Aaron Boone's postgame comments made Yankees' infuriating loss to Brewers even worse

Welcome to the New York Yankees, Michael Tonkin! How was your flight? Did you get to meet any of your teammates yet? That's Aaron Judge. Anyway, sorry you got DFA'd by the Mets and Twins, but we need you in extra innings on the road with a one-run lead and the Ghost Runner on second.

How's Ian Hamilton? Yeah, he's fine. Just giving him a day. How's Luke Weaver? A little bit fatigued after 2 2/3 clean frames against Oakland, but otherwise dandy. Clay Holmes? He just threw an inning. Didn't you see that? Silly. Sure, it was only 10 pitches, but by the letter of the law, it was an inning. He's not an option for us. And you are! Anyway, we'll see you in the bottom of the 11th after you blow this save.

After Friday night's giveaway game -- which the Yankees led 2-0 early and 5-4 after a dramatic Trent Grisham fourth-inning homer, but never scored in again until Rob Manfred's free runner showed up -- the Yankees sit at 17-10, but are in a perilous position of their own making, with two more against Milwaukee and four against Baltimore. It's a difficult stretch. There may be some blowout losses involved. That's baseball, when you're facing contenders. Therefore, every game that remotely resembles a win is precious. You don't give those away easily.

Unless you're Boone and the Yankees in April. Unless you're the Yankees, these Yankees that were supposed to be different, playing in a road extra-innings game; they're now 3-15 in such contests since the Ghost Runner was introduced, far and away the worst record in baseball. Before Tonkin ever arrived, the Yankees pulled off another one of their specialties: not picking up Giancarlo Stanton from second after his leadoff double. Where was the resulting Anthony Volpe bunt? Where was any semblance of the urgent notion that one run on the road isn't enough -- especially if you're about to go to Michael Tonkin.

Even Jack Curry showed a high degree of frustration in his postgame wrapup tweet. Typically, Curry simply spits the facts in assessing what he's seen in one small sliver of a 162-game season. This time? The facts included Boone's poor 10th inning decision-making. It was factually bad.

Yankees lose game they decided to lose vs Milwaukee Brewers thanks to Michael Tonkin

In the 11th inning, now re-tied, Jahmai Jones, acting as the Ghost Runner, broke on contact on an Alex Verdugo chopper to the mound and was gunned down by 15 feet. There it is. There's those Yankees. Look at me, complaining about scoring one run in the top half. There's those zero runs I remember so well.

After the game -- a loss, of course, at the hands of Joey Ortiz, the inferior prospect to Spencer Jones Milwaukee accepted in the Corbin Burnes trade -- Boone was emphatic about whether he could've tried Holmes for a second frame. Not only did he not choose to do so, but it wasn't even considered.

Holmes is being overused. The Yankees' bullpen is thin. But both Hamilton and Weaver would've been preferable to Tonkin, whose future DFA is already looming. Even Victor González, a relatively poor choice, would've felt like inserting Mariano Rivera in comparison.

Whether Boone wanted to stay away from Holmes or not, he had options. He selected the one that indicated that he and his team care about April baseball the least.

Looking forward to Saturday's game, for which they saved some of their key bullpen arms instead of making their strongest attempt, under the circumstances, to win a game that was right in front of them. Surely it won't be one of those forthcoming blowouts, rendering Boone's machinations utterly pointless.

This team wants to prove they really are "different"? Care about all 162, to some degree. And for goodness sakes, figure out a way to win a road extra inning game every once in a while. Everyone else does it.