The Yankees losing streak reached three games, and while it’s not the time to say the season is over, it’s not too early to say that they are starting to look like exactly like the team I thought they were, which is to say flawed in many ways.

And, per your request based on the survey I sent out a few weeks ago, I’m diversifying my history offerings on Wednesday to occasionally expand outside the Yankee Universe. Today, we’re going back to 1940, Comiskey Park in Chicago, where Cleveland Indians great Bob Feller did something no other pitcher in baseball history has accomplished: He hurled a no-hitter on Opening Day. Lets get to it.

April 16: Blue Jays 5, Yankees 4

That 12-3 start sure was a lot of fun, but it’s already become a distant memory because these last three games have hinted that the Yankees are most likely pretenders as a legitimate World Series contender.

All along I’ve told you – starting back before spring training even began – that I had skeptical expectations for the 2024 season. Sure, trading for Juan Soto was exciting, and I thought Alex Verdugo would be a nice upgrade in left field, but that’s pretty much all they did to improve the lineup.

They were banking on Aaron Judge not getting hurt and being Aaron Judge; they believed that Gleyber Torres, in his contract year, would have a big year after a pretty solid 2023; and then they were reduced to hoping and praying for bounce back seasons from Giancarlo Stanton, DJ LeMahieu, and Anthony Rizzo, all of whom are way on the wrong side of 30. That’s a lot of banking, believing, hoping and praying, and it didn’t stop there.

And there was more of that regarding the pitching staff. They needed for Carlos Rodon and Nestor Cortes to not be disasters; for Marcus Stroman to fit in; for Clarke Schmidt to find consistency and find a way to pitch five innings once in a while; and for the revamped and bullpen to not only be reliable but able to survive many long nights. That was already asking too much, and then Gerrit Cole went down for the first two months and, yeah, I had no inclination that 2024 was going to be special.

Might I be wrong? Sure, but this three-game losing streak has shone the glaring light on all the worries I had about this team. Three straight mostly lousy and short starts from the rotation, a shaky bullpen, poor play in the field, and an offense that can go to sleep for innings on end.

Don’t be surprised if, by the end of the weekend, the Orioles have overtaken the Yankees atop the AL East. As a matter of fact, that could happen as early as Wednesday.

Gleyber Torres’ misery at the start of 2024 deepened Tuesday night as the Yankees dropped their third straight.

Here are my observations:

➤ The day had already started pretty poorly for Rodon when a scoring change from his start on April 9 against the Marlins that sent his ERA soaring from 1.72 to 2.87. For some bizarre, inexplicable reason, MLB changed what was an obvious error by Rizzo on a ground ball by Jazz Chisholm to a base hit. And that meant two earned runs were added to Rodon’s final line. Why this was done, I have no earthly idea. I’m guessing Chisholm bitched about it so they reviewed the play.

➤ Then Rodon took the mound in Toronto and was horseshit all night and now his ERA is 3.66. He could not put hitters away, the Blue Jays fouled off about a million pitches, and it took Rodon 101 pitches to wobble his way through four inefficient innings. It was a bit of a miracle that the Jays scored only three runs as he gave up five hits, walked four, and struck out five, so once again, a Yankee starter provided no length and left a mediocre bullpen that scares no one to cover way too many outs. “I wish I was better tonight,” Rodon said. “I had good stuff, had stuff to get guys out. But they had a good approach today. … Just need to be a little better with putting guys away, that’s for sure.”

➤ Luke Weaver took over for Rodon and it has become clear that he’s not going to be a good option for this team. He gave up two runs in the sixth, the runs that wound up being decisive, and his ERA is now 5.91.

➤ As usual, the top of the Blue Jays order wore the Yankees out. It never ends with these royal pains in the ass. George Springer, Vlad Guerrero and Bo Bichette could all be in concurrent comas and they would still kill the Yankees. All three of them are hitting below .221 so far, but in this game they combined for four hits, five walks and three RBI.

➤ What an awful night for Anthony Volpe who struck out four times. We haven’t seen this version of Volpe all season, but he looked completely overmatched, especially against Jays starter Yusei Kikuchi who for whatever reason is another guy who has the Yankees’ number. It was a frightening flashback to the way Volpe hit last season as a rookie when he whiffed on 27.8% of his plate appearances.

➤ I don’t know what drug melted third base coach Luis Rojas’s brain in the second inning when he sent Giancarlo Stanton home from second with two outs on a single to left by Jose Trevino. His idea of running is jogging, and that’s what he was doing on this play. It was just painful to watch and we could all see it on TV that he should have been out by 10 feet but Jays catcher Danny Jansen impersonated Gleyber Torres and dropped the throw home which allowed Stanton to score. What a break that was, not that it mattered in the end.

➤ Small sample size, blah, blah, blah. Judge has been terrible for two-plus weeks. He doesn’t have a clue up there and he’s now hitting .182. The Yankees have only 10 hits in the first two games of the series and Judge is 0-for-8.

➤ And my patience is nearly out with Torres. He made yet another head scratching error on a play that any major league player should make with ease. He dropped a throw at second base on a steal attempt by Isiah Kiner-Falefa which allowed a run to score from third. That’s three errors this year, at least that many other screwups that could have been ruled errors but weren’t, and to make matters worse, he’s been useless on offense as he’s hitting .206 with no homers and two RBI in 82 plate appearances.

➤ “In the end, we got outplayed tonight,” Aaron Boone said. “They played a heck of a game in a lot of ways. Made a couple huge, big plays defensively in the outfield. Kikuchi was really good. And they had those kind of tough at-bats that weren’t always ending in walks but made us work really hard and kind of outlasted us there.”