Last-place Yankees remain confident in playoff chances

Members of the New York Yankees insist the club can and will go on a run and qualify for a playoff berth despite the team's 58-55 record.

"There's a lot of talent in this clubhouse," utility man Jake Bauers said shortly after Monday's 5-1 loss to the 46-68 Chicago White Sox, per Garrett Stepien of SNY and Max Goodman of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com. "There's a lot of talent in this clubhouse, and it's no secret that things haven't been really going right, things haven't been really going our way. At some point, everything's going to turn around. We're going to get hot, we're going to win some games and September's going to come around -- we're going to be right in it." 

The Yankees were 35-25 when slugger Aaron Judge first began missing games because of a torn ligament in his big right toe he suffered on June 3. He returned to the lineup on July 28 but hasn't been able to keep the Bronx Bombers out of the basement of the American League East standings. 

Last-place New York began Tuesday trailing the first-place Baltimore Orioles by 12.5 games in the division race, and the Yankees were five-and-a-half games back in the battle for a wild-card spot. The Toronto Blue Jays (64-50), Seattle Mariners (60-52) and Boston Red Sox (58-54) were all ahead of New York in the wild-card standings following Monday's action. 

Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who went viral Monday night during an ejection that likely elicited little laughter from those inside the organization's front office, believes the bats will begin to heat up with 49 regular-season games remaining on the schedule. 

"We had base runners galore and guys know that that’s building," Boone said about Monday's defeat. "The at-bat quality is there. We gotta build on it and finish some of these off." 

Boone didn't expand on the confidence he possesses in a lineup that has underwhelmed throughout the season and stranded 13 runners on base in Monday's loss, but ace Gerrit Cole echoed his manager and said the Yankees making the playoffs is still "doable." 

The Yankees' quiet trade deadline, coupled with the concussion woes that currently have first baseman Anthony Rizzo sidelined and the recent disturbing incident involving troubled starting pitcher Domingo German and whatever is and/or isn't going on with designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton all indicate the franchise is more likely to stay in last place than catch fire out of nowhere.

In short, the Yankees' bark seems to carry little bite at this stage of the season.