Yankees Find Life Without Left-Handed Batters Isn’t Right

Alex Rodriguez shredded the team’s lineup for being so one-dimensional. They’ll have to adjust to become contenders.

If this were 2020 — and let’s never go back there, please — the Yankees’ regular season would be over after 60 games. They would still be alive, but eagerly rooting for other teams to lose, allowing them to qualify for the eighth spot in a bloated playoff field. But it is 2021, which means the old postseason format is back, with only five teams per league getting an invitation. The Yankees would not make that cut. They are 31-29, fourth in the American League East, and have been swept in each of the last two weekend series: first in Detroit to the rebuilding Tigers, and then in the Bronx to the revitalized Red Sox. On Sunday night, they struck out 11 times and left 12 runners on base in a 6-5 loss in 10 innings.