Yankees' starting pitching has made a turn for the worse during losing skid

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Rotation. Rotation. Rotation.

It hasn’t been just one element that had the Yankees, losers in 15 of their last 20 games, skidding into Tuesday night’s series opener against the Rays at Tropicana Field.

Take your pick between the rotation and bullpen both going into tailspins after strong starts and the offense, because of the underperformance of too many, that has the team looking much like the 2023 edition as of late.

The stretch has been so bad, general manager Brian Cashman rearranged his travel schedule to arrive a few days earlier – he had planned to come to Tampa later in the week in advance of the MLB draft, which starts Sunday – so he could lay eyes on the team and talk to Aaron Boone and his coaching staff.

“Because of how we’ve been playing,” Cashman said in the visitor’s dugout before Tuesday night’s game. “I was going to be here for the draft but I’m here for us.”

Though doing so sparingly, Cashman has occasionally addressed past Yankees teams during periods of poor play.

“I’ll leave that for Aaron Boone and his individual coaches to handle their business,” Cashman said. “That’s not my area. I’ve done it on rare occasions but ultimately that’s in the manager’s hands with the coaching staff and the players themselves.”

The reasons for this particular nosedive are myriad. But the collective plummet of the rotation is at or near the head of the list – an occurrence made all the more shocking as the downturn, though not causal, coincided more or less with the return of ace Gerrit Cole.

Through the first 72 games of the season, the Yankees’ rotation had the best ERA in the sport (2.77) and had allowed 1.01 homers per nine innings, good enough for 10th-best in MLB.

Over its past 20 games, the group, entering Tuesday night when Carlos Rodon took the mound, had the worst ERA in the majors (6.96). The rotation has given up 2.23 homers per nine innings in that stretch, the worst rate in the big leagues.

“They were flying high,” Cashman said. “Like anything else, you can get some positive mojo going and everybody feeds off of each other, but it also works the other way too.”

Indeed, just as every starter contributed to the other-worldly numbers from the first two months of the season, the same has been true in reverse.

Rodon, who had a 2.93 ERA after a dominant outing in Kansas City June 10, brought a 4.45 ERA into Tuesday night’s start, the result of going 0-for-4 with a 10.89 ERA in his previous four outings.

Luis Gil, with a 2.03 ERA on June 14, saw that number balloon to 3.41 after a three-start stretch in which he went 0-3 with a 14.90 ERA (the rookie lowered it to 3.27 after bouncing back Sunday night against the Red Sox when he allowed one run and four hits over 6 2/3 innings in the 3-0 loss).

Marcus Stroman, though still with overall good numbers – 7-4 with a 3.58 ERA – has seen his ERA climb from 2.82 on June 11 to 3.58 after going 1-2, 6.43 over the ensuing four starts.

And Cole, who started the season on the injured list with right elbow inflammation, is still working through what essentially is the end of his spring training – but doing it in the big leagues – and has been up and down since returning June 19, going 1-1 with a 6.75 ERA in four starts.

The only starter in the stretch who has held his own is Nestor Cortes, 4-7 this season but with a 3.41 ERA, including posting a 2.70 ERA in his last four starts.

Boone, speaking before Tuesday’s game, cited the offense’s struggles but quickly pivoted to the pitching issues, which includes a bullpen that, through June 14 had the third-best ERA in the game (3.31) but since June 15 ranks 26th with a 5.24 ERA.

“The biggest thing has been keeping the ball in the ballpark, doing a better job of that,” Boone said.

As for the offense, Boone said: “I do think there’s been, at times, maybe a couple guys at different points pressing, which is not too uncommon. But overall I don’t think that’s been a huge issue for us.”