If the Yankees fall short of the playoffs by three or fewer games, they and their fans can spend the winter miserably contemplating how in the world they suffered an early August sweep at the hands of the horrible White Sox.
We can dwell upon that topic down the road, however. The Yankees still are in the American League postseason race, and their 9-1 thumping of the White Sox yesterday at Yankee Stadium — highlighted by an eight-run fourth inning that featured considerable help from the Chicago defense — reiterated a simple but important reality about what’s left.
The Yankees have to stomp on their weak opponents because, while their remaining schedule is somewhat easy, some fellow wild-card hopefuls have it even easier.
“Those teams that have a bad record, they can do damage. We have to try to win the most games we can,” Alfonso Soriano said. “But at the same time, sometimes we get too confident and they beat us. I hope that’s not the case.”
Their Labor Day victory pushed the Yankees (73-64) a game ahead of Cleveland (72-65) and kept them a half-game behind Baltimore (73-63), as the Orioles beat the Indians 5-1 at Progressive Field. The A’s and Rangers, tied for first in the AL West (79-58) hold a six-game lead over the Yankees atop the AL wild-card heap, The current second wild-card entry, the Rays (75-61), were blasted by the Angels 11-2 last night and are 2 1/2 games ahead of Joe Girardi’s group.
With 25 games to play, the Yankees have 14 against contending teams (seven with Boston, four with Baltimore, three with Tampa Bay) and 11 against clubs out of the race (two more in this series vs. the White Sox and three each with Toronto, San Francisco and Houston). That’s not bad, and it compares favorably to Baltimore (16 vs. contenders, 10 vs. non-contenders).
Tampa Bay, however, has virtually the same breakdown as the Yankees — 14 against contenders and 12 against non-contenders. And the teams outside the perennially competitive AL East own very encouraging schedules. Cleveland faces contenders in just eight games and non-contenders in 17 games, while the A’s play contending Texas five more times and otherwise have 20 games against clubs out of the race.
Now, it has been noted you can’t predict baseball. The collapse of the 2011 Red Sox crystallized against a young, sub-.500 Orioles team that was driven by manager Buck Showalter to create misfortune for others. You never know. Nevertheless, common sense dictates you’d like to be facing clubs with no stakes beyond pride. If the Yankees can remain alive into the season’s final weekend, they’ll have to be encouraged that they finish things up in Houston.
The Yankees didn’t appear particularly confident during their Aug. 5-7 visit to U.S. Cellular Field. Rather, in suffering losses by scores of 8-1, 3-2 and 6-5 (in 12 innings), they presented the image of an old, broken-down group that had lost its way.
Nearly a month later, the Yankees seem less broken-down, owners of a better sense of direction. Soriano, as streaky as his first time in a Yankees uniform, has morphed from Cold Sori to Hot Sori. Curtis Granderson was in his second series off the disabled list and Alex Rodriguez in his first; if neither guy is what he once was, both have contributed significantly since the South Side sweep.
“We’ve played better, there’s no doubt about it,” Girardi said yesterday. “We’ve added a few pieces here. We’ve gotten some other guys who have gotten some at-bats under their belt.”
Yesterday’s early rain delay, an hour and 53 minutes in the top of the second inning, gave Phil Hughes an incomplete grade for the day, while Hughes’ reliever David Huff picked up the win with 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball. Huff should take Hughes’ next turn Saturday against the Red Sox, shouldn’t he? He owns two consecutive good relief outings — he threw 3 1/3 scoreless innings in Toronto on Aug. 26 — during Hughes’ starts.
Although, keep in mind, these were the White Sox, at 56-80 the owners of the AL’s second-worst record. Any conclusions Girardi draws from Robin Ventura’s visit to The Bronx should be put in their proper context.
Well, besides this: Any losses to such bad teams, given their tiny room for error, would be particularly painful for these Yankees.