Yankees had potentially fatal flaws exposed in gut-punch loss to Red Sox

So far this season, the New York Yankees have shown why they are one of the top teams in the American League. Fresh off a World Series appearance, the Yankees are watching Aaron Judge have an unreal start which could very well lead to him winning the Triple Crown, while offseason additions in Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger have been off to solid starts to their Yankees careers. But that doesn't mean the Yankees are perfect.

Take Friday night's game against the rival Boston Red Sox for example. The Yankees lost a heartbreaker, falling 2-1 in extra innings, despite a some late heroics by Judge. So, what are the concerns the Yankees have?

Yankees' fatal flaws brought out to the open against the Red Sox

The first question that must be posed is can the Yankees hit against left-handed hitting when facing prime AL teams. If season stats prove anything, it's yes, they can. Thus far, the Yankees are batting .262 against left-handed pitching (fourth most in baseball) and hold an OPS of .810 (best in the majors). Sure, that's all well and good, but look at what happened when facing off against a top-tier ace in the American League in Garrett Crochet, who is a left-hander.

Crochet pitched 8.1 innings, where he didn't allow a single run until Judge hit a game-tying solo homer with two outs remaining in the top of the ninth inning. Crochet only allowed three hits before that home run to Judge. And this was facing a lineup with Goldschmidt and Bellinger. Even before his homer, Judge had gone 0-for-6 against Crochet this season.

The Yankees did have one strength entering spring training, and that was their starting rotation. But then, Gerrit Cole was determined to need Tommy John surgery, while Luis Gil was sidelined with a right lat strain. While the Yankees have seen incredible work from free agent signing Max Fried, the back-end of the rotation is weak. Recently, the Yankees have rlied upon Ryan Yarbrough to start, and early on, it looked like another great decision by the team. But recently, Yarbrough hasn't looked as good, especially when facing the Red Sox.

On June 7, Yarbrough surrendered eight earned runs on nine hits in four innings in a 10-7 loss to Boston. Friday night's outing by Yarbrough was nowhere near as bad as the June 7 start, but it still wasn't great. Yarbrough gave up one earned runs on four hits, which isn't awful on paper. But, Yarbrough couldn't make it out of the fifth inning, as he was pulled after issuing a walk to Kristian Campbell and allowing a single to Rob Refsnyder. Yarbough did strike out three batters, but issued three walks total in his short outing.

But then there's this not-so-fun statistic for the Yankees that should stick with the fanbase, especially during postseason games on the road. According to Katie Sharp of Sports Reference, the Yankees are 12-26 in road games 10 innings or longer since 2020. That's officially the worst win percentage in MLB in that span.

That statistic isn't necessarily surprising, considering the team's heartbreaking extra innings losses in the postseason over the years. There's Game 1 of the 2024 World Series, where Los Angeles Dodgers star Freddie Freeman crushed a walk-off grand slam off Nestor Cortes. Then, there was their 7-5 walk-off loss to the Cleveland Guardians in Game 3 of the 2024 ALCS, where David Fry crushed a two-run homer in the 10th inning.

There is still so much time left in the season for teams like the Yankees to ensure there are no weaknesses heading into the postseason. Let's not forget that there's still the trade deadline on July 31. Yet, the Yankees are a team that haven't won a World Series since 2009. The fanbase is growing restless and would like to seem them hoist the Commissioner's Trophy for the 28th time. But, they need to fine-tune certain aspects of the team if they want to contend for the Fall Classic and get past the tough teams in the National League in the big series.