The New York Yankees have been muddling through a pretty rough stretch. Their offense has been very sputtering, with the losses continuing to mount. Saturday’s 9-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays in The Bronx hammered home just how the team has struggled lately. While there are still some shreds of hope from some key players like Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, frustration is in the air as manager Aaron Boone struggles to find his way with these difficulties of a poor lineup and a season gone astray.

Boone has done a lot of shaking in the lineup, hoping for some type of spark to turn them around, and it just didn’t seem to work. The recent showing against the Rays typified the struggles as Judge’s leadoff walk was immediately rendered moot by a double play. As underperforming key players and a bleak outlook creep into the season, the Yankees need to find ways to reignite their campaign and remain competitive in the league.

Aaron Boone addresses lineup adjustments amidst Yankees’ offensive struggles

On days when Judge and Soto can’t inject life into the offense, it too often flatlines. Aaron Boone has tried to shake up the lineup on several occasions, first bumping Ben Rice to the leadoff spot—the same Rice has stalled lately—and Saturday by upgrading Wells and downgrading Alex Verdugo. The problem has appeared not to be the order of the hitters but the hitters themselves.

Aaron Boone described his thinking on lineup changes, most specifically the thought to pull Aaron Judge from the game. “No, no, we were talking about, we were talking about another bat earlier in the game. That’s all,” There were questions postgame if there was thinking of removing Aaron Judge from the contest in the 9-1 Yankees loss to the Rays. Boone explains that the conversation wasn’t about removing Judge from the lineup but rather about bringing in another bat sooner in the game to create some offense.

“We got to make it happen right now with what we have and try and piece it together,” Boone said, who spotlighted hopeful plate appearances from Rice and Wells. “The reality is, there is some good things happening with guys.” Some strong at-bats haven’t translated into enough strong results. The Yankees have to work with what they’ve got and think of ways to develop these players. Boone mentioned “hopeful plate appearances from Rice and Wells.” It is the moments that peg potential and promise from some of the players that are not all lost.

Yankees vs Rays: what went wrong in the game

Saturday — much like most of the past five weeks or so — a base runner was tantamount to major news for the Yankees. Any flicker of offense these days is to be embraced. And thus Aaron Judge’s leadoff walk in the bottom of the fourth, when the Yankees already trailed by four runs, became a glimmer of hope.

That hope immediately was slapped in the face by reality: new cleanup hitter Austin Wells smacked the first pitch he saw from Taj Bradley hard into the ground, resulting in a double play that erased any thought of a rally. The Yankees’ two-man offense was reduced to a zero-man offense in a fight-less, 9-1 loss to the Rays in front of 43,173 in The Bronx.

Their 19th loss in the past 28 games included relentless ground balls from an offense that was well on its way to its seventh excuse in que shutout of the season before Juan Soto’s triple in the ninth and a garbage-time run scored. Aaron Boone’s team had just five hits — three in the final inning — on an afternoon the Rays finished with four home runs. In the three weeks since the funk began on June 15, the Yankees (59-41) have found no semblance of consistency.

The fact is obvious: the Yankees need some way to turn good at-bats into production on the field if they are going to turn this season around. And with the trade deadline nearing and a potential playoff spot hanging in the balance, the pressure is now ratcheted up on Boone and his team to piece it together and get their campaign rolling again. The Yankees will be fighting hard to regain their footing in this high-stakes season.