Yankees' new one-of-a-kind meltdown vs Tigers has postseason vibes in the toilet

It wasn't comfortable feeling dissatisfied about the New York Yankees' series win over the Toronto Blue Jays over the weekend. They were sleep walking on Friday and then won nail-biters on Saturday and Sunday through little success of their own. Simply put: the Yankees were unimpressive and the Blue Jays played worse than the equally uninspiring performance on the other end.

It felt good to be 4-2 after a tough six-game stretch, but six more tough matchups were ahead. And they already failed the first test right out of the gate following an off day.

New York got whipped by the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday night in the series opener in the Bronx. After jumping out to a 2-0 lead (Aaron Judge passed Yogi Berra on the Yankees' all-time home run list), everything fell apart beginning in the top of the fifth.

Will Warren gave up a two-run homer to Parker Meadows, who is hitting .218/.293/.358 this season. Warren got through six, but he let the Tigers back in the game with another rough mistake (which seems to plague most of his outings this season).

And then the bullpen ... existed. Aaron Boone called on Fernando Cruz in the top of the seventh. He allowed five earned runs on two hits and three walks. He didn't record an out. He threw just seven strikes out of his 20 total pitches. Then came Mark Leiter Jr., who allowed four earned runs on two hits and a walk. He also recorded zero outs, threw just seven strikes out of his 16 pitches, and added a wild pitch for good measure.

Tim Hill was asked to clean up the mess, but it didn't matter by that point. The Tigers had batted around, and when all was said and done the 2-2 tie ballooned into an 11-2 deficit. Honestly ... insulting to bring him in? We get that there weren't many other options, but at that point just use Paul Blackburn for 70 pitches and have him finish the game. What's the difference between 11-2 and 18-2?

And what do you know, another historic incoming loss for the Yankees, who seem to pile these up every single year during the Aaron Boone era. We have analysts out there calling New York the best team in the American League and hopeful World Series contenders. They might be 80-64. They might have a favorable position in the playoff race. They might have enough All-Star talent to put them in that conversation.

But nothing else matches. The intensity is almost never there. The big-game performances are few and far between. The mistakes are omnipresent. The meltdowns and collapses consistently cascade. The bleeding never stops. The momentum is rarely carried.

Just look at the last week. After cruising to a 7-1 win over the Astros, they notched one of their worst losses of the season the very next night. After putting that behind them and capturing a series win, they lost handily to the Blue Jays in the series opener the next day without a fight. After winning that series against the Blue Jays and getting an off day, their bullpen gives up nine runs in ZERO innings pitched to an ice cold Tigers team who just lost a series to the White Sox.

The Yankees are playing their chief competition right now. The Tigers are it. Sure, they could still win this series, but what makes anybody think they're better than Detroit outside of the names on the lineup card? That's all they have at this point. They have few clutch hitters. They have an incomplete bullpen. Anthony Volpe is still being run out there every day, and he can't even lay down a sacrifice bunt (and then did whatever this was).

God bless you if you think the 2025 Yankees are World Series contenders. But honestly, that's an insult to last year's team, which feels like it was way more prepared for the moment than this one — and that's not necessarily a good thing after seeing how that ended.