Yankees officially lose AL East lead and made sure it was embarrassing too

In most realms, May 25 really doesn't feel like too long ago. On the calendar, it was just a couple of days over a month ago. But if you're the New York Yankees, that probably feels like a lifetime ago, especially after Thursday night.

As of May 25, the Yankees had taken a three-game lead in the AL East standings over the Baltimore Orioles. They were also in the midst of an absolutely dominant month. When the calendar flipped to June, the Bronx Bombers had completed a 21-7 stretch in May and showed absolutely no signs of slowing down, especially with the looming return of Gerrit Cole on the docket.

Cole's back but the optimism has waned completely. And as of Thursday night, that lead in the AL East has completely evaporated after the Yankees lost a series opener to a struggling Toronto Blue Jays team. And what's more, they made sure it stung even worse as the Jays trounced Carlos Rodon en route to a 9-2 drubbing. With the Orioles also winning on Thursday (in dominant fashion of their own), the Yankees are now in second place based on winning percentage at roughly the halfway point of the season.

That's where the embarrassment starts -- but it's not where it ends.

Yankees officially lose AL East lead in blowout loss to ailing Blue Jays

Thursday's game was a massive disappointment in its own right. Rodon got creamed, giving up 10 hits and a walk while conceding eight runs over eight innings (Phil Bickford came in and gave up the final run). The Yankees as a whole managed just three hits and struck out a total of 11 times on the night. It was feckless and hapless on the diamong.

Zooming out, it starts to pile up. The loss in Toronto moves the Yankees to a dismal 12-12 in the month of June and have now lost eight of their last 10. That would be painful in itself but it hurts even worse when you consider that New York actually had a prime opportunity to increase their lead in the division. After all, the Orioles are just 4-6 in their last 10 games and a mediocre (by their standards) 15-11 on the month.

To make matters even worse, the rival Boston Red Sox have closed the gap in third place with a 14-8 June record, now sitting an increasingly manageable 7.5 games back of the Yankees and Orioles.

What the fix is for the Yankees remains unclear and the sky, frankly, isn't falling yet. They're still comfortably a playoff team right now and one good week could put them back atop the AL East standings. But as we sit here on Thursday night, it's hard not to look at the situation and feel like things are also equally on the verge of slipping away from New York in the worst way.

This article was originally published on fansided.com as Yankees officially lose AL East lead and made sure it was embarrassing too.