New York Yankees mediocre offense is about to explode
The New York Yankees have been playing pretty good. Lately, I guess. But now the rest of the American League is in trouble as the most powerful offensive machine in baseball is about to really start slugging.
Okay, New York Yankees fans, I admit the title was a bit hyperbolic. Indeed, this amazing and historic run reminiscent of the Golden Age of the Bronx Bombers has seen the Yankees assert themselves as the best team in baseball, at this still the very early stage of the season.
Pitching, hitting, defense; they’ve all come together over the last three weeks. And of course, the entire clubhouse has been injected with the clutch gene. This team is and has been special.
You know something is going on when players such as Brett Gardner and Neil Walker improve their batting averages against the Red Sox and its top-five pitching staff.
But every dominating Yankees winning streak contains a silver lining. And in this case, it’s just plain scary news for the rest of the American League: Beginning last night, the Yankees offense has really started to explode.
Boom, Boom, Boom
And it’s not like their offense has really been mediocre; again, just a bit of fun. They lead the AL in runs, RBI, and OBP…and spreading terror in opposing bullpens. But everything is about perspective, and what the Yankees offense is about to do will make what it has done look very, very average.
That’s because, for the first time this year, three of the Yankees top four hitters in the line-up are all getting hot at the same time.
Lead-off man Brett Gardner had been slumping like Stephen Drew, until last night. But then the streaky Gardner collected three hits (two doubles and a triple). If that wasn’t enough to get him going, which history overwhelmingly suggests it is, his last hit was the game winner.
It gave his team not only the lead in the division but also the best record in baseball. That, along with this spoken word menage-a-trois as reported by Kevin Kernan of the NY Post, can only have a restorative effect.
“He’s just a broad-shouldered tough player,’’ Aaron Boone said. “You appreciate that, especially here. So no matter the situation, no matter what’s going on with him, he just has the way of competing in the biggest spots that you cherish.” When those words were passed to Gardner he took a second to reflect on what his manager said, and noted, “That’s quite the compliment. I try to show up here and be the same guy every day whether I’m going great or whether I’m going bad and try to help the team win.”
The man batting first can be the best spark plug for any team, and Gardy is back to being that guy for the Yankees. But it’s the men who bat after him who will turn that spark into an offensive explosion.
Lest Ye Be Judged
Aaron Judge has been scuffling. He has still managed to get a hit in almost every game, and most of those big ones. Even so, when they started their 18 games-in-a-row stretch, Judge was hitting .339/.481/.629. Before last night’s game, he had slumped to .295/.418/.550.
Then he went 3-4 while posting a .800 OBP and not striking out once. Better yet, his three hits produced three RBI, and his home run against Boston’s closer, Craig Kimbrel, iced the game and sent the Bronx into paroxysms of joy.
Judge isn’t about ready to start his next hot streak, perhaps his best of the year; he already started it. And this time he is finally going to be joined by Giancarlo Stanton.
Stanton has so far shown to be the master of the one-day outburst. For instance, on April 22nd, he was hitting .198/.293/.407., with four home runs, but it was clear he was about to get better. And indeed he went out the next night and hit a home run against the Minnesota Twins en route to a 3-4 day with two RBI and three runs scored.
And then the next night he went 0-4. Yankees fans know that has been the pattern all year.
Not that he hasn’t improved over the last two weeks; as of now, he is slashing .237/.327/.504 with nine home runs, eight doubles, and 23 RBI. You could see him over the road trip and the incessant winning growing into his pinstripes.
Still, that is not nearly enough for the middle of the order, reigning NL MVP.
Back to Back
Last night, though, he showed the New York Yankees something they had not seen: He followed up one good game with another. And now his offense looks like it might have gone from slow burn to rapid fire.
Two nights ago, Stanton had one of those games. He went two-for-three with two home runs in the Yankees 3-2 win over Red Sox, another signature moment.
But this time, he followed it up with another more than a solid game last night. Stanton’s double and .400 OBP helped him add two important RBI and extend the current win streak to eight.
That’s something the Yankees had not seen from Stanton. Neither had the American League.
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Now it looks like they are all going to start seeing it a lot more. Everyone knows, based on history, talent, and age, that Giancarlo is highly likely to go on an incredible, MVP-worthy hitting streak. And that hotly anticipated hot streak looks like it has started.
17-1 and Still Getting Better
If that’s true–if Stanton and Gardy and Judgey and even Walker have all now started hot hitting streaks–then the Yankees are about to get real, real good. And that is saying something.
Remember when the Yankees won games 11-1 and 14-1? They haven’t done that in a while, and they haven’t done it consistently. That looks very much likes it’s all about to change.
This is the first time all year that all four of those players have been hot at the same time. And considering one of them is still a premier lead-off man, two are the most powerful men in baseball, and one could be the best number seven hitter in the AL, it’s possible the Yankees offense is about to show us something we’ve never seen before.
Next: The Yankees have Swallowed the American League Whole
That sounds like fun for New York Yankees fans, and something they are prepared for. Maybe not so much the rest of the AL, though. My best advice for them at this propitious moment, this turning of the tide, is: Be afraid.
Be very, very afraid.