The New York Yankees in September / October – Part Two – The Pitchers (2023)

Injuries? The Yankees got ’em.

Nestor Cortes; Luis Severino; Albert Abreu; Anthony Misiewicz; Wandy Peralta; Tommy Kahnle; Ryan Weber; Luis Gil; Lou Trivino.

And Frankie Montas, and Keynan Middleton just made it back before the end of the season.

And Ian Hamilton by the middle of September.

No surprise then that the patched up Yankees rotation and bullpen struggled in September and in game 162 in October.

Thank goodness for Gerrit Cole.

Let’s take an overview of the stats…

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New York Yankees Diary – September 24th, 2023

And there was rain… New York rain.

Yesterday, there was no game. Today, a 51 minute delay, but there was a game.

For 3 hours and 2 minutes we sat out in the rain. Before the game, at least we were able to have friendly conversation with Ed Alstrom, the Yankees organist of the day. That chat and the free food in the Stadium suites was more enjoyable than sitting in the rain and watching this game.

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New York Yankees Diary – September 22nd, 2023

The Yankees went into their last home series of 2023. In reality, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ record on the season isn’t that much stronger than the Yankees, but they are in a much weaker division – and, therefore, whilst the Yankees will finish fourth or fifth, Arizona will finish second or third.

Today, the Yankees sent Luke Weaver to the mound, who is trying to rebuild his career, whilst Brandon Pfaadt (pronounced “Fought”) is trying first time around to establish a Major League career.

Weaver started the season at Cincinnati, and then when the Reds released him, he was signed by Seattle. The Mariners placed him on waivers, and the Yankees claimed a couple of days later. His career might seem to be on the garbage heap, if he can’t turn things around soon. His first game for the Yankees came in Pittsburgh where he pitched four innings for 3 runs. Tonight, he had a second opportunity to turn it all around and rebuild his career.

Pfaardt went into this game with a 2-8 record on the season, His Earned Run Average stood at 5.86.

It was not hard to predict that the outcome of the game depended primarily on the two teams’ batting performance on the night.

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New York Yankees Diary – September 21st, 2023

The Yankees came into this one 2-0 down in their series with the Toronto Blue Jays, and with their bullpen and batters struggling. Clarke Schmidt had struggled two days ago, but Michael King excelled and still lost yesterday. The weight was now on the outstanding Gerrit Cole to turn things around.

However with Cole comes Ben Rortvedt, the weakest batter in the Yankees’ camp, and what the Yankees do not need is another weak bat especially if it meant benching Austin Wells who looked like he might be just about to turn things around.

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The New York Yankees in Spring Training – An Overview – Part One (2018)

(Normally I would have far more coverage of Spring Training than I have this year but with Easter coming early, my other preoccupations have prevented that. My apologies to my regular readers).

If you would have asked me at the end of the 2017 which position the Yankees would sign someone new for in the off-season, my prediction would not have been rightfield. Rookie of the year, Aaron Judge, it seemed had that all stitched up.

Also, if you’d asked me who after Judge was the least likely player to leave, one of my first choices would have been 2b Starlin Castro who impressed so much at the plate and defensively and proved a fearsome double play combination with Didi Gregorius.

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