New York Yankees are swallowing the American League whole
The New York Yankees took on three tasks at once over the last three weeks. Now that the road trip, 18 games without a day off, and 10 in a row against the best the AL has to offer is almost over, it’s time to digest what this team is doing.
The New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox will play three games starting Tuesday for control of the AL East. Does anyone who can pronounce his r’s still think that Boston will be leading the division when it’s over?
No, not with the way this Yankees team is playing…and winning.
That part isn’t much of a surprise as the talent level on this team is undeniably high. But it is how they have been winning, and how often, that has eliminated many of the questions coming into the season, and replaced them with a new and single query: Is this team special?
Those in Yankees universe know exactly what that means; they’ve seen it before. And they are used to a delay.
The Way Back Machine
On May 12th, 2009, the Yanks were 15-17. They had already endured losing streaks of four and five games. Worse yet, they had been swept by the Red Sox in all five of their encounters, some losses coming in embarrassing fashion.
But the next day they started a nine-game winning streak highlighted by Walk-Off Weekend. They would go on to win the division over the Sox, as well as the season series. Even the maddeningly inconsistent A.J. Burnett made the start of the year against Josh Beckett, and A-Rod capped a classic.
Big hits were not unusual for that man in 2009 as both his first and last swings of the season produced home runs.
Long before that, though, long before the Yankees won 103 games and the World Series, it was clear that team was special. Yankees fans probably remember when the realization dawned on them and the team: During that nine-game winning streak.
Those are common enough in baseball; even teams with losing records might have them. But there was something different about that run. So many of the wins were improbable, not just the walk-offs.
It was like recognizing someone as a Hall-of-Famer by watching him play: That team just looked special.
Even Wayer Back?
There was a shorter wait for the immense talent on that 1998 team to emerge. Still, though, there was some concern. A team that had won it all in ’96, and was now both improved after the loss to the Indians in the ’97 playoffs as well as pissed about it, started 1-4.
No one reading this column needs to be told how Yankees fans tend to react to that kind of start. Some of you were there and probably reacted. So a team meeting was called, and the winning soon started. They turned it around and won 15 of their next 17 games, and just never stopped.
When the dust settled, the Bronx Bombers had steamrolled the field, going 114-48. And established a dynasty. Again, though, even before they became the greatest team in post-1960’s baseball, it was clear they were special.
A Feeling in the Air
So, what about this team?
After starting 9-9, they have turned it around and won 15 of their last 17; sound familiar? And they had a nine-game winning streak. It seems I’ve read something about that kind of thing before. This one included wins of all shapes and sizes, as well.
There have been beat-downs (9-1, 14-1, 11-1) that have shown the run differential power of this talented-from-top-to-bottom team.
Back-to-back shutouts of Houston, one of the best offenses in baseball, showed the strong pitching can win games by itself. Meanwhile, the thunderous offense has shown what it can do when it needs to.
Right now, that looks like whatever it wants.
While the official record reflects only two walk-off wins in this run, which would be exciting enough, the team has done even better than that. For instance, only the home run hit by Gary Sanchez in the bottom of the ninth in New York on April 26th against the Twins is recorded with a w/o. But the next night in Anaheim Didi did the same in the top of the tenth.
When you do it in extra innings on the road, it’s akin to a walk-off win. The same is true when the Bombers came back in the top of the ninth on Thursday in Houston.
That makes four wins in their last AB’s over these fifteen wins, not two.
Round and Round They Go
And everyone all over the line-up has contributed and looks likely to continue. We’ve seen Sanchez and Judge and do-it-all Didi Gregorius win games by themselves. The Yankees knew that was likely, and won’t be surprised to see it again.
But the bottom of the order has produced in ways no one expected. Miguel Andujar has cooled off considerably, but he is still batting .284/.302/.510 with three home runs, 12 doubles, and 13 RBI. His power-over-average contributions are being balanced perfectly in the order by Gleyber Torres and his .333/.365/.458 line.
Even Giancarlo Stanton has been more valuable than his numbers.
After winning the first game of the season almost single-handedly with his two home runs, his bat has been far too inconsistent. Even with those struggles, though, Stanton managed to win another game by himself, collecting all four RBI in the 4-0 shutout over Houston’s Dallas Keuchel on Wednesday.
Not only was he the only Yankee to homer off of Keuchel that night, but also the only Yankee ever. They couldn’t beat Keuchel in the 2015 Wild Card Game, or in Houston in the 2017 ALCS. But they beat him on Wednesday. And that was due to Stanton, and Severino.
Over the last fifteen games, Stanton has also raised his numbers from Stephen Drew to Mark Teixeira: .227/.309/.455. His seven home runs, seven doubles, triple and 19 ribbies make him a very valuable Bomber, if not yet the all-around hitter the Yankees still hope to see.
Still, none of this necessarily makes a team special. Two things can, however, and the Yankees seem to have both in spades.
Not Just
The Yankees are first in the AL in Runs (190). That doesn’t make them special. They are first in RBI (183) and OBP (.335); that helps them win, a lot. But there is always a team first in those categories.
