Mariano Rivera finished? Well, so they were saying in the first half of August. But in reality the bullpen was probably the Yankees’ strongest asset in the dog-days of Summer as unlikely as that seemed just a couple of months ago….. Let’s see what the statistics reveal……
As August drew to a close, the Yankees were embroiled in a vital series with Boston at Fenway. It was the conclusion of a turbulent month which had seen Derek Jeter return to a higher level of form with the bat and suggestions that the Mariano Rivera era was coming to a close. Let’s see what the statistics reveal:
It needs to be observed that the Yankees’ bullpen – which at times been their great strength and other times their greatest weakness – didn’t come back from the All-star break doing quite as well as they had in the first half. Those ERAs that were 1.something became 2.something for the month of July but, overall, the team’s pitching held their own. Let’s see who did particularly well and particularly badly…….
July saw the Yankees stay close to the Red Sox and ready themselves for the big run in. It’s hard to believe that they are not going to be at least the wild card for the American League. Here are some of the reasons why:
And now we turn our attention to the pitchers…………………….
And so having safely returned from New York, we turn our attention to what has been a very good month with the bat for the Yankees:
When I arrived in New York City, the Yankees were second in the AL East and the first game I attended saw them losing, once more, to the Boston Red Sox – making them 1-8 to the Sox on the season.
With the New York Yankees out of town on the road to Chicago, I decided to catch some minor league baseball in the gap and so we went to catch the opening day of class-A Staten Island Yankees’ season – a home game against the Brooklyn Cyclones of the Mets organisation.
In my last article I argued that Joe Girardi had shown the paucity of the Yankees bullpen and that it was now time for Brian Cashman to deliver if the Yankees were at all serious about catching Boston in the regular season.
(I’m posting this slightly out of sequence as the May baseball updates aren’t up on this site yet!)
Yesterday, Joe Girardi looked hesitant and under-managed the Yankees as they allowed Boston to sweep the series at the Stadium. Sabathia faded quickly in a game that he had largely dominated and Girardi allowed him to wilt and die and a small lead became a huge deficit. Girardi’s indecision showed all the traits that would have cost him his job in a different era under a different Steinbrenner.
twilightdawning 