Aaron Boone after New York Yankees blanked again

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After another lackluster performance by the New York Yankees in their 4-0 loss to the Toronto BlueJays on Friday night, the team was taken to task by their manager.

We need to start playing better if we want to be happy. The Yankees have lost five times in August, most in the majors. The city of New York was shut out six times in the month.

We've been able to shake hands at the end of the day on a high clip this year. We have hit a rough patch and need to dig ourselves out. We can sit here, but we have to go do it. The good news is that we have everything we need to do that. I am aware that is coming. I know it will happen, but it really sucks to go through it.

In August, the Yankees have a 5-12 record, being held to two or fewer runs in eight of them. The Nationals and Tigers have been the worst performing teams this month.

In the first 60 games of the season, the Yankees had a 44-16 record and were considered the best team in baseball. They have gone 29-31 over their past 60 games, becoming the first team in MLB history with a.700 win percentage across their first 60 decisions, and then going under.500 in their next 60 decisions.

When talking about his confidence in his team, the track record that he cited was exactly what he said.

It's been done most of the year. I have total faith in that room and the players. We have more than our share of struggles. We have to find a solution. The number of games in the lead is not important to me. It's not going to matter if we play like this and walk away at night. We will run away if we play our game. We need to play better. We need to start winning some games. Hopefully that will start tomorrow.

The Yankees' lead in the division has dwindled. The Yankees held their largest advantage over the rest of the league. The lead in the division went down to eight after the loss to Toronto. After the end of play on June 10, the Yankees were up by 7.5 games and their divisional lead was their lowest in over a year.

The team has been pressing as of late, which has contributed to their current skid.

Don't have an easy answer, but the last thing we can do is try to do more than we can. We're going to have a lot of benefits if everyone does their job. It is difficult to do. People want to be the guy. Staying within ourselves and having good at-bats is something we have all been talking about.

The Yankees will try to have better at-bats in order to avoid a third straight series loss at home.

The Yankees have a very good record against the east. Their series loss in Boston last Sunday was their first one to an American League East team in over a month. The Yankees went 1-2 against the two other teams before facing the Blue Jay.

The first three home series of the year were lost by the Yankees.

"I don't care about the lead in the division," he said. Don't play bad. It will be handled by us. We need to play better, that's what you can say. It won't matter if we play like this. We're in a good spot. We're aware of that. We need to do our job.