Yankees’ Aaron Boone bluntly credited rivals after Red Sox completed series sweep

Red Sox

“They’ve kicked our ass,” Boone told reporters after Sunday’s defeat.

Following his team being swept by the Red Sox over the weekend, Yankees manager Aaron Boone offered a candid overview.

The 6-5 defeat, New York’s eighth in a row (the team’s longest losing streak since 1995), dropped Boone’s team to 60-64 on the season, last in the division with just 38 games remaining.

“They’ve kicked our ass,” Boone told reporters after the game. “We’ve played a handful of competitive games that have come down to the end. We just haven’t been good enough.”

Sunday’s result came despite Boston blowing a late lead, a tough blow for the Yankees. The loss sends New York to nine games back of the final American League wild-card spot.

Asked if he still thinks his team can make a playoff push, Boone kept his focus on the present.

“You always have a chance, but we’re in a big hole now,” he said. “You can’t even get big-picture about it. You’ve just got tackle the next day. That’s what we’re in right now.”

In a follow-up later in the press conference, Boone interrupted a question about what he sees as reasons for optimism.

“You’re getting too big,” he said in response to rest-of-season projections. “We’ve got to be unbelievable the rest of the way. So it’s not even about that. It’s about coming to try to win a game Tuesday. And then all of a sudden you start stacking [wins] and an amazing thing happens. But we’re so far removed from that right now. We’ve got to get a win first.”