Alex Verdugo's lame quote after Yankees-White Sox totally redefines 'dog energy'

Remember when the 2024 New York Yankees used to bark at their opponents, unleashing years of frustration by strutting their stuff rather than being timidly dismissed by their rivals? Now that August has rolled around, they play more like a group of guys who peed on the carpet and are hoping you don't notice.

Monday night might've marked a new low point in a low-point-packed season, which stung even harder given how hard they battled the universe not to blow an 8-3 lead in Sunday's wild affair.

New York left a village on base in the first four innings of a tight game, struggled to claw back from a three-run deficit against a White Sox team that hadn't won on Monday all season, then suffered the final indignity as a week packed with doubleheaders caught up to them. Forced to use Tim Hill and Enyel De Los Santos eternally to save the bullpen, the latter poured a gas can on the affair, extending Chicago's lead to 8-2, 11-2, and finally 12-2, giving the Southsiders their first double-digit win of the entire year as they ran up the score.

It was just one loss, but it was the kind of humbling loss that might leave a top-tier team introspective, wondering what had happened to their plan of attack and how they could adjust it to maintain their edge against the league's lesser clubs. According to Alex Verdugo after the game, though ... nope!

No wake-up call. No reminder of the day-to-day intensity needed over the course of a long season. "It's baseball, right?"

Yankees outfielder Alex Verdugo has bad energy after loss to Chicago White Sox

It's baseball, wrong.

Verdugo got one thing right. You can't compete at a high level if you don't respect your opponent (or, at least, pretend to). Kudos on not falling into the trap and railing about how the White Sox are dreadful, the Yankees should've mashed them, and they should be able to walk to a victory on Tuesday, no problem. Even beating the worst teams in the league takes work.

But otherwise, it was bizarrely complacent to hear him act like a Monday showdown against not just a poor team, but a team threatening the 1962 Mets for an all-time loss record, shouldn't be a wake-up call for a Yankees club that's spent an awful lot of time sleepwalking through the summer.

In April, this team rubbed their success in their opponents' faces, riding Juan Soto and Verdugo's energy infusion to tone-setting upset road wins over the Astros and Diamondbacks. They were able to ride that swagger through late May, resetting preseason expectations significantly. Unfortunately, everything seemed to run out of gas at the same time in mid-June, from the pitching staff, to the lineup, to the compete level. Once upon a time, they were dawgs. Nowadays, they look much more like a team that embodies the dog days of summer.

And if the wrong lesson was learned on Monday -- eg, that there was no lesson to learn at all -- then the Yankees have a real problem.