SEATTLE — Aaron Boone can’t stand in the middle of the Yankees’ clubhouse and blister the paint by screaming at his team because players know that wouldn’t be Boone being who he is.
Nor can the first-year manager hit, pitch, catch or throw the baseball.
Yet, faced with 22 games remaining, Boone can make decisions that will impact a team that enters Friday night’s game against the Mariners 3 ½ lengths ahead of the A’s in the chase for top AL wild-card spot that provides home-field advantage for the lose-and-go-home game.
With six losses in the past 10 games, the Yankees have at times looked sloppy in the field and overmatched at the plate, and the starting pitching, as a whole, in that stretch has been awful.
“I want to get rolling, no question about it,’’ Boone said following a hard-to-look-at 8-2 loss to the A’s Wednesday night in Oakland, where Gary Sanchez and Luis Severino acted like they met each other for the first time during the national anthem. “No question we have to play better. If we want to get to where we want to go we have to play better. It’s time to start getting consistent.’’
It also might be time to make some tweaks that add consistency. And, no, Boone doesn’t have a magic balm to rub on Aaron Judge’s fractured right wrist which would bring the right fielder off the disabled list immediately.
Here are four steps toward solving some of their issues:
Make Brett Gardner the full-time leadoff hitter
Gardner’s numbers are not what he or the team expected from the 35-year-old outfielder who entered the season a career .264 hitter with a .347 on-base percentage and the patience to see a lot of pitches.
That he brings a .237 average and a .325 on-base percentage into Friday night’s game against the Mariners, who will start lefty James Paxton, is substandard for Gardner.
Nevertheless, the Yankees are 67-37 in the games Gardner bats leadoff. When somebody else hits first, the Yankees are 19-17. In 104 games batting leadoff, Gardner is hitting .241 (103-for-428) with a .322 on-base percentage. In 15 games hitting ninth, usually when a lefty is starting for the opposition, Gardner is hitting .211 (8-for-38) with a .262 on-base percentage.
“I am disappointed with the way I have played lately, disappointed with the way the team has played. I know we are capable of playing better,’’ Gardner said Wednesday night.
Set pitching rotation so there are options besides
Luis Severino to start the wild-card game
If Severino had a couple of rough outings in late August, the Yankees likely would think nothing of it and prepare their biggest winner (17-7) to face the A’s no matter where the game is played.
Nevertheless, in his past 11 starts Severino is 4-5 with a bloated 6.83 ERA. Opposing hitters are batting .323 against him and have a .934 OPS. Wednesday night the same lineup he would see in a wild-card game punished him for five earned runs and six hits in 2 ²/₃ innings. It was Severino’s shortest outing of the season.
Boone has choices in J.A. Happ and Masahiro Tanaka, but where it gets tricky is the final week of the season when the Yankees play the Rays and Red Sox on the road. If he needs Happ and Tanaka to get the wild-card game played in The Bronx, Boone has to use them because the Yankees are 48-24 at home and 39-29 on the road.
Boone is in a tough spot because if he starts Tanaka or Happ and they get spanked, the outcry will be that he should have started Severino. If Severino starts and gets beat up, voices will scream Boone should have gone with Tanaka or Happ.
But that comes with managing the Yankees.
Skip Lance Lynn when the schedule allows
After one strong relief outing and two solid starts, the right-hander hasn’t instilled confidence that he can help down the stretch. In his past four starts, Lynn is 0-2 with a 9.16 ERA and has allowed 31 hits in 18²/₃ innings.
Sonny Gray and Jonathan Loaisiga might not be perfect options to replace Lynn in the rotation with so much riding on every game it might be worth making a change.
Whenever Severino starts somebody
besides Gary Sanchez catches
Wednesday night’s debacle with two passed balls, two wild pitches and the pair not being able to navigate the simple exercise of changing signs is proof they shouldn’t work together until next spring training.
Though Severino’s numbers aren’t alarmingly different throwing to Austin Romine and Sanchez, the Yankees can’t chance what happened in Oakland happening again. Not with so much riding on every regular-season game, but especially in the wild-card game.
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