twilightdawning

A writer's thoughts – mainly about music, sport and theatre. Shakespeare, Bob Dylan, live shows, New York Yankees

A New York Yankees Diary – Day Nine – September 10th, 2026

Posted on September 11, 2026 by twilightdawning

Last game against the Colorado Rockies for the 2026 season. Let’s face it, the Rockies are going nowhere until next year, at the very least, and with the Yankees having the playoffs in their future, this is an important game to win in the hope we can close the gap on the Tampa Bay Rays, but New York winning the American League East division is a slim chance whatever the outcome.

The Yankees have won 83 games to this juncture, so there is no 100 game win season this year. They have done well, but there have been too few runs, and too many injuries. You look at their team with the absence of Aaron Judge being once again a factor and you wonder where the runs will come from – Judge is benched as the Yankees try to gently work him up to full fitness – but, hey, the Yankees can always surprise you.

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The New York Yankees in August – Part Two – The Pitchers (2026)

Posted on September 3, 2026 by twilightdawning

The Yankees only came through August with more wins than losses because of their starting rotation and a few elite relievers. The batters contributed little. The fielding was often gauche and clumsy.

In the month, they used 7 starters. This heightened number was necessary because Max Fried went on the the Injured list (IL) (17th, retroactive to 14th), Ryan Weathers went onto the IL (23rd, left forearm flexor strain), and Elmer Rodriguez was recalled from Scranton (Triple-A). Oh, what a merry-go-round!. Let’s see how it all went.

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The New York Yankees in March / April – Part Two – The Pitchers (2026)

Posted on May 6, 2026 by twilightdawning

The 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.

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The New York Yankees in October – Part Two – The Pitchers (2025)

Posted on November 4, 2025 by twilightdawning

The 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:

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The New York Yankees in September – Part Two – The Pitchers (2025)

Posted on October 6, 2025 by twilightdawning

As 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:

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A New York Yankees Diary – Day Twenty-Eighth – September 28th, 2025

Posted on October 3, 2025 by twilightdawning

And 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.

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A New York Yankees Diary – Day Twenty-Three – September 23rd, 2025

Posted on September 25, 2025 by twilightdawning

And 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.

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A New York Yankees Diary – Day Twelve to Twenty-Two – September 12th-22nd, 2025

Posted on September 24, 2025 by twilightdawning

And so on to the roadtrip. Left behind in New York City, I will give you shorter accounts of each day…

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A New York Yankees Diary – Day Six – September 6th, 2025

Posted on September 8, 2025 by twilightdawning

So, one down in the series and time for the Yankees to try and turn things around.

On the mound is the rookie of the year from 2024, Luis Gil who has recovered from injury. In his first games since returning, he started slowly but he has now built up his stamina and is settling well.

The Toronto Blue Jays started with George Springer leading off and popping up to Anthony Volpe for the first out, and then Addison Barger lined out to Cody Bellinger who is in rightfield this afternoon. So, a good start for Gil but then the Yankees’ nemesis from last night, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a double on a sharp line drive towards Jasson Dominguez as a way of welcoming Jasson back to the line-up.

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The New York Yankees in August – Part Two – The Pitchers (2025)

Posted on September 3, 2025 by twilightdawning

The Yankees got better as August progressed. Part of this was due to members of the starting rotation getting into their groove after a rough stretch. The most notable of them was Max Fried who struggled throughout almost all of August, but then hit his stride in his last August appearance.

Alongside the other starters, the relief corps were much better than they had been in July.

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