TORONTO \u2014 The great Yogi Berra once said, \u201cIt\u2019s like d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu all over again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is there a quote that better encapsulates the current stale state of the Yankees\u2019 offense?<\/p>\n
It feels like the team, buoyed by strong starting pitching<\/a> but hindered by their hitters, has been playing the same game nearly every day for months. Saturday\u2019s 4-1 loss continued that trend, as the Bombers got 5.1 innings of one-run ball from Cam Schlittler but only scored once against a Toronto team that threw a bullpen game.<\/p>\n Never mind that Simeon Woods Richardson and the debuting Ricky Tiedemann \u2014 the Jays pitchers who threw the most on Saturday \u2014 were at Triple-A less than a week ago. The former entered the game with a 6.23 ERA in the majors this season, while the latter, working his way back from Tommy John surgery, had a 12.00 ERA at Triple-A.<\/p>\n But any live arm will do against the Yankees right now.<\/p>\n \u201cBroken record. Obviously, we know we gotta be better,\u201d Aaron Boone said. \u201cThis is who we got. These are our guys, and I continue to believe, wholeheartedly, looking at these names, they\u2019re all capable of doing really big things for us. But we gotta go do it. We can talk all about that, but we gotta go make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n While Schlittler had to grind, Saturday marked the Yankees\u2019 third straight loss despite their starters allowing just one earned run in each contest. Per Stathead\u2019s Katie Sharp<\/a>, they have now lost 14 games in which their starters went at least five innings and allowed one earned run of fewer this season.<\/p>\n The tidbit is a testament to how brutal the Bombers\u2019 bats have been alongside one of the best rotations in baseball.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why I have the utmost excitement and optimism about our team, is because we can really pitch and we can really prevent you from scoring,\u201d Boone said, though his bullpen gave up three runs on Saturday. \u201cAnd again, I believe in a lot of the names on this card. And hopefully, along the way here, we get some guys back in the mix that add to that and fortify that, so I feel like the end product has a chance to be excellent. But we\u2019re not there yet, obviously.\u201d<\/p>\n