This might be a good time to start wondering what the Yankees really are, because after that shitty weekend in Milwaukee, it’s a little tough to take them seriously when you consider they’ve played three teams that are currently above .500, and they are 1-8 in those games.

They were swept by the Rays, lost two of three to the A’s, and now were swept by the Brewers. It’s a bad look and their 26-15 record - which is no longer good enough to be leading the AL East - sure feels a little suspect.

Look, you play the teams on your schedule and it’s not the Yankees’ fault that almost everyone they’ve played so far sucks. But it has also been pretty deflating that they are resembling the neighborhood bully who, when he finally gets challenged and takes a punch to the nose, runs home crying to his mommy.

Yeah, it was fun beating up on a bunch of wimps, but when someone shows up and flexes a little muscle and fights the way the Rays, A’s and Brewers did, the Yankees have done a fine impression of turtles and buried their heads.

Everything about this eye-opening series in Milwaukee was a nightmare with the exception of the six awesome innings that Cam Schlittler pitched Saturday night, all for naught as it turned out. Max Fried stunk Friday, Carlos Rodon in his first start of the season Sunday was predictably ineffective, the bullpen pissed away each of the last two games, and the offense was downright pathetic scoring a mere six runs on 16 hits while striking out 39 times.

Seriously, what did we just watch?

“Tough weekend, obviously,” Aaron Boone said. “Didn’t play our best and I thought they pitched really well against us and matched up well against us. But just not able to string together enough big hits there. Obviously a tough weekend, part of it, and look forward to getting on to Baltimore and righting the ship. We’re really good. We had a bad series."

Maybe and yes would be my replies to the last part of that comment from the ever-optimistic manager.

And what was irritating is losing to this Brewers team that reminds me so much of the god damn, ever-annoying Rays who you know I hate with every fiber in my being. The Brewers are basically the NL version of the Rays, a roster filled with a bunch of guys you’ve never heard of, but they know how to play and beat you with a million little paper cuts.

“They’ve got an incredible pitching staff, from the starting rotation to their bullpen, their back-end bullpen,” said Aaron Judge. “Guys that, from the bullpen to their starters, run up to 97-plus. They got a good thing going over there. So it made for some tough at-bats, some long days, kind of battling back and forth all series long.”

➤ It hasn’t happened very often this season, but the Yankees were overwhelmed by the Brewers in the series opener. This was their third shutout loss of the season, but this one just felt different with flamethrowing Jacob Misiorowski on the mound. The Yankees’ now know what it’s like when opponents face Cam Schlittler and while their chances were slim to begin with, add in Max Fried’s worst start of the season and they had zero chance of winning.

➤ I find it hard to believe the Brewers could ever lose with Misiorowski pitching. He’s as dominant as any pitcher in MLB right now and the Yankees’ high-octane offense looked impotent. He threw the 62 fastest pitches of the game and 41 of those were 100 mph or more, topping out with three that were clocked at 103.6. The Yankees struck out 11 times against him and managed just two walks and two singles, both by Jose Caballero. Reliever Shane Drohan then completed the shutout with three nearly spotless innings, allowing just a single by Aaron Judge.

➤ Fried allowed five runs on six hits and three walks, his second straight underwhelming outing. He worked an easy first, then went off the rails during a 40-pitch second, the second-most he’s ever thrown in one inning. Milwaukee scored four runs on four hits and two walks and yes, a couple of the hits were soft contact but you know what they say - they all look like line drives in the box score. The first five men in the inning reached base and ex-Yankee Brandon Lockridge drove in the first run with a single, and Sal Frelick and Jackson Chourio also had RBI singles. Ballgame.

➤ To Fried’s credit, he manned up and grinded out six innings and then Kervin Castro, up from Triple-A, made his Yankees debut by mopping up the last two innings, giving up a run on two hits. That was the lone bright spot of the evening: The bullpen essentially got a full day off.

➤ Spencer Jones made his MLB debut as the DH hitting in the No. 6 spot and it was a no contact night as he whiffed twice - once each against Misiorowski and Drohan - and he drew a walk. Pretty tough test for his first game.

➤ Worst loss of the year, most aggravating loss of the year, and really, the first time all year I’ve been really pissed at Boone for his bullpen usage. The whole game was just stupid, and with this defeat the pain in the ass Rays - who didn’t even play due to a rainout - moved ahead of the Yankees in the AL East. Yeah, it was that kind of night.

➤ Things started fine as Paul Goldschmidt hit Kyle Harrison’s second pitch for a home run, but then the offense pretty much went back into a coma similar to Friday and they struck out 15 times and finished 3-for-14 with RISP which, more than anything, was why they lost. They loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth on an Amed Rosario double, a Jazz Chisholm bunt single and a walk to Caballero as he induced a full count pitch clock violation on Harrison. Yet all of that netted just one run. Jones, so far showing exactly why he hasn’t been with the Yankees, whiffed and useless Austin Wells popped out before Goldschmidt beat out an infield hit for the lone run. Ben Rice then lined out to end a disappointing inning.

➤ It felt like 2-0 might hold up though because Schlittler was great for six shutout innings, allowing just two hits with no walks and six strikeouts, and he battled through a sore calf which took a direct hit on a hard 108.5 mph liner in the second inning. But once he was out after 97 pitches, it went to hell thanks to the bullpen.

