NY Post · Jul 16, 2016
Yankees’ make-or-break stretch starts off terribly
Michael Pineda on July 15Welcome to the second half of the Yankees’ season.
Looks like it’s going to be the same as the first half.
In desperate need of a winning streak, the Yankees instead came back from the All-Star break with a 5-3 loss to the Red Sox on Friday night, proving their success in Cleveland just before the break was an anomaly for a team that fell back to under .500 (44-45).
They opened a crucial 10-game homestand with a clunker from Michael Pineda, who surrendered five runs in five-plus innings, and their sixth-inning rally wasn’t enough to erase a five-run deficit.
Earlier on Friday, Joe Girardi said his team was in “playoff mode.”