Well this weekend could not have gone any worse. Toronto came into the Bronx on Friday with all kinds of swagger after their deadline moves, having won five games in a row while scoring a million runs. These three games were a true test for a Blue Jays team looking to make a serious playoff push, and they delivered in a big way. After the Yankee bats spent the weekend setting all kinds of records for abysmal performance over a three game stretch, Toronto gained three crucial games in the standings and all kinds of confidence heading into the dog days of August.
Folks will tell you that it's time for the Yankees to go into panic mode and that the Blue Jays are the team to beat in the division. Most of that rhetoric is merited but I for one am not ready to start panicking yet. There have been peaks and valleys this season and every time this team has gotten punched they've gotten up and punched right back. Yea, this weekend SUCKED but I'm going to tell you a few reasons why it didn't suck as much as you may think.
The Standings
It's fun to say that the Blue Jays are only a game and a half out of first place in the division, isn't it? That 1.5 really looks like Toronto is right on the Yankees' heels. But in reality, the lead is three games. The loss column is all that matters. You can't make those games up. So while this weekend was a big hit, the Yankees have a little more breathing room than how it's being perceived.
Yankee magic number = 50
The Pitching
During the week and a half that the Yankee lineup was pummeling opposing pitching staffs, the talk around the team was whether or not the starting pitching was good enough to win in the postseason. Well Tanaka went out on Sunday against the best lineup in baseball and limited them to two runs on solo shots by Donaldson and Bautista. Eovaldi probably pitched his best game of the season on Friday and Nova pitched great on Saturday until the grand slam by Justin Smoak. I wouldn't be worried about the offense's long term success and while this lineup was historically bad all weekend long, at least you can be encouraged by a few really good starting pitching performances.
Peaks and Valleys
The Yankees have been a very inconsistent team for the most part this season. Fortunately for them there's been far more good baseball than there's been bad. Every time they've played poorly this year they've come back and played well again. This is a team of veterans who have won before. They won't get down. They can easily go into Cleveland here and win three straight. They also have an opportunity this Friday to go into Toronto and get some quick payback.
But if they're going to do that a few things have to change. They have to get more aggressive on the base paths. I understand they have three guys in the middle of their order who hit the ball out of the ballpark but you can't depend on that all the time. Sometimes when your offense is stagnant you have to find ways to generate runs. They had a lot of opportunities to swipe a bag on Friday and instead they grounded out into a billion double plays. Two of the best bag-swipers in the game rest atop this lineup and they need to start playing like it.
Also, Girardi has to do a better job with the bullpen. This was not a good series for him. First he lifts Andrew Miller after throwing just 6 pitches in the 9th inning on Friday night and brings in Brandon Pinder to face the meat of the Blue Jay order in the 10th. That's a game you have to win and preserving Miller for Saturday with a game to win on Friday was a horrible move. And wouldn't you know it, Miller was a none factor for the final two games of the series. Then on Saturday Nova was clearly cooked after loading the bases in the 6th. Girardi left him in to hang a fat breaking ball over the plate and lose the game on a grand slam by Justin Smoak. Add that in with the bizarre move against the Red Sox earlier in the week when he took out Justin Wilson with a 1-2 count in favor of Betances and you have a very questionable stretch of bullpen management by Girardi. When the Yankees bullpen starts to impact the game it should be an advantage, not a disadvantage. He has to be better.
Yankee Magic Number = 50.
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