is leading the charts for home runs this season and is in the midst of an MVP-calibre season, the Yankees captain has been without a home run in seven games.
Jose Trevino echoes Yankees captain Aaron Judge's sentiments
The Yankees trailed 5-2 after the end of the third inning but threatened a comeback after a late surge from the offense, with catcher Jose Trevino pinch-hitting for the team.
Trevino echoed his captain's words, saying that the pressure is on the team and that nobody feels sorry for them amid their horrid run. He backed the team to get back to their winning run that made them a strong contender for the World Series earlier in the season.
“Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us,” Trevino said. “If anything, people want to see this.
"We’re the Yankees. People don’t care. If we win, they’re, ‘Yeah, we should have won.’ If we lose, they like that. I think we’ll get back to where we were and play with that chip in our shoulder.”
The Yankees will be up against division rivals the Orioles for a three-game series at Camden Yards. The Orioles lost ground on their rivals and will be wary of the Yankees after being swept by the Chicago Cubs in their last series.