Seemingly vulgar celebration comes back to bite Yankees in embarrassing Rays series

Are we back to the bad old days of 2021? You remember that season, don't you? The Yankees were a playoff team by the skin of their teeth, but seemingly only because the universe wanted to deal them one last embarrassing blow: Gerrit Cole limping off the mound after the Fenway Park hooligans who surrounded his bullpen work with Kermit dolls got their way.

That year, the Yankees seemingly got karmic retribution every single time they attempted to trash talk their opponents. Aaron Judge pretending it was "chilly" while rounding third base against the Astros resulted in the most disheartening ninth inning collapse of the year ... except all the ones Kiké Hernández was responsible for at Fenway. Outside of the Blue Jays and Robbie Ray, every rival got the better of the Yanks that year, a tradition that hasn't subsided in the intervening period, but hasn't been quite as strong since ... until this weekend at The Trop.

Of course it was The Trop. Had to be The Trop. Once a house of horrors for the Yanks, New York might've thought they were earning themselves some good karma last season by lending George M. Steinbrenner Field, their Tampa spring training facility, to their rivals for a year while the roof got patched up after Hurricane Milton. Unfortunately, that was not the case. The Yankees lost three in a row this weekend, and all goodwill was seemingly revoked after Jose Caballero's eighth-inning celebration after taking the lead.

Caballero drove in the tying and lead run with a well-struck double down the line, then reached second and ... well, seemingly used his arm to represent male genitalia and dropped it/let it hang. The boys in the dugout reciprocated.

Not to be a celebration prude, but you'd better make absolutely certain you're going to win the baseball game if you want to pretend to drop dong on the table. Max Fried didn't even last a batter before surrendering a double to catcher Nick Fortes, who swiftly scored the tying run. In extras, it was the Rays who flashed the Yankees their manhood, bunting repeatedly and getting the job done in ultra-emasculating fashion.

Rays showed Yankees exactly what they're missing in weekend series sweep

Remember when the Yankees were the team that planned to take every day seriously, thanks to a speech from Giancarlo Stanton, Paul Goldschmidt and Aaron Judge? Apparently, that message didn't translate to their weekend gameplan. They were wholly unprepared for the Rays' use of small ball — every bunt was an automatic firestarter. They were out of position. They didn't cover first. They threw to home and first fecklessly. A spiraling Jazz Chisholm Jr. may or may not have known the rules, but certainly didn't have a plan.

If this Yankees team is going to reach true contender status, they need to have a thorough approach for exerting that all-important effort, rather than just providing it lip service. And they certainly can't afford to celebrate like this before the job is anywhere close to finished.