You’re running a con, and it works beautifully, better than you ever could have imagined. Every time you feel close to getting busted, you get a second wind — or maybe it’s just the marks get dumber — and keep it going.
And now, stunningly, you realize you might pull this off. Pay off your debts, pocket a few extra bucks and skip town before anyone fully digests what you’ve done.
You are the 2013 Yankees. And you can see the finish line — not at the end of your greater mission, but to the smoke-and-mirrors methodology that got you this far.
Can you execute this massive hustle?
“We need to win games like this,” Vernon Wells said after his walkoff single gave the Yankees a dramatic, come-from-behind, 3-2 victory over the Orioles at Yankee Stadium last night. “We haven’t done this enough.”
As significant as the Yankees’ fifth straight victory seemed, the day’s most intriguing news arrived before the game, when the team announced Derek Jeter would start his 20-day rehabilitation clock tonight with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The captain, working to overcome the left ankle fractures that have kept him out since Game 1 of last year’s American League Championship Series, joins Eduardo Nunez (left oblique) and Alex Rodriguez (left hip) on the rehab circuit.
We still have no idea what to expect from Jeter or A-Rod, who didn’t show much in his first two outings and saw his game with Single-A Tampa get rained out yesterday. Yet given 1) who they are and what they have accomplished and 2) just how poorly their replacements at shortstop and third base have performed, it makes sense for the Yankees to possess at least a glimmer of hope they’re on the verge of becoming a better ballclub.
“I think you can allow yourself to think, yeah,” Joe Girardi said before the game. “But you’ve got to make sure they’re here before you actually pencil them in.”
A-Rod is aiming for July 22, and despite Rodriguez’s four-day head start on his long-time frenemy, Jeter could return sooner. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said the team threw Jeter right into Triple-A because the captain had taken so many simulated at-bats at the minor-league complex in Tampa. While a Jeter arrival before the All-Star Game appears unlikely, it could be right after the break, when the Yankees open the second half July 19 at Fenway Park against the American League East-leading Red Sox.
Though the Yankees wouldn’t admit to it, their good cheer has to be strengthened by the team’s remaining schedule before the break. Once Buck Showalter’s Orioles fly the coop after two more games, the Yankees will host the Royals for four contests and the Twins for three. The Yankees swept the Royals in three games at Kauffman Stadium, May 10-12, and they just took four straight from the Twins at Target Field.
Really, with the notable exception of the Mets, the Yankees have beaten up on the teams they’re supposed to defeat. They own a 25-13 record (.658 winning percentage) against clubs below .500.
If the Yankees (47-39) go 6-3 for the rest of this homestand, they would enter the break with a 53-42 record and with hopes of internal upgrades headed their way. Given what they have endured this season, they would have to feel awfully good about their standing.
The downfall lies in the possibility neither Jeter nor A-Rod can help, in which case Cashman would have to intensify his external search for help and Girardi would have to come up with more smoke and polish the mirrors.
When you see nights like this, however, with Orioles closer Jim Johnson blowing his sixth save of the season, you wonder whether the con has even more stamina than we already thought.
After all, Johnson contributed greatly to his own demise when, following David Adams’ leadoff single in the ninth, he couldn’t pick up a Brett Gardner bunt that should have been thrown to second for an easy force out. Instead, both Yankees reached base safely, setting in motion the chain of events (Ichiro Suzuki sacrifice bunt, Robinson Cano intentional walk, Travis Hafner walk, Wells single) that won the ballgame.
“Thank God he fumbled the ball,” Adams said.
It seemed the jig was up when the Orioles swept the Yankees last week at Camden Yards. Not so fast. These guys have us going again. They have bought valuable time in their game of survive and advance. Starting tonight, we’ll have a better sense of whether their captain can join in on their fun.