The crisis has passed now, right?
The Yankees outlasted the Blue Jays 10-7 last night at Yankee Stadium, completing the series sweep of their mirthless Canadian neighbors. They have won five straight games, seven of their last eight and 10 of their last 14, and remember how we kept using July 18 — when they increased their American League East lead to 10 games over Baltimore — as a line of demarcation? Well, now they’re 29-29 since that date.
So all is well? Call off the dogs and start projecting the Yankees’ postseason roster?
Nah. Because of those miracle makers down in Baltimore, the Yankees aren’t much further from disaster than they were when they launched this upgrade.
“We need to continue to play good baseball, because the other teams behind us are doing the same thing,” manager Joe Girardi saidafter the game. “It’s good to see. If you’re going to heat up, this is the time of year to do it.”
Their victory last night improved the Yankees to 86-63, a game up on the Orioles (85-64), who enjoyed a day off after sweeping the Mariners in a three-game, 38-inning series. A loss would have dropped the Yankees back into a tie with Buck Showalter’s boys atop the American League East.
On the bright side, the Yankees have gained ground on the riffraff fighting for a playoff spot; the Angels, who lost 3-1 to the Rangers last night, are 81-69 mark, 5 1/2 games behind the Yankees, and they’re the AL’s best non-playoff team. Yet the revised postseason format makes the wild-card slots quite undesirable, as the two wild cards must face off in a winner-take-all contest to advance to the Division Series.
Losing that wild-card game, ending their postseason in nine innings, wouldn’t feel much different than missing October festivities altogether for baseball’s priciest team.
Since the Yankees began their revival, the Orioles are 9-5 and, more recently, 6-2. They’re displaying no signs of deceleration, zooming right past the 81-win mark to register their first winning campaign since 1997.
While the Yankees must entertain the dangerous A’s this weekend, Baltimore will be at Fenway Park, where they will try to beat up on Bobby Valentine’s moribund Red Sox. Then it’s back home to Camden Yards for four games with Toronto and three with Boston before a three-game visit to Tropicana Field, where they will wrap up their regular season with the Rayswho very well might be eliminated by that juncture.
After this weekend, the Yankees can coast, too: Three games in Minnesota, four in Toronto and finally three in The Bronx to wrap up Valentine’s first and only year leading the Red Sox. Nevertheless, if the Orioles won’t let up, then neither can the Yankeesas both sides will work hard to capture the division title.
“We know we have to win games,” Girardi said. “That’s the bottom line.”
There have been enough signs of encouragement to think the Yankees can capture the division title. If their offense has been inconsistent in this run … well, that’s better than how consistently bad it looked for a while.
Their biggest pitching headache remains CC Sabathia, who will start tonight’s game on six days’ rest, and that’s no small matter. Everyone else, though, looks pretty good. Even on an off night, Phil Hughes struck out nine in five innings last night to raise his record to 16-12.
Oh, and Ichiro Suzuki, who homered and doubled last night, driving home three runs, apparently has convinced himself that it’s 2001. Which reminds me: To all the fans out there who think that Ichiro should be the Yankees’ everyday right fielder and leadoff hitter in 2013, you are out of your minds.
The Orioles still have a negative run differential (653 scored and 663 allowed), and they rank ninth in the AL in both runs scored and runs allowed. They are a baseball marvel. They serve as living evidence that, while statistical analysis rocks, wins and losses trump all else.
Thirteen games to go in this marathon. The Yankees have risen from the pavement and picked up their pace. But will it be enough? Despite all of the knowledge we have gained on this team from the past 16 days, we still have no idea.