No one knows what rock bottom looks like until they hit it, but the Yankees must be pretty damn close.
Dead last in the AL East at 15 games back of the Orioles and seven games back of the Mariners in the AL wild card race heading into Saturday, things only got worse in the Bronx against the Yankees' biggest rival.
The Yankees dropped their second straight game to the Red Sox 8-1 Saturday afternoon, a day after manager Aaron Boone said he talked to the team to say they're not out of the race yet and a "turnaround is coming," per Max Goodman.
It's going to have to be a two-point turn at least. Even Gerrit Cole, who is having a Cy Young-caliber season amid the wreckage at 1 E. 161st St., got touched up against the Red Sox. He gave up a grand slam and in total allowed six runs on seven hits in four innings, his second straight non-quality start after recording six straight.
After the game, Cole was justifiably at a loss for words.
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"I don't recall experiencing anything like before in my career," he told reporters, per the YES Network. "And how you handle adversity and how you get through it is really ultimately how you'll be judged."
Cole added he missed Boone's comments to the team as he'd left, but when asked about the "light at the end of the tunnel" Cole said it was all about trying to win the next game.
This is all happening when Hal Steinbrenner, Brian Cashman, and company had a dead silent trade deadline, only acquiring Keynan Middleton and Spencer Howard. The Yankees brass said at the time they were "in it to win it," but a total disinterest in improving the roster even at the margins has continued to sink what was once baseball's Evil Empire.
At this point, the goal seems to be to make it to the offseason and reassess then.
AL East standings
The Yankees are dead last in the AL East and the only team in the division below .500, sitting at 60-63. They're 15.5 games back of the Orioles and five games back of the Red Sox for fourth.
| Position | Team | Record | Games Back |
| 1 | Baltimore Orioles | 75-47 | -- |
| 2 | Tampa Bay Rays | 74-51 | 2.5 |
| 3 | Toronto Blue Jays | 67-56 | 8.5 |
| 4 | Boston Red Sox | 65-58 | 10.5 |
| 5 | New York Yankees | 60-63 | 15.5 |
AL Wild Card standings
The Yankees are out of the race for the AL East, but what about the wild card?
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It doesn't look great in that department either. They're nestled next to the similarly disappointing Angels in the standings, with the Angels seven games back of the Mariners and the Yankees 7.5 games back. Three teams, two of them the Blue Jays and Red Sox, now stand between the Yankees and Seattle.
| Position | Team | Record | Games Back |
| WC1 | Tampa Bay Rays | 74-51 | +5.5 |
| WC2 | Houston Astros | 70-53 | +2.5 |
| WC3 | Seattle Mariners | 67-55 | -- |
| 4 | Toronto Blue Jays | 67-56 | 0.5 |
| 5 | Boston Red Sox | 65-58 | 2.5 |
| 6 | Los Angeles Angels | 61-63 | 7 |
| 7 | New York Yankees | 60-63 | 7.5 |
| 8 | Cleveland Guardians | 59-64 | 8.5 |
The odds of this ship getting turned around in time are slim at best, but the Yankees do have a point of pride at stake as well.
When was the Yankees last losing season?
The Yankees haven't posted a sub-.500 season since 1992, meaning a 30-year streak of winning records is at stake.
They suffered their seventh straight loss Saturday, tied for the 24th-longest streak in Yankee history.
The 1992 Yankees went went 76-86, fourth in the AL East. That roster featured the likes of Don Mattingly, Bernie Williams, and Scott Sanderson.
This year's Yankees are trying to avoid becoming a trivia question in the future, but the odds of that seem to get longer by the day. The only bright spot? Two of their next three series are against the Nationals and the Tigers, with the Rays sandwiched in between.
