After a 5-0 road trip through St. Louis and Tampa, it has been —what Aaron Boone admitted—a “really crappy weekend” for the Yankees.

After enduring Friday night’s 0-1 loss, the Yankees were handed yet another 1-12 embarrassing defeat at the hands of their archrivals, the Boston Red Sox. It was Garrett Crochet who mowed through the Yankees’ lineup with 11 strikeouts.

Captain Aaron Judge struck out twice and hit a deep fly ball to right field against Crochet and later hit a double in the eighth inning off Greg Weissert. “We’ve got to play better. That’s what it comes down to. Coaches can’t fix that, fans can’t fix that, media can’t fix that. It’s the players in this room. We’ve got to step up,” Judge said in the post-game media appearance.

It’s stemming from the frustration of surrendering eight games in a row to the Red Sox this season. Across eight matchups against the Yankees, Boston has scored 48 runs, whereas the Yankees have managed to secure only 22.

The Yankees, now 69-60, have slipped 1 1/2 games behind the Red Sox, who are currently sitting with a 71-59 record in the race for the AL Wild Card.

Giancarlo Stanton, meanwhile, who accounted for the lone highlight with his fourth-inning home run, his 445th of career, called the situation bluntly “unacceptable” after the loss. “It’s not ideal. Unacceptable, we all know that. We’ve just got to get tomorrow,” he said.

The Yankees’ struggles became more obvious when Anthony Volpe, who is 1-for-29 at the plate over his past eight games, made a throwing error that drew relentless boos.

It was his 17th error of the season and first since this month. “Volpe made an error, which was his first one in a few weeks. He’s been playing really well out there. The story is getting shut down and not generating enough offensively, and struggling to hold them down,” Boone said.

The Yankees have scored just five runs in the three games against the Red Sox. It’s a meager display after crushing a record 14 home runs in their two-game series sweep of the Rays. Boone emphasized putting the best foot forward for the last game left against Boston. However, the way the Yankees are looking right now, many believe it can’t get any worse from here.

Yankees announcer reacts to Yanks’ slump

Not some but the Yankees have had plenty of rough patches this season. However, Saturday’s loss to the Red Sox stands out as one of the worst. Falling behind 3-0 in this four-game series, the team was completely overpowered by their longtime rivals. “It can’t get much worse than this,” Yankees announcer Michael Kay said during the YES Network broadcast. Paul O’Neill also agreed and said that the team has entirely “fallen apart.”

Kay bluntly made fun of the Yankees, saying that they are being schooled by the Red Sox. Currently, with their division rivals—Red Sox and Blue Jays—the Yanks are 4-15 this season. In the AL East, they have dropped six and a half games behind Toronto and are 1½ games back of Boston, tied with Seattle for the second wild card spot.

As the postseason approaches, the Yankees’ struggles against top competition have become a serious concern. The Yankees had returned to New York on a five-game winning streak after dominating seven of their previous eight games against Minnesota, St. Louis, and Tampa Bay teams.

They had a chance to extend their 1½-game lead over Boston for the top AL Wild Card spot. Instead, Saturday’s defeat left them in danger of being swept in this four-game series. Sunday’s game offers a chance for redemption. Carlos Rodon will take over the mound for the Yankees in an ESPN broadcast game. After a weekend of frustration, the team will be hoping to show resilience and avoid a four-game series sweep.