Yankees’ maddening swoons are a failure of leadership — and it’s time to get real about correcting it

I want to revisit two Aaron Judge quotes offered three months apart.

The first was delivered on March 28 after the Yankees had completed a season-opening three-game sweep of the Giants:

“That was one thing the past couple years we’ve struggled at, is finishing off series and sweeping series. So we just tried to make it a point pregame today, we talked about it, ‘We got to close out a series.’ That’s what’s going to make the difference between winning the division or ending up tied and losing it. So every game matters, and we’ll just take it on to Seattle.”

The second was delivered on July 1 before the Yankees would fall to the Tigers for their seventh straight loss: