There's a more succinct term for "almost winning."

"Manager Aaron Boone remained optimistic after the game.

'These guys have handled and dealt with adversity, he said. 'We’ve dealt with it in this series and bounced back. I know we’ll do it again.'"

Most fans by now have jumped on the anti-Boone bandwagon.

See, what I can't get over right now is Torres getting picked off second base in the top of the eighth. A few days earlier when he opened up a big inning with a lazy error. The evidence is very strong that a lot of these players simply don't focus.

Boston scoring the tying and go-ahead runs on productive outs while Stanton just strikes out meekly with the bases loaded in the 7th ... on three consecutive strikes after a first-pitch ball ... against 2021 Cy Young front-runner Yacksel Rios. Stanton doesn't even battle and it's unclear if he even understands what a sac fly is.

Sure, Brantly gets a pass for stupidly thinking there were two outs and getting doubled up. He's an inconsequential third-string catcher and at least seemed to understand that he made a mistake. But this lack of professionalism is evident and costly in just about every game. The Yankees lead the majors in getting thrown out on the bases and in GIDPs.

Maybe Boone is fiery and tough "behind the scenes" ... it's doubtful ... it's also not relevant. Nobody ever gets benched and nobody ever adjusts their on-field behavior.

"The Yankees won just one of the four games in the series and fell to nine games out of the AL East and remain four games out of the wild card.

The MLB trade deadline is on Friday. Whether or not the Yankees are buyers or sellers remains to be seen."

Look, I can try to sell a bellybutton lint sculpture on ebay if I want to.

 Similarly, it should be clear that the Yankees can't be sellers.

They.

Have.

Nothing.

To.

Sell.