The Yankees are Back in the Dumps

The Yankees had an awful weekend in Detroit and will look to rebound this week against the Tampa Bay Rays.

The baseball season, as we all know, is full of highs and lows. Throughout that time, there’ll be stretches where some teams look unbeatable, while there’ll be other times where it looks as if that same team can’t get out of their own way. For a while, the Yankees looked like the latter, struggling to perform at a .500 clip. Suddenly, the bombers turned things around, with a very impressive sweep over the Chicago White Sox at Yankee Stadium. After that brief win streak, however, the Yanks have lost five out of six and are coming off a three-game sweep at the hands of the lowly Detroit Tigers. After finally seeming like things were gonna turn around for the better, the Bronx Bombers are down in the dumps again.

The Injuries Strike Back

The Yankees have been done a good job so far this year avoiding the dreaded injury bug. However, the bug bit this weekend, and it bit hard. Both Corey Kluber and Luke Voit are now sidelined with a shoulder strain and an oblique strain, respectively, and they’ll be out of action for the foreseeable future.

Kluber had been quite a revelation for the Yankees this season after back-to-back injury-plagued seasons. The righty was pitching to a 3.04 ERA this season in 10 starts. He had gone 53.1 innings with 55 strikeouts. As for Voit, the first baseman had spent the start of the season on the IL and just recently came back in mid-May. He hadn’t gotten going yet, hitting just .182 with a .280 OBP and only one homer. However, Voit has established himself as an elite hitter, and it was fair to assume he would’ve gotten going at some point. The Bombers will now look either in-house or through the trade market for a replacement.

Yankees Swept in Motown

The Bombers had dropped two-out-of-three at the Stadium against the Toronto Blue Jays last week and went to Detroit for a three-game set to hopefully get their mojo back. The results were far from ideal, as the Bombers got swept three games to none and outscored 15-5. To close out the series, the Yankees were shut down by Tarik Skubal, who, at the time of the start, came in with an ERA of 5.23. On Sunday, Skubal went six shutout innings striking out eight, allowing just three hits, and walking three.

Needless to say, a weekend like this is unacceptable for a team with World Series aspirations, and the lack of hitting this entire season has been incredibly unnerving. Onto the pitching this series, the Yankees threw a lot of arms that, to be fair, aren’t huge names on the team. These names include the likes of Deivi Garcia, Michael King, Nest Cortes, and Nick Nelson, among others.

It Only gets Harder from Here

The Yankees will hold a seven-game homestand starting Monday, with four games against the red-hot Tampa Bay Rays and three games against the Boston Red Sox. This stretch will be far from easy, but you hope that returning to the stadium can help get the Yanks’ heads back in the game. After their series against Boston, the Yankees will hit the road again, traveling to Minnesota, Philadelphia, and Dunedin.