New York Yankees Head Into Subway Series Following A Weekend Of Emotional Swings

There are times when the Yankees are accused of being too vanilla with their comments, especially when times are good.

Lately times are not good, and several layers of emotion spilled out as the Yankees stumbled towards three more losses to Toronto before getting a long overdue win Sunday.

There was the sight of normally mellow manager Aaron Boone saying he did not give an expletive when asked about the division lead being sliced in half from 15 1/2 games in a little over a month Friday night.

“I don’t give a (expletive) about the lead,” Boone said. “Play better. We’ll handle it. We can talk about that — eight, nine, seven, 10 — we need to play better. If we play like this, it’s not gonna matter anyway. We handle our business, we’re in a great spot. We understand that. But we need to handle our business.”

Then when discussing some minor lineup tweaks around 11 am on Saturday that included slugger Aaron Judge batting third, Boone quipped he got the idea from a caller to WFAN while waiting for his weekly radio spot with the flagship station to begin on Thursday afternoon.

During those same roughly 15 minutes Saturday morning in the aftermath of a 9-2 and a 4-0 loss that followed a midnight game-ending ultimate grand slam by Josh Donaldson, Boone also kidded about picking a lineup out of a hat, something that actually happened long before media members tweeted out photos of the lineup on social media for the internet to offer their reactions to.

The reference Boone was joking about occurred twice during Billy Martin’s various stints.

On Aug. 13, 1972 with Detroit, he used the tactic and batted Willie Horton third and he hit a three-run homer off Gaylord Perry.

On April 21, 1977 in the 230rd regular-season game of the first of his five stints managing the Yankees, Martin deployed the tactic allowing occasional nemesis Reggie Jackson to pick the lineup out of a hat, resulting in 14 hits with Graig Nettles batting fourth for one of seven times that year.

About four hours later, the lighthearted mood started getting replaced with frustration which probably was building for at least two weeks if not longer.

It started with the sight of Gerrit Cole sitting on top of the bench after a four-run fifth, leaning back, making fists and twice punching the dugout roof while yelling what presumably was a few expletives with Toronto play-by-play announcer Dan Shulman telling the audience on SportsNet “You can see the frustration for Gerrit Cole.”

Then once the final out was made on the Yankees’ 48th loss, Boone was visibly upset and seemed ready to pull the postgame interview room equivalent of Paul O’Neill slamming the water cooler.

And sure enough about four minutes into roughly a seven and a half minute press conference, the viral moment occurred in the midst of answering a question about clinching a sixth straight series loss for the first time since Aug. 1995, shortly before they pulled off a 21-6 finish to get the AL wild card in Buck Showalter’s final season.

“You can ask all these questions in regards … We’ve answered them until we’re blue in the face. We’ve got to go out and do it. I gotta quit answering these questions about this date. We’ve got to play better period. And the great thing is…

Before completing the rest of the thought came the hand slam heard around the world. The slam was loud enough that the water bottle in in front of his microphone shook and then Boone completed the thought by saying:

“It’s right in front of us. It’s right here. And we can fix it. It’s right here. It’s there and we can run away with this thing. And we got the dudes in there to do it. We’ve got to do it.”

About a half hour after Boone’s viral moment, Aaron Judge voiced concerns about the Yankees seemingly lacking energy in the dugout, a comment Boone partially disagreed with Sunday morning when he also explained the noise his right hand made.

“I don’t necessarily like coming up here and getting upset or getting frustrated, but I also try to be authentic with our team, with our players. I’m human,” Boone said.

Sunday featured two main events of emotions from the fans and the Yankees.

Shortly after 1 p.m. Paul O’Neill’s jersey retirement ceremony reached the point of gifts and speeches, things that are customary in any of those events. When it came time for managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner to be introduced and present O’Neill with a gift, out came the boos, similar to that line in the Simpsons when the Vin Scully impersonator yells “Here come the pretzels”.

Then when O’Neill named all the people he wanted to thank, he got to Brian Cashman’s name, there were more boos, presumably from fans similar to the one a Toronto columnist encountered on the subway ride back to Manhattan Friday night.

After O’Neill’s ceremony, the Yankees fell behind creating the emotional state of consternation in the stands and online, especially when Whit Merrifield’s homer bounced off the top of the right-center field and into the Yankee bullpen.

An inning later, more emotions seeped out when Alek Manoah’s sinker hit Judge in his elbow padding. Judge shot a glance, Manoah looked back and appeared to say it was not intentional, something he’d later repeat during a four-minute media session.

Cole was having none of that, leaping over the dugout rail with a look that seemed to scream “It’s go time.” Cole ultimately was intercepted before crossing the car advertisement painted on the field by bench coach Carlos Mendoza.

Manoah and Judge diplomatically sorted it out, though Toronto’s young right-hander was not necessarily diplomatic during the same media session that he said the pitch was not intentional.

“I think if Gerrit wants to do something, he can walk past the Audi sign next time,” Manoah said.

About 50 minutes later after the brief yelling session, the Yankees regained the lead on a sorely needed big hit by Andrew Benintendi, whose two-run homer into the right field second deck salvaged an emotional weekend that saw all sorts of mood swings in the stands, on the subway, in the interview room, the dugout, the field and the clubhouse.