Another pathetic Yankees showing reveals to the world what New York fans already knew

Just as it looked as if the New York Yankees had gotten right after a brutal summer stretch following sweeps of the St. Louis Cardinals and the Tampa Bay Rays, the club has reverted to its frustrating ways in a pivotal weekend series against the arch-rival Boston Red Sox.

After dropping the first two games of the four-game set at home against Boston, New York has fallen to 34-37 since June 1, and has now sunk all the way down to third place in the AL East.

The biggest issues during this prolonged slumber have been a lack of execution on the fundamentals in the field and on the basepaths, low-energy performances, and bullpen volatility that has been exacerbated by managerial decisions. It had looked as if these issues were largely behind the club following the dismantling of the Rays, but now with the Red Sox in town, they are once again front and center.

Yankees once again show the world they're an undisciplined mess after uninspired showings against Red Sox

There was a very good chance that Yankees manager Aaron Boone wouldn't have even made it to 2025 if the club hadn't gone all the way to the World Series last season. Winning the AL pennant likely shifted the pendulum and earned Boone a two-year contract extension ahead of this season.

That's a decision that may have been misguided then, and looks even worse now. A big reason the Yankees fell to the Dodgers in last year's Fall Classic was a lack of discipline and failure to execute on defensive fundamentals, combined with some extremely head-scratching managerial decisions from Boone.

The opener against Boston on Thursday night featured more of the same. The Yankees, right off that bat, gifted Boston a run thanks to throwing errors by Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Ben Rice in the second inning.

Rice redeemed himself with a solo homer in the bottom of the second to tie the game 1-1, and Chisholm Jr. would help the Yankees take the lead in the bottom of the fourth thanks to a leadoff single and stolen base that forced Boston catcher Carlos Narvaez into a throwing error of his own, allowing Jazz to take third and then score on a Paul Goldschmidt single.

However, trade deadline disappointment Camilo Doval would open the door for the Red Sox thanks to a disengagement violation that put the speedy David Hamilton on second and allowed him to score on a Roman Anthony single.

In total, the Yankees committed four errors in the contest, and each time Boston made them pay. Hopes were that in the second game of the series on Friday night, they'd be able to rebound, yet the club put up a lifeless performance and ended up being shut out 1-0, managing just three hits and a walk along the way.

While the club wasn't charged with an error this time around, it doesn't mean that it was a clean game by any stretch. For example, this mind-boggling decision by Anthony Volpe doesn't show up as an error in the box score, but in a tight 1-0 game, it is inexcusable nonetheless.

The cold, hard truth of the matter is that these aren't issues that are likely to change, at least not while Boone is at the helm. Even some of his staunchest supporters acknowledge the inconsistency in his decision-making, and if that weren't bad enough, he's proven completely inept at holding anyone accountable and putting the sloppiness to bed once and for all.

Giancarlo Stanton was on the bench for this one as the team continues to try and manage his workload, but the fact of the matter is that he cannot be sitting out games of this caliber. The result was the Yankees looking next to dead on offense while Max Fried rebounded to put up six scoreless innings.

Oh yeah, and Aroldis Chapman shut the door on New York with a 10-pitch save. He was the literal worst pitcher in New York, and now it's untouchable in Boston. Go figure.

The Yankees too frequently play sloppy and lifeless baseball. This is the most important series of the year and they didn't waste a second reverting back to their undisciplined and uninspiring ways. And what do you know? Thursday and Friday were on FOX and Amazon for a national audience to see. Sound familiar? Yankees fans are used to this, but now every baseball fan is getting a taste as the years go by.

Maybe they'll rebound during Saturday's day game on the local channels, but we're surely not looking forward to Sunday Night Baseball. We're back to having zero confidence in this team whatsoever.