Why Yankees may not be able to trade way out of second-half swoon

“This is absolutely gut-check time in our season,’’ Aaron Boone said. “There’s definitely an end in sight. We’re going to get there. It’s hard, obviously, but I’m not going to keep talking about how hard it is and it’s tough. We’ve got to close out innings, close out games and I’m absolutely confident we will.”

If that sounds like the manager of a team that just lost another series to the Blue Jays to match a season-high four-game deficit in the AL East, it’s not.

That was Boone almost exactly a year ago coming off a third straight loss, this one at Boston.

At the time, the Yankees had also dropped five of six and were in a 10-23 rut that put them in a two-game hole behind Baltimore.