The New York Yankees are making history, albeit the wrong kind, this season. The team is sitting under .500 in August for the first time in a long time and is on pace to finish dead last in the AL East. That can be attributed to lifeless bats, a depleted starting rotation, decision-making from manager Aaron Boone, and the recent moves from general manager Brian Cashman.
On Tuesday night, the Yankees were defeated 2-1 by the Washington Nationals, extending their losing streak to nine games. This is their longest losing streak since 1982, plus the eighth time they suffered that long of a stretch of defeats. Suffering a consistent string of losses like this for the first time in over 40 years shouldn't sit well for the Yankees, but they have shown no signs of breaking out of their slump. Yes, even after calling up No. 3 prospect Everson Pereira and Oswald Peraza didn't help.
If the Yankees are to lose again on Wednesday night, New York's losing streak will extend to 10 games, which would be the first time that has happened since 1913, as Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman of "The Baseball Bar-B-Cast" point out. In fact, that year is the first season that the team was known as the Yankees after they changed it from the Highlanders.
Longest Yankees losing streaks in the past 100+ years
Would the 10-game losing streak be their longest in franchise history? The answer to that is no. The longest stretch of losses the Yankees have endured was 12, which happened back in 1908.
The team did have a losing streak back in 1913, and one that started in 1911 and ended in 1912, per CBS Sports.
So, the Yankees are not that far off from matching a franchise-long losing streak. That certainly would not sit well with the fanbase, which is already frustrated by the player's lack of fight in games and the front office and managerial staff's inability to find a way out of their mess. Team owner Hal Steinbrenner's comments back in June about his failure to understand why fans were upset have aged terribly, exemplified by their current historic losing streak.
The Yankees hope that Wednesday's starting pitcher, Luis Severino, will be able to limit himself to three earned runs allowed as he did on Aug. 15 against the Atlanta Braves and not nine earned runs as he did back on June 30 against the Baltimore Orioles. Oh, and for the bats to come alive against Nationals starting pitcher Mackenzie Gore, too.