The New York Yankees are struggling, and fans are watching their World Series hopes diminish. The Marlins swept them in a three-game series for the first time in history, exposing clear shortcomings. The Yanks lost three straight games over the weekend: 13–12 on Friday, 2–0 on Saturday, and 7–3 on Sunday. While the offense bounced back, the pitching struggled. The Sunday loss completed a historic sweep. And, what came next was a reality check.

MLB insider Jon Heyman didn’t mince words when assessing the Yankees’ situation during the postgame coverage on MLB Now.

“You have to panic at this point. It does look bad. Their baserunning continues to be an issue. Not just that play or those two plays, it is the problem—the fundamentals,” he said, before further adding, “They fixed the bullpen, they did some good things. They will get Judge back, but that fundamental is a problem. It’s something to see.” 

It’s not that there are no positives, but the overall performance hasn’t been up to the mark, as Heyman noted, “Despite having the best run differential in the American League. It’s hard to believe watching this team play because they don’t really play well.” He further highlighted that if this continues, the Yanks might miss the playoffs. “They’re in the fifth place right now with holding down that second wild card spot, so I think there is a threat that they won’t make it.”

On paper, +92 runs scored higher than anybody else in the AL should mean that the Yanks are in charge, yet they are losing. The official standings state that the Yankees are 60–53 (.531), 5.5 games behind Boston in the AL East, and tied with Seattle for the second wild card place.

The absence of Aaron Judge has been a significant blow to the team. Before his elbow injury, he was hitting .342 with a 1.160 OPS. However, the bigger issue is the lack of accountability. As the former player Xavier Scruggs noted as well, “My concern is the style of play recently, and those are the things that you can often fix, but I don’t see much accountability, which is what I’m concerned about.”

He specifically criticized Chisholm, saying, “Some of the place and including Jazz, and I know this happens all over league, guys make mistakes, but ultimately I didn’t like how Jazz mentioned.”

Xavier was talking about Saturday’s 2-0 loss to the Marlins. In that game, Chisholm made a baserunning error that led to a double play, ending the inning. And he didn’t even seem to own his mistake in his post-match comments later. “I was just trying to be aggressive, already playing with both the middle infielders out there…I know how the field plays. Sometimes you get aggressive and you get caught up and you make an out,” Chisholm said.

After the sweep against the Marlins, the Yankees showed fundamental flaws again against the Texas Rangers.

Yankees’ slide deepens with another loss

The Rangers won 8–5 in a walk-off, with Josh Jung hitting a three-run home run in the bottom of the 10th to end the game. This was the fourth straight loss for the team. Joc Pederson’s pinch-hit single homer tied the game in the ninth inning, before the Rangers went past the Yanks.

And, this defeat was also caused by errors. Starting pitcher Max Fried made a big mistake in the bottom of the second inning. He tried to throw a pickoff to second base with the bases loaded, but his throw went to center field instead. It was another one of those basic errors that have been costing the New York Yankees dearly of late.

The Yankees had a 5–4 lead after a great start, with Paul Goldschmidt hitting a home run and going 3 for 3, and Giancarlo Stanton hitting a two-run shot. But the bullpen couldn’t hold. After Fried struggled through five uneven innings, Devin Williams blew a save, and Jung’s walk-off bomb put the Yankees on the board. The same basic problems again, and it’s becoming a worrisome trend.

If things go like this, the Yankees might find it difficult to qualify.