Yankees fans have suffered enough indignities this season. The least New York's team of broadcasters could do is not lead them on.

Yet it keeps happening.

On Thursday, Michael Kay very much acted like Harrison Bader had hit a walk-off home run to win the series against the Nationals. Of course, it wasn't a home run. It was just a high fly ball that landed in the glove of Washington outfielder Alex Call to end the game.

The Yankees lost 6-5 on that play to drop the series to the Nationals. They haven't won a series since July 23.

Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay pulled a John Sterling on not-home run call

That call wasn't as bad as the time in April when John Sterling literally called Giancarlo Stanton's long fly ball out before having to backtrack. But it led Yankees fans on all the same.

And at that time, things certainly felt less dire in New York. Aaron Judge had yet to suffer a longer-than-expected freak injury. The team hadn't fallen off the cliff and posted one of their worst losing streaks in history. It was easier to laugh about an announcing blunder like that.

The Yankees haven't created much to cheer for in the past few weeks, or season in general. Those few milliseconds of believing a walk-off victory might have just happened is about as thrilling as it's gotten in New York lately. So maybe Kay deserves a bit of credit. He hasn't had a lot to work with. He just got a little overexcited.

New York is heading on the road with hopes of turning things around. They'll start a weekend series in Tampa Bay on Friday before taking on the Tigers and Astros as August turns to September.