Aaron Boone’s ‘Laissez-Faire Attitude’ Ripped After Yankees’ Humiliating Sweep

The Miami Marlins began life as an MLB franchise in 1993 in the fourth round (of five) of major league expansion. Regular season interleague play began in 1997, and since then, the Marlins — who were called the Florida Marlins until 2012 — had faced MLB’s most iconic and winningest team, the New York Yankees, 46 times.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Marlins had a losing record going into the weekend’s matchup of the two teams, dropping 24 and winning 22 against the Bronx Bombers. But at no time in the history of the two teams had the Florida/Miami franchise swept a three game series from the 27-time World Series champions.

Until now.

The Yankees, who dropped from a seven-game American League East lead on May 28 to 3 1/2 game deficit heading into Friday, looked like they were righting the ship, taking the final three games of a four-game series against their divisional rivals, the Tampa Bay Rays, before arriving in Miami.

But their momentum went straight out the window as the Marlins captured all three contests for the first sweep of the Yankees in the history of the two teams.

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As if the unprecedented sweep was not humiliation enough for the defending AL champions, the three victories raised the Marlins’ head-to-head record against New York to 25-24 — making them, unbelievably, the only team in baseball with an all-time winning record against the Yankees.

The Marlins’ most famous victory over the Yankees came in the 2003 World Series, when the underdog Florida squad, led by righty ace Josh Beckett, beat New York 4-2 to take the second championship in seven years for the franchise — which has not won one since, and has appeared in the postseason only twice in the last 21 years.

As the Marlins celebrated, the Yankees tried to make sense of their downward spiral.

The three-game series was highlighted, or low-lighted, by a Friday night 13-12 loss which marked the first game since Aug. 12, 1973 — almost exactly 52 years earlier — in which the Yankees scored 12 runs and lost anyway.

After the sweep, Yankees catcher and designated hitter Ben Rice told reporters, “I wouldn’t say there’s concern, but I would say I think a little sense of urgency would be good for us,” as quoted by The Athletic beat writer Chris Kirschner.

But Kirschner went on to note that a “sense of urgency” is exactly what the Yankees have not been displaying during their two months of mediocrity, in which they have compiled a sorry 25-32 record since leading their division by seven games.

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“They tend to operate with a laissez-faire attitude that starts with manager Aaron Boone,” Kirschner wrote. “Since team captain Aaron Judge said they would hit a hot streak, they’re 4-6. Since the Yankees lost two of three to the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 1, they are 24-30, a worse record than the Chicago White Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates and Athletics during this span.”

Boone, in his statements after Sunday’s game, expressed confidence that the Yankees would pull themselves out of the prolonged doldrums.

“It’s certainly not too late for us,” Boone said, quoted by ESPN. “I am confident that we’re going to get it together. But that’s all it is right now is, you know, it’s empty until we start doing it.”

With such Yankees greats from earlier eras as Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez criticizing the team on national television, Boone may wonder if his job is safe. There has certainly been no shortage of calls for the eighth-year manager to be replaced, or at least to take greater “accountability” for the team’s lengthy and embarrassing skid.

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