Well, at least they scored two runs. Last night, the Yankees surrendered the series to the Los Angeles Angels with a 3-2 loss, and they have now lost each of their last six games. Their lead in the American League East is down to 1 1/2 games.

In the eighth inning, Anthony Volpe committed an error on a potential double-play ball that handed Anaheim the lead. The bases were loaded, and Tim Hill was on the mound. He got Adell to ground a pitch to shortstop, an easy play for Volpe. Except that it wasn’t so easy. The Yankees’ telecast caught Volpe glancing at the daisies behind home plate as he couldn’t glove the ball cleanly for an out at second. He then tried for the out at first, but his throw to Peraza was too hard and too far away, marking his ninth error of the season, the most among American League shortstops.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. But fool me three times…

The Yankees lead the American League in runs scored, but in three straight games, they have been scoreless. Last night was worse than Monday as the Yankees went a whopping 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position. That’s four total hits, including two from Giancarlo Stanton, against Kyle Hendricks, whose 5.20 ERA was one of the American League’s worst before this ballgame.

According to Katie Sharp, the last team to win the World Series after facing three straight regular-season shutouts was the 1913 Philadelphia A’s. There is no modern-day precedent for the Yankees when it comes to their current situation. Adversity is important for a team that wants to contend for a championship, especially if that adversity comes early in the season. The Yankees have officially been humbled. Now, they need to overcome their offensive drought.

It didn’t matter that Giancarlo Stanton struck two hits in his season debut. It didn’t matter that Clarke Schmidt tossed 7 2/3 scoreless innings. It didn’t matter that the bullpen didn’t give up a run until the 11th inning. The Yankees couldn’t score. “Obviously, it’s part of the game,” said Schmidt, whose outing matched Max Fried for the longest by a Yankees starter this season. “You go through streaks like this, where sometimes you’re mashing the ball and things are falling, and then sometimes things aren’t going your way.”

It all ended with one pitch from Hunter Strickland to Anthony Volpe, with the bases loaded in the 11th inning, but a lot went wrong offensively for the Yankees in extra innings. They stranded two of four total no-out runners at second and are now 1-5 in extra-inning games this season. According to Katie Sharp, the Yankees are hitting .077/.194/.077 through 26 extra innings at-bats this season.

If you were to ask me before this series if I would substitute getting swept by the Red Sox for Boston trading Rafael Devers to San Francisco, then I would have said yes. If you were to tell me before this series that Aaron Judge would go 1-for-12 with nine strikeouts, but Rafael Devers would get traded to San Francisco afterward, then I would have been on board.

Thankfully, the Yankees pitched well this weekend, because their offense didn’t show up to the tea party. The Yankees scored one run on Friday, three on Saturday, and zero on Sunday.

Runs can be scored in many ways. Last night, the Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals 1-0 to sweep the series, and their only run came off Pablo Reyes’s legs. “Phew, we’ll take it,” said Aaron Boone after the Yankees won 1-0. They now have their 10th single-season 6-0 record against any opponent in franchise history.

Reyes should never have reached home plate in time. He stumbled while rounding third base, getting caught bouncing left and right down the third base line. “Keep going, keep going, keep going,” cried third-base coach Luis Rojas. And  Reyes kept going.

Last night, the Yankees scored five runs against the league’s ERA leader, Kris Bubic, en route to a 6-3 victory and a series win over the Kansas City Royals.

It didn’t take long for the Yankees’ offense to start producing. In the second inning, Cody Bellinger tripled and Jazz Chisholm Jr. walked, placing runners at the corners. Anthony Volpe grounded out to score Bellinger, and with two outs, DJ LeMahieu walked, placing runners at 1st and 2nd. Then, Austin Wells, the five-RBI hero from Tuesday’s game, doubled to center field to score Volpe, and Paul Goldschmidt singled to clear the bases. The Yankees were up 4-0.

Then, Ben Rice singled to left field, plating Goldschmidt for a 5-0 lead, and Aaron Judge worked a walk, helping the Yankees bat around. Cody Bellinger ended the frame with a groundout.

After Yankees losses this season, Max Fried boasts a 0.83 ERA across eight starts. With a 10-2 win against the Royals last night, the Yankees have 40 wins on the season.

