Aaron Boone lit pyre of Yankees’ embarrassment with response to Blue Jays announcer

Before the start of the ALDS between the New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays, manager Aaron Boone took the podium and responded to his usual line of questioning after eliminating the Boston Red Sox in the Wild Card series.

And, for whatever reason, Boone decided to take a shot at Blue Jays announcer Buck Martinez in an unprompted manner. Why? We have no idea. It's like this team never learns from its mistakes, like when Aaron Judge blasted "New York, New York" on a boombox when leaving Fenway Park after Game 2 of the 2018 ALDS or when he mocked Jose Altuve with the famous uniform wire gesture. The Yankees never triumph when they trash talk before the job is finished. Stop doing it. Let everybody else get blue in the face and then you can deliver your thesis to all the haters when you finally win.

But no. After finally getting pasted the Red Sox in the playoffs for the first time since 2003, Boone set the stage for another Yankees embarrassment in the making. They are currently down 0-2 in the ALDS after allowing 23 runs in Games 1 and 2 — an all-time Yankees black mark in consecutive postseason contests.

All he did in the process was validate what Martinez said a month ago and put a target on his team's back. The city of Toronto already despises the Yankees — why give them more bulletin board material? You couldn't ignore frog-throated Buck and his whiney, inflammatory commentary for 72 hours, or until after the ALDS?

Yankees 0-2 ALDS deficit vs Blue Jays has Aaron Boone mistake all over it

This time, Boone didn't make a strategic error. He didn't mismanage the bullpen. He didn't try to get fancy with the lineup. The guy who, day in and day out, preaches never to get too high or too low and to be careful what you wish for, decided to open a can of worms most people had forgotten about.

In fact, it would've been pretty damn cool if the Yankees managed to do anything and then clip Martinez's comments to add for fuel to the fire if the Blue Jays had their backs against the wall. Instead, Boone reignited the flame when the slate was blank. The Blue Jays likely used that as more motivation (as every Yankees' opponent is wont to do, and never vice versa).

Martinez was already close to being served crow, too! The Jays almost blew the division to the Yankees down the stretch, as the two teams finished with the same record (but Toronto got the nod because of the head-to-head tiebreaker). Then, the Yankees were storming into Canada with all the momentum in the world and an on-paper pitching advantage in Game 2 with Max Fried vs Trey Yesavage.

The result? They got outscored 23-8. Red Sox Twitter is having the time of their lives (pathetic, honestly, but this is their Super Bowl whenever they're eliminated). Martinez is smirking at the thought of sweeping the Yankees and looking like a genius for aimlessly babbling back on Sept. 9. We're sure John Schneider is waiting for his lane to be a colossal meathead. And now the Yankees need to win three straight games to make this go away.

Maybe shut up and let the play do the talking until further notice?