Opportunities don’t mean anything if one doesn’t capitalize on them. The New York Yankees have been finding this out the hard way this season. It’s rare to see a team that has been performing in extremities as much as the Bronx Bombers have. On one hand, they have two consecutive 15+ run games and then follow that with a shut-out. As a result, their skipper Aaron Boone was once again left ruing the missed opportunities as the Yankees succumbed to their inconsistency against the Baltimore Orioles in a 2-0 loss.
In a game where the New York Yankees had 10 batters on base, the team failed to send even one into the home base. In fact, the Bronx Bombers failed to have even a single hit in their 8 at-bats in the RISP situation. While that is a concerning trend, Boone chose to focus on the positive aspect of this – his players are at least getting into scoring positions.
“That’s baseball,” Aaron Boone said about five shut-outs the Yankees have had in his postgame interview. “A handful of those shutouts we’ve had a lot of opportunities, and tonight was no different. You throw 10-12 base runners out, that’s kind of the hope each and every night. We just got to capitalize, we weren’t able to do that tonight.”
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This isn’t a new situation for the Yankees this season. It’s the first time since 1984 that the Pinstripes have been shut-out 5 times in April. That’s the evidence of their attack blowing hot and cold rather frequently. But the most frightening part is that during such instances the team fails to capitalize on RISP situations.
That’s something that needs to be worked on immediately. Especially because it’s becoming a worrying trend for the Yankees. This is something that they won’t want in a season where they’re possibly one of the strongest teams on paper.
The New York Yankees’ RISP issues come out in the open once again
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Even when not shut-out the Yankees’ hitters have developed a somewhat troubling habit of leaving runners stranded. Most of their losses have seen the Yankees successfully filling the bases but failing to guide those runners home. Is it because the hitters are swinging too frequently during RISP situations or is the pressure becoming too much to bear? Whatever the case, there’s a growing section of fans worried about their hitters’ consistency.
No doubt, the New York Yankees have crash-landed back to earth after this loss. Despite great displays, some clear issues are running in their hitting lineup. Luckily for them, the season has just started and they remain on top of the AL East. So with the next game set to begin today, will the Bronx Bombers get back to their groove? Or will they succumb to their biggest AL East rivals of this season?