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 Twenty-Seven – September 27th, 2025

Posted on October 1, 2025 by twilightdawning

So, 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.

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The New York Yankees in August – Part One – The Batters (2025)

Posted on September 2, 2025 by twilightdawning

For the last two months, the Yankees have been below .500 in win percentage each month. In August they have begun to turn that around. They lost the first five games in August and then went two-two in the next four. From there, they really picked up, and on the whole month, they went 16-12 which means they were 14-5 after August 10th.

Most of the improvement can’t be attributed to the new signings that they brought in or around the trading so we must think in terms of the return of Giancarlo Stanton, a career best season for Trent Grisham and continued good form from Cody Bellinger.

Sadly, Aaron Judge was still not playing his best game.

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The New York Yankees in July – Part One – The Batters (2025)

Posted on August 4, 2025 by twilightdawning

March 3-0

April 15-13

May 17-9

June 13-14

July 12-13

How did it come to this? After a good start in March and April followed by an exemplary month in May, the Yankees have now had two months where their record is below 50%.

The tailspin meant that there were always going to be a good number of changes as the trading deadline approached.

Most of those who came in were on the pitching side of the roster, but first we’ll survey the batters and those who have left and those who have arrived during the last few days.

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

Posted on June 5, 2025 by twilightdawning

The Yankees have had a tremendous month in May. They have won 17 games and lost only 9.

At the same time, the performances of some of the players who were strong in April have not continued in the same direction. However, some who struggled in April have turned it around.

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The New York Yankees in June – Part Two – The Pitchers (2023)

Posted on July 5, 2023 by twilightdawning

As we have seen in the analysis of the batters’ statistics the Yankees really over-depended on the pitchers in June, and in particular their bullpen.

Obviously, this cannot continue. In a peculiar way, the steady drip, drip, drip, of pitchers returning from injury means that fresh arms are being made available. Some have been out all season (Tommy Kahnle), others for a shorter time (Ian Hamilton). And the return of Carlos Rodon is not too far away.

It seems likely that before the trading deadline, the Yankees will need to bring new offensive and pitching stars. Let’s hope they are able to do so without giving too much away.

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The New York Yankees in May – Part Two – The Pitchers (2023)

Posted on June 7, 2023 by twilightdawning

The Yankees went from one game over .500 to ten games over .500 in the course of the month of May – rising from 15-14 to 34-24.

In the process, they moved from 4th in the division to third and remained in close contention for a wild card spot, moving between 2nd and 3rd in that particular race. They were close and back-and-forth with their modern era fierce rivals, the Houston Astros.

None of this could hide the reality of just how far they are behind the Tampa Bay Rays, who were quickest out of the traps and have not slowed to any considerable extent.

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The New York Yankees in September – Part Two – The Pitchers (2022)

Posted on October 10, 2022 by twilightdawning

Aaron Judge…! Aaron Judge…!! The 17 games the Yankees won during September were primarily down to Mr Judge, their superstar outfielder, whose sixty plus home runs guaranteed them their place in the post-season.

But, it obviously wasn’t down to Aaron alone. We’ve already seen how much players like Gleyber Torres contributed to getting things rolling in September. And many of the pitchers, both starters and relievers, added great performances into this strong month.

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The New York Yankees in August – Part Two – The Pitchers (2022)

Posted on September 12, 2022 by twilightdawning

August…the New York Yankees. Two terms that in 2022 just didn’t go together.

Ten wins, 18 losses. Now, a large part of that as we have seen was due to the batters failing to hit, fielders failing to field. But the pichers were far from guiltless. far from faultless. Starters and relievers alike.

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The New York Yankees in August – Part One – The Batters (2022)

Posted on September 9, 2022 by twilightdawning

August 2022 was a nightmare month for the New York Yankees. If the New York Yankees hadn’t had such a good first half of the season, they would have been dead and buried by the end of August.

it still meant that the huge gap that the Yankees had opened prior to August was reduced from over 11 to 6. It meant that there was a genuine need for the New York team to snap out of it or one of the two pursuing team (Tampa Bay and Toronto) might catch them

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The New York Yankees in October – Part Two – The Pitchers (2021)

Posted on November 17, 2021 by twilightdawning

It was October and the Yankees’ starting rotation was struggling.

While Gerrit Cole was on the active roster, the Yankees elected to not use him in the series with Tampa Bay in order that he might be ready for the Wild Card game.

Jameson Taillon was back from injury and a rehab assignment and ready to go but, as already noted in last month’s report, the Yankees had sent Andrew Heaney to the bullpen and now assigned him outright to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders (Triple-A) – an assignment he would decline and so elect to become a free agent.

Let’s see who rose above the challenges of the end of the year:

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