The pitching has the second lowest ERA behind Houston, but they just bested the Astros in mano a mano combat. Their Ace just pitched a nine-inning shutout and made it look easy.
That puts them among the best teams in baseball. But none of that puts them over the top.
And it’s not that the Yankees have a ton of talent. They do, as do several other clubs, such as the recently defeated Angels, Astros, and Indians. It’s not that they have a true ace at the head of their staff, followed by one or two other top starters; Boston, Houston, and Cleveland can say that, as well.
It’s not even their exploding run differential or the way the pitching has been getting better every day. No, what makes a team special is instilling that never-say-die gene in itself, and fear in their opponents.
The Yankees have done both.
Evil Maybe, Empire Definitely
How often has this team refused to lose and do anything it takes to win?
As always that effort has been led by Sir Didi. In the last fifteen games, he’s hit game-winning home runs and bunted against the shift. He’s turned singles into hustle doubles and even taken one to the chin.
Didi will do anything at any time to win, and that kind of attitude rubs off. Especially when the guy who is doing all the bunting and the hustling also just won his first AL Player of the Month.
Even Stanton has gotten his share of hits late in games recently, and Andujar has come up big while hitting less. No one on this team knows how to quit, and each is getting the most from his production.
And it all just seems to be happening at the right time. There have been games in which Judge has looked lost at the plate but still hit a double into the gap, or a home run just into the right field seats. When Andujar actually worked a walk in front of Torres Saturday to set up the scoring, it was a clear sign that fate beyond the player’s abilities is at work.
Sometimes it’s like a scene from The Natural. Anything they want to do, they do. Home runs, double, singles; anything they need to hit, they hit. I can’t say I’ve never seen anything like it. But I am glad to be seeing it again.
And the rest of the American League is seeing it, as well, because now their fear is starting to show.
The Yankees Have Been Streaking
The combination of the 18-game stretch is starting on April 19th without a day off, coupled with playing ten in a row against the best of the rest of the AL while going on a West Coast road trip, was described as a test of the Yankees mettle.
The team has gone 15-2 with one to still to play. Safe to say they passed the test.
And they were even better against better competition. They swept the Angels, bearded the Astros in their den three games to one, and have already won the series with Cleveland. That adds up to an 8-1 record in those nine games.
The Yanks didn’t just beat these teams; they beat them down.
Even a loss on Sunday would make them 8-2 against three of the teams they are most likely to face in October. When the trip started, both Anaheim and Houston had better records than the Yankees; now they both have worse ones. It turns out it wasn’t the Yankees mettle that was being tested; it was the other teams’.
That was on full display in the way these teams lost. From California to Texas and back to New York, we saw All-Star position players gacking up games sometimes two errors at a time. And All-Star relievers with their heads hung low.
The Yankees, on the other hand, have the temperament, talent and will to prevail with the game on the line. And tattoos that read, “If you want to win today, you’ll have to kill me.”
Some of their opponents, meanwhile, are so afraid to lose that their fear has caused them to.
And that is what can make a special team.
But I Thought It was a Seven Game Lead?
The season started with several teams red hot; the Yankees weren’t one of them.
But now the weather has heated up and so have they while cooling their early season passion for errors. The line-up is completely circular, and now Greg Bird is due back in ten days. And the pitching is as elite as was projected.
At the same time, teams such as the Mets and Red Sox have cooled off, leaving the Yankees looking like the best second-place team in baseball. And the hardest to beat.
They have now closed the gap between them and the Sox from 7.5 games to just one, although the Red Sox have played well. Starting Tuesday, they’ll go head-to-head…and that will test the mettle of both teams.
Bring it Home, Daddy
Every team in the league right now knows that if you want to win the game, you have to do more than beat the Yankees. You better kill them, and I mean dead, because if you don’t if you give them an extra out, an extra at-bat—if you walk the number seven hitter because you think number eight is easier—then you will lose.
This team is going to get up and exploit your error at short, or your inability to throw home. It’s going to win a game against your best pitcher when the Yankees’ leaves in the first inning. And they’ll shut you out in the process.
They don’t give away at-bats, and they don’t take losing lightly. And they are no longer just winning with talent and by controlling the strike zone.
They are winning because they have put tremendous talent together with hard work, and luck has followed close behind. And fear. They win when Judge goes into a slump, or Didi doesn’t play. They win when the top of the order contributes nothing, and unproven rookies carry the day.
Next: The Next Wave of Yankees Hitters is Rising
The season has a long way to go; not even one-quarter completed yet. But already some inside and out of New York Yankees universe are wondering if this team of Bronx Bombers and Baby Believers is special. I don’t know what the answer is, yet, but I can guess what the Angels, Astros, and Indians would say.
Next up is the team with the best record in baseball and leader in the AL East, Boston. If the New York Yankees can take two of three from them, and the division lead in the process, the question is going to get a lot easier to answer.
And then the rest of baseball can live in fear of being the Yankees next meal.