The Yankees begin a road trip tonight that warrants all the hyperbole manager Joe Girardi can muster.
The Yankees play three games in Seattle, beginning tonight, then head to Anaheim for three more. And considering the scorching baseball the Red Sox have been playing and how shaky the Yankees rotation has become, Girardi knows how critical this six-game journey is.
“It’s as important as any road trip we’ve had, I believe,” Girardi said. “We have six games in tough places to play, Seattle and Anaheim. This is an extremely important road trip.”
On Sept. 9, the Yankees held a nine-game lead on the Red Sox, and the AL East looked to be locked up. But the surging Sox won seven straight before losing, 4-3, to the Angels last night at Fenway Park. Boston now trails the Yankees by seven games (six in the loss column).
And after this West Coast trip is over, the Red Sox come to town for a three-game set in The Bronx.
General manager Brian Cashman insisted there’s little uneasiness over the shrinking lead.
“We control our own destiny,” he said. “So we’re not scoreboard-watching.”
Still, the Yankees are at a crucial point because they can ensure that the series against the Red Sox will be virtually meaningless if they play well against the Mariners and Angels. In fact, they can clinch a playoff berth on this trip out West — their magic number to do so is just four.
After a season of celebrating with pies, the Yankees potentially can celebrate with champagne this week.
To do that, though, the Yankees likely will need their starting pitching to deliver, and that’s far from a sure thing. In fact, one of their two biggest question marks takes the hill tonight at Safeco Field when A.J. Burnett tries to remedy his recent struggles.
In Burnett’s last nine starts, the $82.5 million right-hander has gone 1-5 with a 6.14 ERA. And worse, tonight he’ll go against Seattle ace Felix Hernandez.
Then there’s Andy Pettitte, who’s the Yankees’ other enormous question mark. Pettitte didn’t pitch Wednesday night against the Blue Jays because of a fatigued shoulder. The veteran lefty is on track to make his next start Monday in Anaheim, so how he fares against the Angels, assuming he takes his turn, will be telling.
Cashman said no tests are scheduled for Pettitte, and the GM downplayed the severity of the shoulder scare.
“This is as simple as we’re in a position to give him a timeout,” Cashman said.
The Yankees also will be without Jorge Posada for tonight’s and tomorrow’s games, because the catcher has two more games to serve on his three-game suspension. So the Yankees, who are just 3-3 in their last six games, aren’t going into this trek in the best possible shape.
The last time the Yankees were in Seattle and Anaheim, they had mixed results — they took three of four against the Mariners in August, but were swept in a three-game set by the Angels before the All-Star break.
The Yankees’ magic number to clinch the division is 10, but Girardi thinks the AL East derby “is going to go down to the end.”
And the manager knows that this road trip might factor in pretty heavily.
Additional reporting
by Howie Kussoy