Yankees' defensive meltdown blows comeback bid, Estevan Florial gets revenge

Another series win is in the books for the New York Yankees, but the way they fumbled the opportunity at a sweep on Sunday has left a sour taste in fans' mouths. Once again, they couldn't handle the fundamentals.

The offense showed up, yet again. Anthony Volpe had three hits. Juan Soto had two hits. Aaron Judge hit a three-run homer. Giancarlo Stanton logged two hits. Anthony Rizzo drove in two clutch runs. Jose Trevino homered. They put up a crooked number. It should've been enough.

But Nestor Cortes was unspectacular (4 IP, 4 ER, 5 H, 1 BB) and the defense was ... bad. The Yankees made two errors on the day, and that somehow doesn't count the two misplays they made in extras to seal the loss.

It all started to get out of hand when former Yankee Estevan Florial clobbered a pinch-hit homer off Luke Weaver to give the Guardians the lead in the bottom of the eighth. Classic. Another former failed Yankee coming to get his revenge. But then Volpe drove in Oswaldo Cabrera in the top of the ninth with an RBI double to send the game to extras.

And again, the Yankees struck first in the top half of the 10th. Not used to seeing that! Those were Rizzo's RBIs. It was 7-5 heading into the bottom of the 10th and Caleb Ferguson came on for the save. But the middle infield prolonged the game with silliness.

Yankees' defensive meltdown blows comeback bid, Estevan Florial gets revenge

If Rizzo's two errors earlier in the game weren't enough to blow a gasket for ya, then we present you with ... fielder's choices! The new definition of them, at least.

Volpe bobbling a transfer on a double play apparently qualifies as that. Had he made this play, the game could've been over two batters later. Instead, a double from the next batter put runners on second and third, with the tying run 90 feet away.

This time, it was Gleyber's turn to bobble (he also had a misplay earlier in this series that almost cost them the game). He fumbled the exchange on a grounder and his throw home was late. Tie game. Still one out. Everybody was safe.

All it took was a sac fly to end this one as the Yankees traded two outs for two runs in the 8-7 walk-off loss. It's hard to complain at this rate when New York is 12-4, but anytime they lose a heartbreaker like this, it brings back memories of incompetence and sadness.

They'll have to shake this one off quickly, though, because they have six upcoming games against the Blue Jays and Rays. If you can't make mistakes like these against the Guardians, you definitely can't make them against division rivals.

All in all, a very good series that ended in a way to overshadow Saturday's success.