I've watched this skid, and I've thought to myself, "Is this really happening?"

This team beat the world in June while struggling offensively. The hitting has rebounded but the pitching has collapsed back into mediocrity. But mediocre pitching and awesome hitting should still win a lot of games, but the Yankees haven't.

I see a lot of similarities month to month. I also see a case to be made that August, despite the win-loss record, was the Yanks' best month when pitching and hitting are weighed together.

So what gives?

Since taking 3 out of 4 from Texas and 2 out of 3 from Boston, the Yanks have gone 4-10. That's a .285 winning percentage for those of you scoring at home; played over a full season, that would win 46 games. That's below replacement level. That's below 2012 Houston Astros level. Hell, only 16 teams in MLB history have ever been worse than that over a full season, and of those, only 3 have played since World War II (the '52 Pirates, the '62 Mets, and the '03 Tigers).

So what's gone wrong in these ten losses? In 3 the bullpen has given up the decisive run in the 7th inning or later. In the 1 starter has lasted less than 5 innings. In 7 the offense has scored 3 or fewer runs.

Blame the offense. The pitchers have mostly pitched just well enough to lose. Hughes, Kuroda, Sabathia, and Phelps have all had at least one tough luck loss in this stretch. If June was a month when the life was sweet, then August was a month when everything went just a little cold.

But take a breath and look back up at that chart, and remind yourself that the Yankees have one of the top offenses in baseball, and that August was another good month, even playing through the injuries.

Which means that all of this is really just to say baseball is a funny game. But it's a funny game that's bound to start breaking back the other way.