Welcome back to high ground in The Bronx. Anyone know where we’re headed from here?
Detroit’s March of the Cys through The Bronx wound up elevating the Yankees, rather than burying them. Their rookie, Shane Greene, outperformed his Tigers counterpart, Rick Porcello, on Thursdsay afternoon at Yankee Stadium, and so the Yankees prevailed, 1-0, to take three of four games in this highly hyped matchup.
They bring a 60-54 record into their weekend home series with Cleveland, and this marks the third time this season the Yankees have reached six games over .500. They have yet to get to seven, as losses followed their ascents to 39-33 and 54-48.
“I think we’re a better team now,” said David Robertson, who retired mega-dangerous pinch-hitter Miguel Cabrera on a ninth-inning double play en route to his 31st save. “We just need to get on a run and we need to start winning games against AL East opponents. I think that’s going to be our biggest key.”
“It seems like we’re doing all of the little things to win,” Joe Girardi said. “Getting the big hit when we need it. Our pitchers have done an outstanding job. Our bullpen has continued to do an outstanding job. Our defense has been a lot better. It’s just helped us. As long as you continue to pitch and play defense, you’re going to be in every game.”
Then again, as Carlos Beltran said, “It’s been on and off. What [can I] say? For us, it’s been on and off, a lot of injuries, a lot of things that happened to our ball club. But at the end of the day, we have to find a way to do it with what we’ve got.”
What the Yankees have got, however, continues to defy simple definition. While the Tigers sent the last three AL Cy Young Award winners in reverse chronological order (Max Scherzer, David Price and Justin Verlander) to the mound in this series, followed by the improved Porcello, the Yankees went with Brandon McCarthy, Hiroki Kuroda, Chris Capuano and Greene, who combined for a 0.99 ERA.
“This is the game of baseball,” Robertson said. “You can win against anybody at a given time.”
True, but the Yankees need to win against many over an extended period, as they are now a half-game behind the Royals (and tied with the Blue Jays) for the AL’s second wild card and five games behind AL East-leading Baltimore.
They own a 13-7 record since the All-Star break, 10-4 at home in that period, and have won five of seven (including five of their last six) since the July 31 non-waivers trade deadline. The July additions of McCarthy, Capuano, Chase Headley, Stephen Drew (who drove in the game’s only run with a fourth-inning double) and Martin Prado clearly have upgraded the squad.
“It’s changed the complexion of our team,” Girardi said. “When a guy gets a day off, you’re putting in an experienced player. We got better defensively. We’ve had pitchers that pitched late into the season, have compiled innings, understand what you have to do to be successful.
“…The additions have been huge. I think that’s the reason we’re playing better.”
Really, though, they’re playing only marginally better. In this five-of-six run, they have outscored their opponents, 25-17. In their six games prior to that, of which they lost five, they were outscored, 33-27. They weren’t getting killed during their bad week, and they haven’t killed during their good week. Their only “comfortable” victory came Wednesday night, 5-1 over the Tigers, and that was a 2-1 contest until the Yankees broke it open with three runs in the eighth.
“We believe in ourselves,” Beltran said. “… It would’ve been better if [Masahiro] Tanaka was in the rotation and CC [Sabathia] was in the rotation, but at the end of the day, the guys that we have have been doing a pretty good job also.”
Both Beltran and Robertson noted the importance of the Yankees’ road trip next week through Baltimore and Tampa Bay. The Yankees are an underwhelming 21-23 in intra-division games.
At this juncture, the Yankees, from ownership down to the players and everyone in between, deserve credit for never saying die. For keeping things interesting in August when even that appeared in doubt at times.
It’s doubtful whether this can result in an October presence, yet that’s not how ballplayers and their managers think. For now, the only suspense lies in whether they can raise their high ground to seven.