Why do the Yankees struggle so much in the summer?

After snapping a season-worst six-game losing streak, the Yankees are looking to continue their momentum after a 7-3 victory over the Los Angeles Angels. 

In June, the Yankees have an 8-9 record, by far their worst stretch of baseball in 2025. After their victory over the Angels on Thursday, the Yankees narrowly avoided being swept in consecutive series. 

The Yankees' summer struggles have become a trend over the past few seasons. Since 2019, the Yankees have had a win percentage of .575. At the same time, the Yankees have had a win percentage of .541 during the summer months of June, July and August (No games were played in June 2020 due to COVID-19). 

The month where the Yankees have struggled most is July, as they have only had a .519 win percentage in the month since 2019. Since 2022, August has been the killer for New York, as they have a .415 win percentage. 

There hasn't been a distinct reason as to why the Yankees struggle in the summer. Since 2019, the Yankees have only had three instances with 20+ wins in a single month: June 2022 (22-6), August 2021 (21-8) and August 2019 (21-9). On the opposite end, the Yankees have gone under .500 or one game over in nine different months, including June and July 2024. 

The Yankees' rough June can be credited to the fact that the bats have gone quiet. Through the first two months of the season, the Yankees' team average ranked near the top of the league at .262. This month, the Yankees currently have the sixth-worst team average in all of baseball at .235. 

Along with a batting average, the Yankees have only been scoring 3.94 runs per game in June. In the first three months, the Yankees were scoring 5.47 runs per game. 

The Yankees' struggles have directly correlated to the struggles of their reigning MVP, Aaron Judge. On June 12 against the Royals, Manager Aaron Boone decided to rest Judge for the first time this season. Despite winning that game 1-0, the team's losing streak started right after. 

Since the start of their six-game losing streak, Judge has only three hits in his last 26 at-bats (.115 AVG) with one home run, one RBI and three walks in the past seven games.  

The right-handed slugger has been striking out at a significantly higher rate as well. With 15 strikeouts in his last seven games, Judge has a 57% strikeout rate and is being sat down on strikes about 2.5 times a game. Before this stretch, Judge had only struck out 68 times in 66 games, just over once a game. 

One aspect of the team that hasn't struggled has been the pitching staff. In the 16 games this month, the Yankees' pitching staff has the lowest monthly ERA of this season at 3.22.

As a whole, the Yankees' pitching staff only allowed 2.71 runs during their last seven games. Despite the great pitching, it's practically impossible to win games when the offense only scores six runs in six games and is shutout in three consecutive games. 

With seven series and 21 games left until the All-Star break, the Yankees are looking to wake up their bats back to the standard they set at the beginning of the season.