In May, the Yankees won 16 and lost 12. This was a slight decline on their April perrformance and with the Tampa Bay Rays really hitting their stride the Yankees went from 1.5 games ahead in the American League East to 1.5 games behind. The division was tied by May 9. They then drifted out to five and a half games behind by the 22nd.
They then won 6 of the next 7 games and closed that gap.
Continue readingThe Yankees’ starting rotation. even with Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon out injured, looked really strong on opening day. Despite Ryan Weathers not having a great Spring Training, he is a good addition.
The bullpen looked more questionable, but the hope was with strong starting and David Bednar to finish out the games, it was hoped it would be strong enough.
By the end of April, the rotation was carrying the weight with some batters and some relievers struggling, but the Yankees reached the end of the month with a 1.5 lead at the head of the American League East.
Continue readingNew York Yankees – March 4-1.
New York Yankees – April 16-10
At the end of March, they were in a tie for first place in the American League. By the end of April, they had opened a lead of 1.5 games.
Continue readingThe Yankees’ batting almost completely stalled (with the exception of Aaron Judge) which left the pitching staff with way too much weight to carry. Sadly the starters also hit a slump and in the Division series they were swept aside.
Very, very easily indeed.
Only a couple of the relievers (one of them amazingly being Devin Williams) and one starter were up to the task and this left the Yankees all at sea.
Let’s see who were the ones who fell apart and who stood up to the task:
Continue readingThe Yankees only just failed to win the American League East. And if they had done, they would have achieved a bye through the wild card playoffs and progressed straight through to the American League Division Series.
As it worked out, they did get to that Division series, but when they arrived they found themselves hopelessly over-matched by the Toronto Blue Jays – the very team that they had tied for the top position in the American League Eastern division. Let’s look at which players left them in that position, first considering the guys with the bats.
Continue readingAs we have seen in our first article, the Yankees had their best month of the season in September, but their loss of form in previous months meant that it was too little, too late to catch the Toronto Blue Jays.
There were a few players on the pitching staff who lost their way in September and others who simply weren’t available because of its injury. This meant that youth had its day and the batting of Aaron Judge and the outstanding starters resulted in that 18-7 September record.
Let’s see who led the way:
Continue readingMarch & April – 18-13
May – 17-9
June – 13-14
July – 12-13
August – 16-12
September? Who knew…
But this was a crucial time for the Yankees to produce a month like May or August and certainly not like June or July.
It was during those months that they had let the Toronto Blue Jays narrow the gap and eventually pass them.
Now they needed to more than match the Canadian team blow-for-blow and in so doing take the division and also earn a bye in the first round of the playoffs.
Let’s look at who did well in September – firstly among the batters…
Continue readingSo, the Yankees steered their way into the last weekend of the regular season, knowing that if the balance of power stayed the same, the Toronto Blue Jays would take a tie in the division lead and therefore would be able to have a “bye” through the first round of the playoffs.
The tiebreak rules favour Toronto as they have won the majority of the games between the two teams this season.
On the other hand, The Yankees were facing the Baltimore Orioles – the weakest team in the American League East – so going into thi Saturday afternoon game anything could happen.
Cam Schlittler would start the game on the mound for the New York Yankees whilst for Baltimore, Tomoyuki Sugano would be the starting pitcher.
Continue readingAnd so, the Yankees had moved into the last series of the regular season as they faced the Baltimore Orioles. Baltimore were 75-84 and bottom of the division, compared to the Yankees who were 91-68. The Yankees therefore had more to worry about – specifically what was happening in Toronto.
There, Toronto would face the Tampa Bay Rays for three consecutive games and the Yankees knew that if the Blue Jays should win all of those games then because Toronto had won the lion’s share of the games between the Blue Jays and New York then it would just be as though Toronto had won the division.
They would take the “bye” through the first round of the playoffs.
Continue readingAnd so the Yankees headed into the final game of three against the Chicago White Sox. Carlos Rodon would start for New York and Davis Martin was on the mound for the Chicago team.
Needing to finish ahead of Toronto to clinch a bye through the first round of the playoffs as well as the need to clinch to take the honours of winning the American League East – which these days is peculiarly not essential but is more than nice to record.
Continue reading
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