The Yankees’ pitching in June was not what they had hoped for. They were still carrying injuries – Max Fried is a long-term absentee, and the rest of the starting rotation – which was a strength in May – was not handling things well.
David Bednar who struggled in the previous month was back on form and Tim Hill who was improved on his last month’s performance too was getting little run support and despite a healthy WHIP was conceding more runs than he should.
Continue reading4-1 (March)
16-10 (April)
16-12 (May)
12-14 (June)
Things are not getting better for the New York Yankees. Most of their batters are batting below a .250 batting average in recent weeks. Starting pitchers are struggling. The players they depend upon are being added to a lengthening injury list.
Continue readingIn May, the Yankees went 16-12 and despite Gerrit Cole returning to the roster and Cam Schlittler maintaining his excellent form, the starting rotation was worse than it had been in the months of March and April. Something of a mystery!
Two relievers who were called up briefly did very well – Yovanny Cruz and Yerry De Los Santos – but because of the strength of the bullpen they were soon returned to the minors.
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 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 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 readingAnd so we came to the last day of the season…
Not only did the Yankees need to win to clinch the bye through the first round of the playoffs, but they needed the Toronto Blue Jays to lose in their final game – against the Tampa Bay Rays, who had struggled almost as much in 2025 as the Yankees’ opponents on the final day – the Baltimore Orioles.
For the Yankees, it would be Luis Gil on the mound. This was a role that indicated to him that if the Yankees didn’t bypass the first round of those playoffs, he might not even make the roster for the Wildcard series. This then was a crucial game for him as he sought to show that he was worth a relief role and a spot on the roster as a starter for the second series.
Meanwhile, Kyle Brandish would be playing his last game of the season for Baltimore and an opportunity to improve on his 1-1 record in 2025 as he closed out his fourth year in the Majors.
Continue readingAnd so back in NYC, the Yankees faced quite a comfortable run in. They would first face the Chicago White Sox – the worst team in the American League, second worst in all of major league baseball. After that they would face the Baltimore Orioles who have the poorest record in the Yankees’ own division – the American League East.
The difficulty is that, through these six games they will not only need to keep pace with the Toronto Blue Jays but surpass the Blue Jays record over the same period. They went into the first Chicago game two games behind Toronto and (because of Toronto having the advantage in the tie-breaker rules), they would need to finish one game ahead of the Blue Jays.
The tie-breaker stipulates that the team with most wins in the games between the two teams would finish top in event of a dead heat. And in this, Toronto have the clear edge – and the two teams will not play each other again in the regular season.
Continue readingAnd so on to the roadtrip. Left behind in New York City, I will give you shorter accounts of each day…
Continue readingSo, on September the 9th, the Yankees went into the game against the Detroit Tigers looking limp and surely enough they were demolished by their opponents. The game ended 12-2, and now they desperately needed to bounce back – in order to even the series, and give them the best opportunity of going into the post-season playoffs as division winners.
One of the few highlights of yesterday’s game had been the starting pitcher, Will Warren and indeed it was when the Yankees had to substitute him and go into the bullpen that things really began to fall apart – the relievers (Fernando Cruz and Mark Leiter Jr) conceding 9 runs in one inning.
So today, with one of their strongest starters Carlos Rodon on the mound, they seemed to have a great chance.
Continue reading
twilightdawning 