The 2016 Yankees have returned

Last night - in the middle-inning blur before Tyler Clippard started tossing moonshots - I watched the next four months play out in a dream sequence. We were down by just one run, though that familiar sense of hopelessness was already creeping from my TV screen, like the watery girl ghoul from the 2002 horror classic, The Ring. Batting was Brett Gardner, for many years now, my favorite Yankee. Gardy turned on an inside pitch and nailed it, bam, a carbon copy of the HR swing that earlier this season stunned the Cubs. But this one went foul. Then, on the next pitch, Gardy tapped an infield bouncer. He hustled to first, almost beat the throw. Out by a step. And I felt the water creeping at my toes. 

I looked it up. Across his career, we have known two Brett Gardners. Over nearly 4,000 at bats, in the first half of the season, Gardner hits.278. He made an all-star team, notched six out of every 10 stolen bases and two-thirds of his homers. Then, poof. Over the second half, his average plummets by 32 points, to .242, and virtually every aspect of his game diminishes. (In Augusts, he hits .232; in September-October, .235. And these are not small sample sizes, folks. This is career-defining reality.) 

I looked it up. Over the 30 days, Gardy is hitting .245. He has already reached his second-half malaise, aka "normalcy." And maybe, so have we.

In the month of June, we are 8-10. Since May 8, the mighty "Baby Bombers" have gone 17-20. What obscured our mediocrity was a bunch of lopsided wins: We are an astounding 19-2 in games classified as "blowouts." But in one-run games, we are 7-9. In simple terms, we are padding our stat lines in meaningless situations, but failing to deliver in the clutch. 

And it's in those critical situations that we were supposed to be led by veterans such as - gulp - Gardy and Clippy. Rookies are undependable, right? That's why we kept Gardner, and why last July, in the midst of the youth boomlet, we traded a 23-year-old prospect, Vincente Campos, for the 31-year-old Cliptard. Those are the guys who are supposed to come through in big moments, right? 

Insert sigh here. Clutch at-bats used to be Gardy's thing. With a game on the line, he was a grinder, a tough out. Now, he taps to the middle infielders and always arrives a foot behind the throw. This entire franchise - which spent the month of May celebrating the Cooperstown credibility of Brain Cashman - now lists in the water like that Navy destroyer off the coast of Japan. 

In the way that we recall other recent Yankee collapses by the likes of Sidney Ponson, Vernon Wells and "Wallflower" Bobby Abreu, I fear this 2017 team will be remembered for Clippard and the beached whale known as Chris Carter. Last night, under media fire after the game, Joe Girardi shrugged and said something to the effect of, "They're all we've got," and you know what? Joe was right. The same can be said of Pineda, Tanaka, Headley and Gardy, the entire veteran brigade: They're all we've got. 

Nevertheless... I am not quitting on this team. Coming into this season, we knew the Yankees were two years away from dominance, and that Boston was going for broke. We never suspected Aaron Judge would become such a monster, or that Aaron Hicks could so elevate his game. In many respects, we've already over-achieved. Boston still has to beat us (though Chris Sale looms.) But soon, it will be time to cut ties with some old friends. It will mean sending Tanaka to the DL, maybe waiving Clippard, benching Gardy and Headley, and maybe even trading CC Sabathia and Pineda - in favor of no names from Scranton. It happened last season with Brian McCann and Carlos Beltran, two upstanding citizens of the game. It'll be time to shed skin. Watching your team collapse is never fun. But watching a wave of youngsters can be quite refreshing. In that regard, I am looking forward to the second half, because frankly, games can't get more dreary than last night.