With the team suddenly struggling, the Yankiverse experiences a sense of deja-Boone.

And then they were in second...  

In the cement scrawl of history, the 2025 Yankees - a team of Judge, Fried and Bellinger - led the AL East into the July 4th weekend, when Toronto clipped their wings. They fell into second place and - well - there they remain. 

This year's Yankees, a veritable carbon duplicate of their predecessors, lasted in first place until last night, when a bullpen meltdown spawned one of those too-common "Out-of-Body, Shoot Me, Worst Loss of the Year" disasters, which plague and define the modern franchise. 

The Yankees lost to seemingly meager Milwaukee, one of the younger and hungrier prototypes that beat the Yankees every October, if not months earlier.

Listen: May 10 is too early to count out any team, even when they step from a time machine with nary a molecule of change. Today - game time, 2:10 p.m. - we shall glimpse the Yankees' new ballroom - featuring Carlos Rodon, in some degree of restoration, as yet unknown. 

But Yank fans have seen this movie before. To watch last year's lineup, virtually recreated down to the doorknob fittings, brings deja-vu, or worse... Deja-Boone. 

Last night, the bullpen killed us. Of course, it did. For 17 years now, it's been the bullpen. The truth is, we never replaced Mariano - or Mike Stanton, or Ramiro Mendoza, or Jeff Nelson - none of them. We tried Joba, Houdini, Scott Proctor, Aroldis, Luke Weaver, the cast of Glee, a progression of missteps that exists to this day in the form of Cam Doval and Jeff Bird. We still cringe when the late innings come into view. I suppose we always will.

Second place. Technically, we're tied for first. And there's a lot of baseball yet to play, a lot of chances to rectify this ship. But here we are, looking up at Tampa. It sure was nice, leading the AL East. Now, what? Hola, Mr. Carlos, can you go nine?