Lack of Hustle Headlines Latest Struggles at the Trop

Not that I could find a lot of wiggle room to excuse a player for not running out a ground ball in, let's say, the final at-bat of a blowout, but in a one run game with the bases loaded down to your team's last out? Inexcusable. An absolutely benchable offense.

This is a huge teaching or send-a-message moment for the Yankees and manager Aaron Boone. The Red Sox are putting significant distance between themselves and New York and this is no time to pamper a young potential superstar in Gary Sanchez. The only thing that would save Sanchez the opportunity to play again in this series against the Rays would be the early start time on Wednesday coming off a night game.

Sanchez's teammate, Aaron Hicks, busted it to second base to make sure he didn't make the last out on a force play and all the Yankees 25-year old catcher did was dejectedly dog it out of the batter's box.

As ESPN Yankees reporter Coley Harvey points out in his recap of Monday night's game, New York has lost nine of its last 13 in Tampa and are a .500 team since June 22, a 13-13 record. Now is hardly the time for complacency or something that borders on laziness.

Coley Harvey joined Big Board Sports Tuesday morning to talk about Sanchez's lack of hustle and the deficit the Yankees now face in the division: