2021 Yanks have seen this script before

As the Yankees arrive at Sahlen Field in Buffalo, N.Y., for a three-game showdown with the Blue Jays and what could be a make-or-break stretch of their season, manager Aaron Boone has acknowledged that he is “very concerned” by his club’s place in the standings.

“As the offense gets going, that’s where we gain a lot of our swagger from,” Boone said. “It takes all of us in there to create that. I think we all know when we put this uniform on, we’re expected to win. We need to pick it up in the biggest kind of way.”

The Yankees will begin play on Tuesday with a 33-32 record in the American League East, their slowest start since 2016 -- though they’re hardly the first Bombers team to face tough times. Here are five examples of clubs in franchise history that have corrected the spin and gone on to reach the postseason:

1978
The '78 "Bronx Zoo" Yankees were famously 14 games back of the Red Sox on July 19, owning a 48-42 record. A turning point seemed to occur two days earlier in an extra-inning game against the Royals. Thurman Munson opened the 10th inning with a single and Reggie Jackson was instructed to bunt.

Manager Billy Martin changed his mind after one pitch, taking the bunt sign off. Jackson told third-base coach Dick Howser that he was still going to bunt; Jackson fouled off strike two, then popped a bunt into the glove of catcher Darrell Porter. The Yankees lost the game and Martin, so enraged that he flung a clock radio and beer bottle across the clubhouse, suspended Jackson five games.

Within a week’s time, a relaxed Jackson was back from a California vacation and Martin had resigned as Yankees manager (having aired out both Jackson and George M. Steinbrenner on a different topic). Under the calmer touch of Bob Lemon, the Yanks went 47-20 to tie the Red Sox for the division title, setting up Bucky Dent’s homer in a one-game tiebreaker at Fenway Park.

1995
Buck Showalter’s team was still hovering under .500 as August turned to September, owning a 57-59 record at the conclusion of play on Aug. 31, but there was a dangling carrot in the Wild Card -- its first year as part of the landscape and how Don Mattingly would enjoy the only postseason appearance of his career.

Jack McDowell, Andy Pettitte, David Cone, Scott Kamieniecki and John Wetteland all pitched strong ball as autumn approached, while Bernie Williams, Wade Boggs, Randy Velarde, Mattingly and Paul O’Neill powered the offense to a 21-6 September.

That delivered New York to the AL Division Series -- an epic and heartbreaking battle against the Mariners that laid the groundwork for a dynasty.

1998
We remember the ’98 Yankees as one of baseball’s great juggernauts, with Joe Torre steering the club to 114 wins and a World Series sweep of the Padres. But they were seemingly in trouble early, losing four of their first five games and necessitating a team meeting after the Angels, Athletics and Mariners outscored them, 36-15.

With Steinbrenner stewing, Torre chewed out the players in the visitors' clubhouse at what was then known as the Kingdome. The Yankees responded by winning 14 of their next 15 games, including a wild 17-13 victory over the Athletics in the home opener. The Yankees claimed first place on April 30 and never let go.

"Joe let us talk,” Jorge Posada said in 2018. “He said, 'Does anybody want to talk?’ Then O'Neill talked, Cone talked, most of the veterans talked. We kind of got on each other, kind of pointing fingers. … We remembered what kind of team we had. And that was it."

2007
It had been more than a decade since the Yankees were absent from postseason play, but as they trudged through what would be Torre’s final season as their manager, that streak appeared to be in jeopardy as they skidded into the All-Star break with a 43-43 record, 9 1/2 games behind the Red Sox in the AL East.

The second half of the '07 season featured a cameo from Roger Clemens, who’d unretired to boost the rotation. It also spelled the arrival of flamethrowing prospect Joba Chamberlain and some mammoth homers hit by Alex Rodriguez, who became the youngest member of baseball’s 500-homer club.

The Bombers finished 94-68 before meeting their match in the AL Division Series: a swarm of Lake Erie midges that attacked Chamberlain and his teammates during Game 2. Torre has frequently said that one of his greatest regrets was not pulling his team off the diamond. Derek Jeter remarked: “Just when you think you’ve seen it all. That’s home-field advantage.”

2009
The Yankees lost two of three games to the Marlins in Miami, a mid-June series in which a few of their regulars seemed distracted after spending late nights on South Beach. General manager Brian Cashman booked a commercial flight to meet the team in Atlanta, where he stewed watching from the press box as his club fell to 38-32, shut out by rookie Tommy Hanson.

Cashman gathered the hitters in the clubhouse before the next game, never raising his voice from a peppy monotone, but making it clear: “You’re better than this. Prove it.” The Yankees were shut out through five innings, prompting Cashman to wonder if he’d wasted his time.

Joe Girardi was ejected by Bill Welke after Brett Gardner was picked off at first base in the sixth inning, which may have been the spark they needed. Francisco Cervelli launched a game-tying homer and the Yankees rolled to an 8-4 win, finishing the year on a 65-27 tear. Girardi later admitted in the book "Mission 27" that he was trying to get tossed.

“He let me argue forever,” Girardi said. “I’m thinking, ‘Would you just throw me out so I can leave?’ I finally said, ‘I’m not leaving until you throw me out.’ And he threw me out. I just felt like we needed something. Try something different.”