"Seventy percent of life is showing up..."

 ...But the Yankees only show up 70 percent of the time.

Last night was, yet again, Not A Good Faith Effort.

Hey, it was raining most of yesterday, and the grass was really wet, and the crowd was only some 41,000, and the Yanks are just in a pennant race and playing a team that has constantly beaten and cheated and humiliated them over the past 10 years.

You can't expect ballplayers who are making tens of millions of dollars to get up for that. Not against the great Hayden Wesneski, who entered the game with a 4.50 ERA.

Once again, the Un-Clutchedness was appalling. 

Many have written here about this Yankees team's continuing inability to hit with men in scoring position (when they hit at all). But it goes the other way, too. Four of the five Houston runs scored with two outs, just as the vast majority of opponents' runs now score with two outs against your New York Yankees. 

The Venerable Keefe established long ago what a terrible field manager Aaron Boone is. But what many have overlooked is just what an awful clubhouse manager he is, too, utterly unable to keep his teams paying attention throughout the long season.

The June Swoon, the July Die, the August Bust...call it what you will, but I have never seen teams take nothing from something the way that they do under Aaron Boone.

A little winning streak, pitching that keeps them in every game, the bats seeming to break out...

Nope.

Nothing means anything.

Back we go, with another non-effort like last night's. 

Five hits, two errors, 11 more strikeouts, 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position, two-hours-and-thirty-seven minutes and done, because who wants to risk their luxury car in a flash flood on the way back to Connecticut? 

And now the rookie's errors have become a thing, on the back page of the Post, because apparently neither Aaron Boone nor any of the aged veterans in the clubhouse have the ability or the inclination to settle the kid.

And now comes the big showdown series against the Red Sox, which means something to old folks like us, but nothing at all to this ever-more-annoying zombie team of Yankees, who seemingly can't wait for the season to be over.

Hey, it was overcast this morning, and you know what kind of a mood that puts you in, and Judge will be back soon, and who knows, maybe the playoff match-ups will be favorable...

Still have to show up, though.