Yankees News: Brian Cashman backs Aaron Boone, Giancarlo Stanton worries, Ben Rice

The New York Yankees are ... riding high? They've won two straight series for the first time since late May and have won four out of their last five games. They're going for a sweep on Sunday against the St. Louis Cardinals. And they have a day off on Monday! Look at that.

But before this series started, Brian Cashman of course had to get the fanbase riled up by taking the podium to support manager Aaron Boone despite growing frustration. For two full months, the Yankees were the worst team in the American League. The worst! They had a commanding AL East lead that has since turned into a 6.5-game deficit. Everybody had a right to be mad.

Boone has caught a lot of the criticism because, well, he's in charge. He's the one who put Devin Williams in countless high-leverage situations despite evidence to the contrary. He's the one who failed to maximize the team's strengths during a time of need. He's the one who was responsible for failing to stop the bleeding. He's the one who takes the heat when the players lack baseball fundamentals and it results in losses.

What did Cashman say in his response? You know, the low-hanging fruit: because the Yankees are located in New York, the call for accountability is "automatically" louder in a bigger market. But again, big market or small market, we're talking about the worst team in the American League for 33% of the season. Only the worst teams do that!

Then he threw in a ridiculous WWE analogy, further proving that the front office doesn't get the point. Nobody wants Boone berating players or throwing them down the clubhouse steps by their underpants. They just want to hear anything but "everything's going to be fine!" when the sky is objectively falling.

“I’m not an advocate of becoming Randy ‘Macho Man’ Savage or John Cena from WWE and providing a power drive to finish off the victim — the victim being someone struggling at the plate, struggling defensively, struggling on the mound. And now you’re hearing it externally, and their family and friends are all hearing it. Then internally, now, they’re getting piled on also. In many cases, you’ve got to understand what the atmosphere is like.”

Plot twist: "My God! That's Stone Cold's music, and he appears headed for Brian Cashman's office in Yankee Stadium!"

Yankees News: Giancarlo Stanton injury worries, Ben Rice historic night

Though the Yankees captured a nail-biter on Friday and then exploded for 12 runs on Saturday, it hasn't exactly helped the morale among the fanbase. Giancarlo Stanton was out of the lineup for a second straight day (after a day off) as he's had a "tougher time recovering" from playing all three games in the outfield against the Minnesota Twins.

It's unclear if he'll be in Sunday's lineup, but this is obviously what everybody's feared with Stanton being forced into action on both sides of the ball due to Aaron Judge's injury. Nobody to blame here: Stanton needs to be playing as much as he possibly can until he can't ... though we will say Boone probably could've afforded to give Aaron Judge a day off during the Twins series to get Stanton off his feet if that was indeed a concern. Judge is hitting .184 with a .798 OPS over his last 15 games.

We'll be keeping tabs on Stanton (and Bellinger, who missed Saturday too with an illness), but it was at least a good sign to see the Yankees demolish St. Louis with a weakened lineup.

And that was mostly thanks to Ben Rice, who notched seven RBI in a 3-for-5 night as the Yanks won a high-scoring affair, 12-8. Rice belted the go-ahead three-run homer in the fourth inning and then rocketed a bases-clearing double to extend New York's lead, which they would never relinquish. It was beautiful.

With Paul Goldschmidt also injured, Rice has been naturally seeing more playing time even after he began to force the issue and take reps from Austin Wells. Rice has split time between first base and catcher, becoming one of the team's most consistent hitters over the last month as they look to dig out of this hole.

All in all, despite the concerns, the vibes are improving. It'll be Will Warren vs Miles Mikolas on Sunday afteroon. Extremely winnable. Go get it.