And so to the second game of a four game series against the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees had scraped through two in extra innings – one versus Kansas City and the first in the series against Boston – but surely this sequence couldn’t last.
Tonight’s starter was Clarke Schmidt who was another making progress after returning from injury, and hoping to ensure that if the Yankees did progress to the postseason he would be on that roster as a starter.
Continue readingWell, Kansas City have left town, but Boston have arrived. The Red Sox bring with them a strong rivalry which means the Yankees’ fans both love having them here and hate them at the same time. Fun as long as nobody takes it too far, and makes it ugly.
Nestor Cortes is starting pitcher today. It is not too long since he was undeservedly demoted to the bullpen, but a strong performance in long relief means that he is back in the starting rotation, with Marcus Stroman now working out of the bullpen.
Continue readingLast time in New York, I was following Steely Dan on tour as they accompanied the Eagles on their “Long Goodbye” – that was the Eagles goodbye, not the Dan’s (but who can tell). This time I’m once more working on a commission to watch baseball and report on the New York Yankees. Tough life.
Having flown into JFK on the 9th, I took a “jetlag” day on the 10th, and reported to the Stadium on the 11th. Significant date. 23rd anniversary of that horrible day. The Yankees placed their memorials. Police officers sang the National Anthem and God Bless America.
Continue readingThe pitchers turned the New York Yankees around in August, after the nosedive of June and July. Their amazing start in March, April and May meant that they were always going to be in contention, but a 14-12 month was enough to put them back to the top of their division.
The starting rotation combined for 12 of those wins, and the bullpen made up mostly of names that were not well-known, combined to keep the team in contention in most games.
Continue readingThe New York Yankees are not the team they were in the first months of the season, but they have improved from the form that they were showing in June and July.
In August, they went 14-12. They managed to return to 1st position in the American League – and opened up a 1 1/2 game lead over the Baltimore Orioles. It could be better, but not what’s not to like right?
Continue readingAs you will have seen in our batting coverage, the Yankees had another bad month in July. They are very thankful indeed for the start they had before June.
July was 11 wins and 13 losses. Imagine how it would have been if it wasn’t for the 5 straight wins they racked up between the 27th and the 31st of the month. They bounced back from a one game deficit in Boston to take the series 2-1, and then swept the National League’s strongest, Philadelphia 3 games to zero.
During that period the pifching started to bounce back after what had been otherwise a very weak month – especially for the starting rotation.
Continue readingSo, the Yankees June slump has come and gone. And the July trading deadline has come and gone too.
Sadly, things don’t break down into nice monthly intervals in the real world or in the sports world.
So, between the beginning of the month and the 9th of this seventh month, the Yankees won 1 and lost 6. Between then and the 26th, the Bronx Bombers went 5-7. Finally, it did appear that they had turned the corner in the last 5 days of July with a 5-0 sprint to end the month.
Continue readingIf the Yankees batting fell apart in June (with the exception of Juan Soto and Aaron Judge – it’s becoming like a mantra), then the pitching, particularly the starting rotation also hit massive problems.
In May, the Yankees were probably tied with the Philadelphia Phillies as the best team in baseball. They were certainly the best team in the American League.
In June, it all began to collapse around them, On the month, they were only 14-13 (compared to 21-7 in May). More remarkably and significantly, in the second half of June they were 4-9.
Aaron Judge and Luis Soto remained strong, but what had gone wrong?
The New York Yankees’ performance in the season to the end of May is better than any of us had a right to expect.
Part of that is due to the batting performances of the likes of Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, but that is not the whole picture. The pitching arms have been an essential part of the growth.
Continue reading
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