If you’re a Yankees fan right now, you’re probably having a hard time enjoying Sunday’s 4-2 win over the Blue Jays.
That’s perfectly understandable, particularly since we have this latest keyboard rant of mine instead of the usual series takeaways. The Yankees, despite having an eight-game lead in the AL East, have been MLB’s worst team in August at 5-14. Six series losses in a row. Nobody in the lineup is hitting well, and Giancarlo Stanton being hitless on a rehab assignment at Double-A Somerset isn’t exactly encouraging.
If manager Aaron Boone trashes the usual aw-shucks attitude and is visibly angry? That means things are very, very bad indeed.
Well, guess what? These are the Yankees we have right now. Power outages get solved by playing out of them, plain and simple. All New York can do is try to forget how badly this month has gone and finish strong. It has to get better at some point, right?
Looking at the schedule, it just might. The crosstown rival and first-place counterpart Mets visit the Bronx for the latter half of the Subway Series starting Monday. Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom pitching for the boys from Flushing may seem a tough matchup, but fortune may favor the Bronx Bombers.
Neither Scherzer nor deGrom has a winning record at Yankee Stadium. In fact, they’re a combined 3-5 with a 4.72 ERA in the Bronx. Win or lose, the Yankees should be able to put some runs on the board against them at home.
And after the Subway Series, the Yankees truly have no excuses for hitting poorly and losing games because of it. Four games against the last-place Oakland A’s and three with the equally underachieving Angels should practically be a weeklong California vacation. Then, three at the Trop against the Rays who, honestly, really only won two of three in New York because the Yankees were playing that badly.
It isn’t too late for New York to change its fortunes. These are all winnable games, even if they’re on the ugly side and a hard-fought 2-1 or 3-2 victory. Nobody, from the fans to the front office, expects perfection. All that’s truly desired is simple baseball and for it to be played to the high standard that defines the New York Yankees.
Six weeks of season remain and we all know how good this Yankees team is. There’s no way that first half was some grand overachieving mirage. At their absolute best, the Yankees are a championship-caliber squad.
They haven’t looked like one for far too long. They need to change that story now.
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