➤ Brent Headrick has been so surprisingly good, but he gave up a homer to Jake Bauers on his first pitch in the seventh. In the eighth, Boone made his first dumb decision going to horrible Camilo Doval instead of Fernando Cruz and to the surprise of no one, the Brewers tied the game. Doval got two quick outs but then Brice Turang singled, stole second and scored on a William Contreras single. Doval is unusable in high leverage situations. It can’t continue to happen. His ERA is now 6.14 and his WHIP is 1.227.

➤ David Bednar pitched an easy 1-2-3 ninth, but Boone made the ridiculous call to not let him pitch the 10th after the Yankees had taken the lead. How they got the lead was shocking in itself because with two outs, Ryan McMahon, facing a really tough lefty in Aaron Ashby, singled up the middle to score the free runner, Max Schuemann. The Yankees might have tacked on, but Judge made an idiotic baserunning mistake when the throw home was cut off and got caught in a rundown between second and third, ending the inning. Then again, what am I thinking? Chisholm was the next batter so they probably weren’t scoring again.

➤ Now to the bottom half and Bednar was not on the mound, Cruz was. There’s rarely any gray area with Cruz; he’s either really good or really bad, and that’s worrisome when you start an inning with a free runner at second. Sure enough, we got the really bad Cruz. He threw a wild pitch and walked Luis Rengifo so it was first and third, no outs. After he got Gary Sanchez out, Chourio hit a grounder to Caballero and he couldn’t field it cleanly so everyone was safe and the tying run score.

➤ Cruz exited and Boone went to Tim Hill so I was feeling OK about him getting out of the jam. Instead, my favorite reliever on the team failed miserably. He got Turang to tap back to the mound and rather than take the sure second out at first base, he inexplicably fired to third trying to get the lead runner. He never had a chance of making that play, so now the bases were loaded, and moments later Contreras walked it off with a sac fly, on which Judge made a lousy throw home. Just a complete shit show of a loss.

➤ Sweep complete. Bednar, who all season has flirted with trouble because he allows too many baserunners as his brutal 1.408 WHIP proves, finally paid the price as he got tagged for a two-out, walk-off homer to dead center by Turang. This is the eighth time in 17 appearances that Bednar has been scored on, and his record is now 0-3.

➤ I’ve been saying this all year, as have others, that this Yankees bullpen is the weak spot on the team and they are not winning anything the way it’s presently constructed. And that includes Bednar who I don’t trust as the closer.

➤ Rodon made his first start and he had zero command as he did a fine imitation of Luis Gil. He threw 78 pitches, just 42 for strikes, finishing with two hits allowed, five walks, a hit batter and a wild pitch. He survived the first three innings, but he gift-wrapped three runs for Milwaukee in the fourth because of his inability to throw strikes. One run scored on a sac fly, and the last two came on a single by Blake Perkins who went into that at-bat with a batting average of .104.

➤ Judge gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead with his seventh first-inning homer of the year, and after a Caballero double in the second, Jones drove him home with a single for his first MLB hit and RBI. Then in the sixth the Yankees pulled even at 3-3. Judge walked but was thrown out stealing, but Bellinger then walked and he scored on a double by, believe it or not, Chisholm. Yeah, that was shocking.

➤ Jake Bird did a nice job to clean up Rodon’s mess in the fifth, stranding two runners, then Paul Blackburn, Cruz and Hill got the game to Bednar in the ninth, only to have him serve up the walk-off homer, his first homer allowed in 16 appearances.

➤ It was a miserable weekend of offense and Ben Rice was a huge part of it as he finished the series 0-for-13 after returning from missing three games with a bruised hand. It really sucks that that happened because he was on such a role and it feels like he lost all his momentum.

➤ As for Jones, you saw exactly who he is. He went 1-for-9 and struck out five times. Sorry, but you just can’t be that guy in the majors. I can’t see how he has a future if he’s going to strike out more than half the time. Granted, the Brewers pitched well, but guess what, that’s the deal in the big leagues.

Back to playing the JV for the Yankees as they head to Baltimore (18-23) for a three-game series. However, after getting swept by the Yankees four in a row last week, you know damn well the Orioles are going to have a pushback and if the Yankees play the way they did in Milwaukee, they won’t win this series.

The Orioles just lost two of three to the A’s, avoiding the sweep Sunday with a 2-1 victory behind six strong innings from Chris Bassitt, so it’s good that the Yankees won’t see him. The Orioles staff ERA of 4.74 ranks 27th in MLB and their 49 homers allowed is tied for sixth-most. The Yankees need to take advantage and get their offense back in gear after their three-game snooze against the Brewers.

➤ SS Gunnar Henderson: He leads the team with nine homers but he’s still struggling with a shockingly low .289 on-base and .690 OPS.

➤ 1B Pete Alonso: He’s off to a slow start on his new team, but he had a damn good series last week against the Yankees.

➤ 2B Jeremiah Jackson: Of all the guys on this team, it’s pretty crazy that he leads in RBI with 24, even though he has a putrid .267 on-base.

➤ C Adley Rutschmann: After an awful 2025 season, he’s been very good so far as he leads the Orioles with a .304 average and .925 OPS while striking out just 15 times.

➤ RP Rico Garcia: With closer Ryan Helsley still out, he has slid into that role and he’s been dominant. He has three saves and a 0.50 ERA and a 0.440 WHIP. He’s given up one hit and one run in 18 innings.