It’s Been That Kind Of A Week For Aaron Judge And The Yankees

"It's been a terrible week," said Yankees manager Aaron Boone, a short time after announcing starting pitcher Clarke Schmidt needs Tommy John surgery and will be out until 2027, and an even shorter time after his 1.202 OPS right fielder was thwacked in the face by a ball thrown by his .703 OPS shortstop. When it rains, it pours: After losing 12-6 to the Mets on Saturday in a game about as sloppy as they come, the Yankees have now dropped six straight for the second time in under a month, and have seen their once-solid divisional lead sublime into vapor, leaving behind a fumbling team for which the only good news is that Aaron Judge only bled a little.

Judge was seemingly fine after being bonked by an Anthony Volpe throw as he crossed the infield following the final out of the fourth inning, by which point it was already 5-2 Mets. He wore a bandage under his eye for the rest of the game and patted Volpe's butt in the dugout to say no hard feelings, but there are certainly frustrations. This losing streak, unlike their earlier swoon, has been mostly about giving up runs instead of being unable to score them, and they've managed to give up lots of runs in lots of ways. Outfielder Jasson Domínguez got a late jump on the very first ball put in play, leading to a generously scored double. Two walks later, Brandon Nimmo hit a grand slam to give the Mets a lead they wouldn't relinquish.

One inning later, Jazz Chisholm sailed a throw from third for an error; Tyrone Taylor would take second and score on the very next play. Then, in the seventh, after the Yankees had ground the deficit down to a manageable two runs, Trent Grisham misplayed a single up the middle, kicking off a four-run inning for the Mets to put things out of reach. Suzyn Waldman was fed up.

A month ago, the Yankees were 5.5 games up in the AL East. A week ago, they were still up three on the Blue Jays. Since then they've lost six in a row, and Toronto has won seven straight, and New York is suddenly three games out and tied with Tampa, and just one measly game clear of the final wild card. "It’s never fun when you’re going through a stretch of six-game losses,” said Carlos Rodón, who took the loss Saturday. “The baseball season always seems to take a mental toll on guys, including me and every one of us. But it’s a marathon, so you keep going."

Every team goes through this sort of thing in a long season. (Some teams go through the sort of thing almost every week.) But, as long as we're offering truisms here, no team is as bad as it looks on a losing streak, nor as good as it looks on a hot streak. If the Yankees' true talent lies somewhere between "runaway division champs" and "beaning teammates in the head," the big question is whether that describes a playoff team at all.