When Aaron Boone uses the word 'embarrassing,' he doesn't use it lightly

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — They are words Aaron Boone has rarely used publicly during his four-plus seasons as Yankees manager.

And so, as appropriate as the words “embarrassing” and “embarrassed” were after Friday night's 9-0 loss to the Rays in which the Yankees committed three errors, stranded 10 in going 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and used position player Marwin Gonzalez as their final pitcher of the night, they still sounded jarring coming out of Boone’s mouth.  

Further proof that he doesn’t use those words lightly?

Think back to July 3 of last season after an 8-3 dud against the Mets that dropped the Yankees to 41-40.

Boone was asked after that loss if he found it “embarrassing” for the team, given its talent and expectations coming out of spring training, to be one game over .500 at the halfway point of the season.  

"It's frustrating. We’re [ticked] off about it, obviously," Boone said that day at the Stadium. "We've set a much higher bar in there. And we haven't, to this point, lived up to that . . . I know guys are upset and not OK with it [but] I'll never be embarrassed about what those guys put in and what we try to do on a regular basis. Proud to be associated with them. But we all understand it's got to be better."

It was the same church, slightly different pew with the verbiage after Friday night’s smackdown, which allowed the Rays to cut their AL East deficit to five games, the lowest the Yankees’  lead had been since it was five games on June 1. It had reached 15 1/2 games on July 8, and the Yankees still led the fourth-place Rays by 12 games on Aug. 12.

“That’s an embarrassing loss,’’ Boone said Friday. “That’s hopefully one of those rock-bottom situations where you should be [ticked] off and embarrassed. We’ve set a better standard around here.”

What was it about Friday night that caused him to use those words?

“Just embarrassing when you get beat like that and you’re going through the struggles you are,” Boone said. “I’m in charge of this team and what we’re going through right now. I know better than anyone there’s going to be hard moments and hard times. I do think the effort’s there, I think the care is there. But we’ve set a much better standard in that room that we’ve got to start living up to.”

It has been a good while now since the Yankees have lived up to that standard. Entering Saturday night's game, they had gone 18-30 since building that season-high 15 1/2-game lead. They were 15-25 since the All-Star break and 9-19 since the Aug. 2 trade deadline.

The players are very much aware of their rapidly diminishing AL East lead, but they’re not obsessing over it. Not yet.

“I don’t pay attention to it,’’ Aaron Judge said. “That’s the worst thing you can do in anything is press or feel pressure. We’re playing a kid’s game. This is a game we love, and we’ve got to go out there with enthusiasm and energy every single night and not really worry about the standings. Because if we show up and do what we do — have good at-bats, command the stuff we need to on the mound — we’re going to look up at the end of the year and be where we want to be in the standings. So we can’t sit here and try to press. I don’t think anybody in this room is trying to press or looking at that kind of stuff. We’ve got plenty on our plate.”

Which, first and foremost, starts with the Yankees recapturing the form that once had observers wondering if they could win 120 games and made them the odds-on favorite to represent the American League in the World Series..

A day later, Friday's loss still stung Boone.

“Last night, the way it ended up, just one of those awful days,” he said Saturday. “You should have that professional pride where you don’t want to have that feeling or that look . . . We understand, to a man, starting with me, we’ve got to pick it up.” 

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.