Yankees Aaron Boone: 'It's on Us' to Prove We're Championship-Caliber amid Struggles

The New York Yankees may currently sit in fourth place in the AL East but manager Aaron Boone believes the opportunity for greatness is right in front of them.

Chris Kirschner of The Athletic asked Boone if the Yankees are still a championship caliber team after a recent losing skid, and the manager took a motivated approach.

"We got two and a half months to put ourselves in a position to be championship-caliber," Boone said. "We got to go. It's on us. We got to prove that."

The statement comes after the Yankees lost their first series out of the All-Star break to the woeful Colorado Rockies. Boone acknowledged that the losses stung, but said the team is looking ahead to the next series instead of hanging onto the past.

"They outlasted us today," Boone said. "We're obviously pissed off in the moment that we lost the series but it's a series we lost and we got to move on from it and go try and play well in California."

While the current fourth place standing sounds daunting, it's more about how good the AL East is rather than inadequacy in the Bronx. The Yankees are 50-44 and are only 1.5 games behind the Houston Astros for the third AL Wild card. They are also set to get superstar and captain Aaron Judge back in the near future.

The next series for the Bronx Bombers is against the Shohei Ohtani-led Angels.