Aaron Judge’s 469-foot bomb lit the sky in Kansas City, but the Yankees’ battery was the true royal couple. Max Fried allowed just two runs across seven innings, and Austin Wells posted his first career five-RBI game. He hit a three-run home run and a two-run double.

“You walk into starting 16 in a row and have your ace go out there and give you seven,” said Aaron Boone. Fried’s performance not only helped the Yankees win this game, but his length provided much-needed bullpen assistance as Boone only had to use two relievers.

Several reports suggest the New York Rangers and Anaheim Ducks are in advanced discussions on a trade that would send Chris Kreider to Anaheim. There is no deal in place yet, but interest and a framework are present, according to Frank Seravalli.

This indicates a trade could be finalized as soon as tomorrow (Wednesday). There is no bigger sign of a rebuild on Broadway than a Chris Kreider trade, especially with his 15-team no-trade list still intact.

Over the last few days, many people have criticized Aaron Boone for the Yankees’ series loss to the Boston Red Sox this weekend. After a 9-6 win on Friday, they lost 10-7 and 11-7 on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. The Yankees couldn’t get length from Ryan Yarbrough or Carlos Rodón, so they overworked their depleted bullpen.

Yarbrough doesn’t pitch beyond 90 mph, and he requires impeccable command to secure outs. He lacked that command on Saturday night, allowing eight runs on nine hits. In the bottom of the eighth inning, the Yankees cut the deficit to one run, but Ian Hamilton put them down 10-7 with a poor ninth inning appearance. One question Yankees fans are asking after this weekend is why Boone decided to use Hamilton in that spot.

The best way to extinguish the pain of a 4-0 loss is with a 4-0 win. Last night, Max Fried and the Yankees took the rubber match from the Cleveland Guardians. Fried threw a season-high 103 pitches, and after getting out of a first-inning jam, he finished with a six-inning one-hit gem.

In the first inning, Fried hastily eliminated Steven Kwan and Angel Martínez with a couple of strikeouts, but José Ramírez prevailed with a 38.8 mph infield single. Fried tried to pick Ramírez off at first base, but a fielding error by Ben Rice sent him to second base. Ramírez then stole third before Fried walked David Fry, putting runners at the corners for Carlos Santana. Fry managed to steal a base of his own, but Fried didn’t waver, forcing Santana to pop out to Rice.

The sights, sounds, and smells of summer have finally arrived in New York City. The weather is getting warmer, school is almost out, and you can smell sliders being grilled at Yankee Stadium. Throughout last night’s game, Luis L. Ortiz’s slider stole the show from the Yankees. Fans weren’t buying 99 Burgers on a night like this. Ortiz located his 92 pitches beautifully, forcing batters to swing at 44 of them as the Yankees fell to the Cleveland Guardians 4-0.

Clarke Schmidt started the game for the Yankees, and in the top of the first inning, he surrendered three runs, including a two-run home run to Angel Martínez. The home run plated Steven Kwan, whom Schmidt walked after getting ahead in the count 1-2. “When you’re getting banged around like that in the first, it’s pretty glaring,” said Clarke Schmidt. “It’s kind of like walking a tightrope, it’s like, ‘Are you making bad pitches or is it their approach?’ For me, it was kind of obvious that it was approach.”

The Knicks shocked the world yesterday when they announced they were parting ways with Tom Thibodeau, their head coach of five years, who helped them emerge from the quagmire of irrelevancy. After winning 51 games and reaching the Conference Finals for the first time in 25 years, the Knicks’ front office was not satisfied. Leon Rose was not satisfied. James Dolan was not satisfied.

Leon Rose began his memo by stating, “Our organization is singularly focused on winning a championship for our fans.” So, who made the call? I’m certain Rose would not have permitted Dolan to squash the Knicks like he did a decade ago. Not without a plan. So, the decision begs one question: Why?

It took a couple of bumps – and some bruises – but on Sunday, the Yankees finally found a way to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers. Meet Ryan Yarbrough, the silencer. After the Yankees lost to Los Angeles 18-2 on Saturday and coughed up the lead in Max Fried’s start on Friday, Yarbrough stopped the bleeding with six one-run innings, permitting four hits, zero walks, and five strikeouts.

