The New York Yankees lost 8-5 to the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night (box score), extending a recent stretch of poor play at home. The Yankees have now lost three consecutive home games and five of their last seven overall. What’s more is that New York is now 6-16 in its last 22 games at Yankee Stadium, its worst stretch since 1917.
We’ll note that 22 games is an arbitrary endpoint, and that the Yankees still have a winning record at home for the season. Nonetheless, it’s a notable occurrence whenever a team suffers through their worst stretch of play as a host since the days of Home Run Baker and Tim Hendryx. This stretch is also the first time since that 1917 season the Yankees have lost 16 of 22 home games, though they did drop 15 of 22 in 2003. You may recall that as a season in which they went on to win the American League pennant.
Friday’s game included some controversy on the Yankees side, as manager Aaron Boone benched second baseman Gleyber Torres following a baserunning blunder. Torres, it should be noted, is back in the lineup for Saturday’s matinee against the Blue Jays (GameTracker).
Before that game gets underway, we wanted to dish on three things worth knowing about the Yankees’ home struggles.
1. Recent development
You might think that, for the Yankees to suffer their worst home stretch in a century, they must have built a team that’s wholly incompatible with their park. That overlooks some important context — namely, that these Yankees excelled at home early on.
Indeed, the Yankees won 21 of their first 29 games played this season at Yankee Stadium. For those not eager to waste a moment of their Saturdays toying around with a calculator, that prorates to 117 wins over the course of a 162-game schedule. (The Major League Baseball record for most team wins in a single season is 116.)
Given that the Yankees haven’t overhauled their roster during the interim stretch, and given that we don’t see a real underlying reason to believe there’s more to it than this, we’re inclined to classify both extreme stretches as the kind of weird statistical developments that happen over the course of a baseball season.Â
2. Didn’t pack troubles on road trip
Part of what made Friday’s loss against the Blue Jays so frustrating for the Yankees is that it came after a run of hot play. The Yankees entered having won five consecutive contests, all on the road. That stretch began with a series win against the Boston Red Sox and carried over into a three-game sweep against the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Yankees, as it turns out, have been dominant on the road all year. They’re now 38-22 — a 103-win pace over 162 games — with a plus-93 run differential. The Yankees, then, have outscored their opponents by more than 1.5 runs per game.
3. Turnaround needed
While we don’t believe there’s more than statistical noise at play behind New York’s home struggles, it’s clear that the Yankees need to turn things around if they’re serious about taking home their second American League East crown in three years.
The Yankees have played nine more road games than home games to date, meaning that their schedule is slanted heavily in favor of home games the rest of the way. That includes an ongoing nine-game homestand that will see them play the Los Angeles Angels and Texas Rangers in addition to this weekend’s set against the Blue Jays.
It’s worth noting that the Yankees have only three games remaining against the Baltimore Orioles, their competition in the East. Those games, fittingly enough, will take place at home and during the last week of the regular season.Â
