The 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 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 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.
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 readingAnd so we turn our attention to the Yankees pitchers. The starting rotation has had some necessary changes. The bullpen has changed beyond recognition.
Obviously, the major need is to cover for the absence because of injury of Gerrit Cole. He’ll be out until June.
Continue readingEach season, we award to players rankings according to outstanding performances during the season. Using this system, here’s how the Batters and Pitchers of the New York Yankees placed:
Continue readingInjuries? The Yankees got ’em.
Nestor Cortes; Luis Severino; Albert Abreu; Anthony Misiewicz; Wandy Peralta; Tommy Kahnle; Ryan Weber; Luis Gil; Lou Trivino.
And Frankie Montas, and Keynan Middleton just made it back before the end of the season.
And Ian Hamilton by the middle of September.
No surprise then that the patched up Yankees rotation and bullpen struggled in September and in game 162 in October.
Thank goodness for Gerrit Cole.
Let’s take an overview of the stats…
Continue readingWell, the Yankees have returned to their losing ways. Yesterday, in the first game of their three games series against the Toronto Blue Jays, they lost 1-7 despite Clarke Schmidt (who has had a better than expected season) being on the mound.
Today, with another much improved pitcher, Michael King on the mound, they lost again – this time 1-6. This time, though, the starting pitcher had very little to do with the loss. The main feature of King’s season has been the way that the Yankees have been able to build his stamina, so he has gone from being a long reliever to one of the starters. In these days of many injured Yankees’ starters, this has proved a key element. Today, he delivered up 7 innings for only 1 run, and a career-high 13 strikeouts. And still the Yankees lost.
Continue readingAnd there was more rain…
Thankfully, it was nothing like the day before. The delay amounted to only 16 minutes. But there was added time for the fans – this one ran into extra innings.
More surprisingly, the Yankees limited the Brewers who had so dominated them over the previous two days, to a mere three hits over the regulation nine innings. Even more surprisingly, the Yankees didn’t get a hit at all until the 10th.
And so much of the weight of the Yankees staying in the game fell upon the able shoulders of Gerrit Cole, who if there is any justice in the baseball world will walk away with the American League Cy Young award for 2023.
Well, yesterday was yesterday, and today is today. And it couldn’t be more half-hearted, and worse. Right?
Wrong.
Austin Wells was restored to the catcher’s role. He continues to be defensively strong, but with the bat (0-for-3 today), he remains consistently weak. Oswaldo Cabrera who had come on to replace Aaron Judge in the field in the previous game, was now switched to leftfield. Everson Pereira was benched. The rather hopeless Giancarlo Stanton was also benched, with Judge taking over at designated hitter.
twilightdawning 