At the back end of the Yankees’ rotation lives a veteran southpaw named Ryan Yarbrough. His velocity doesn’t exceed 90 mph, but he can strike batters out with five different pitches. With his unusual, deceptive delivery, he can also silence the game’s best hitters, including Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman.

The French Open in Paris is halfway done, and at Roland-Garros, they say victory belongs to the most tenacious. Tonight, in Indianapolis, the Knicks will have to be the most tenacious team if they want to force a Game 7 against the Pacers.

Indiana wants nothing to do with a Game 7. The Pacers are going to do everything they can to advance to the NBA Finals in front of their fans. “We obviously didn’t play with the level of force that we needed to,” said Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle on his team’s performance in Game 5. “To start the game, we just didn’t have the right level of force, the right level of attitude necessary in this environment.” All of that is going to change for the Pacers tonight.

The Pacers will play their best version of basketball in tonight’s Game 6. They are going to capitalize on every Knicks mistake and ensure the Knicks don’t come within striking distance of evening up this series and sending it back to the Mecca for a Game 7.

“Knicks in seven!” chants echoed through the Garden walls last night as the Knicks finished their wire-to-wire 111-94 Game 5 rout of the Pacers to stay alive in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Jalen Brunson led the Knicks with 32 points. That was it! That was Jalen Brunson’s marquee Eastern Conference Finals moment! Meanwhile, the Knicks held Tyrese Haliburton to a measly eight points after his historic triple-double in Game 4. “Our backs are against the wall,” said Jalen Brunson, “so I wasn’t thinking I needed to play better than [Haliburton]. I was thinking of making the team better. That’s my mindset every time I’m on the court – just help the team win.” Brunson shot 12-of-18 from the field, and his 14 first-quarter points set the tone while his 16 third-quarter points helped seal the win.

Here we are. Backs against the wall. An elimination Game 5 at The World’s Most Famous Arena. Tonight is the ultimate test for Tom Thibodeau’s Knicks as they look to stay alive amid a 3-1 series deficit to the Indiana Pacers.

When Madison Square Garden gets loud, the Pacers play better. Road rage has fueled them this postseason, and historically speaking, especially in New York. The Knicks will have to pull off something shocking if they want to stay in this series. It’s hard for me to imagine them winning tonight.

But it’s never wise to enter any playoff game – especially an elimination game – with a negative attitude. I’ll save the criticism for another day, the hope being I’ll never have to unleash it. Instead, I’ll focus on how the Knicks can win tonight, because as captain Jalen Brunson said, “Nothing else matters at this point. You’ve gotta give it your all. It’s that simple.”

It’s proven quite difficult for me to imagine the New York Knicks overcoming a 3-1 series deficit to the Indiana Pacers.

When people think about Game 4, some might imagine Mikal Bridges going cold in the final seconds of regulation. Some might imagine Jalen Brunson disappearing in the fourth quarter. I’ll imagine Karl-Anthony Towns grabbing Myles Turner’s wrist with 7:55 remaining in the fourth quarter. At that moment, I knew the game was over, and the Knicks ultimately lost Game 4 121-130.

If the Knicks beat the Pacers tonight, then anything is possible in this series. If the Knicks lose, then this series is all but over. The Knicks can push the impact of “home court advantage” off the cliff tonight if they even out the series in Indiana.

In Game 3, the Knicks overcame a 20-point deficit to win for an NBA record-setting third time this postseason. Karl-Anthony Towns was the hero, scoring 20 points in the fourth quarter. Tonight, the Knicks cannot fall into another 20-point hole. They must defend for the entire game as well as they did in the fourth quarter of Game 3.

“It’s funny, because people were texting me all day, asking if I’m okay,” said Josh Hart, who didn’t start Game 1, but had one of his best performances as a Knick. Before Game 3, Hart suggested to Tom Thibodeau that he should come off the bench, since Mitchell Robinson and Deuce McBride had been far more productive defensively in Games 1 and 2. “It was never going to be a tough day for me because I had a hand in that decision,” said Hart.

“Josh [Hart] wants to win,” said Jalen Brunson. “It shows who he is as a person, a player, and a teammate. He doesn’t care for anything individual. He just wants to win. And so, it’s a true testament of a great teammate.”