Yankees Sink vs. Angels After Boone Declares Season at Stake

 The hot seat is starting to boil over for Yankees manager Aaron Boone. 

After watching his team get swept by the Boston Red Sox for the second time this season, the Yankees embattled manager dropped a missive Monday afternoon with reporters that the Yankees 2021 season "was on the line." 

"Too many ups and too many downs. We are in too good a division to have those ups and downs continue. We can't afford to play great for two weeks and struggle for a week. Not if we are going to make up ground. We've dug ourselves a little bit of a hole in the division obviously." 

A little bit of a hole, eh? Ya think? 

The Yankees entered play 6.5 games out of first place in the AL East. By the time New York's series opener vs. Anaheim ended, they were 7.5 out, and 6 back of the last wild card slot. It is getting late early for the Yankees. 

They looked listless and lifeless against the Angels, who are two games back of New York for 6th place in the wild card standings. Sixth place, and the Angels, who are 38-40 look like a team of fighters under a World Series winning manager in Joe Madden. What do the Yankees look like? A team lost at sea. 

You could see it in the body language in the dugout. You could see it when Giancarlo Stanton swung and missed on a 0-2 fastball way outside the plate for the second out in the ninth inning. You could see it in the building after Michael King gave up a bomb to Shohei Ohtani that put the Angels up 1-0, and pretty much set the tone for the rest of the night. 

The Yankees haven't made a change in season at manager since 1991, but if Boone is correct in asserting that this stretch of home games for the Yankees is critical to their season, he might be right -- because if they are further and further out of it, he could be curtains as manager.