The 2014 Yankees completed the first half of their season Monday night in fittingly miserable fashion, falling to the last-place Rays, 4-3 in 12 innings, at Yankee Stadium. And so they face what’s left with a 41-40 record, a nearly perfect symbol of mediocrity.
“It’s been up and down,” Joe Girardi said following the game. “We’ve had our share of issues that we’ve had to deal with like a lot of the other clubs in this division. We’re still in the thick of it, and it’s going to come down to 81 more games.”
Girardi and his players all emphasized how alive the Yankees remained in the pennant race, and it reflects their vast good fortune that they are correct. In the shockingly watered-down American League East that the Yankees are far from dead; they now reside 2 ¹/₂ games behind the first-place Blue Jays (45-39) and a game-and-a-half behind the second-place Orioles (43-39).
Yet the Yankees, who have now been outscored for the season by a 359-326 margin, have inspired little confidence they can surge past their meek opposition. Banjo-hitting second baseman Brian Roberts tied the game at 3-3 with a one-out, ninth-inning solo homer off Tampa Bay’s Joel Peralta, and then one of the Yankees’ remaining 12 batters — Derek Jeter, with a 10th-inning single and swipe of second — reached base.
“I think once our offense clicks on a daily basis, we’re going to be tough to beat,” said Brian McCann, who evaluated his own offensive performance to date as “horrible.” For sure, if McCann, Carlos Beltran and Alfonso Soriano simply approach their 2013 offensive rates, that would be a good start for these Yankees. However, what’s the likelihood of that? Beltran might be too injured with the bone spur in his right elbow; Soriano, 38, might be cooked; and McCann might be engulfed by the pressure of playing in The Bronx.
Granted, on Monday, Tampa Bay pitched the impressive Chris Archer, who allowed two runs in seven innings and fares pretty well against the rest of baseball, too. However, in this pitching-dominant age, the Yankees face too many impressive pitchers and fare too poorly, too often. On Tuesday, the Yankees will try to break their three-game losing streak against Tampa Bay ace David Price, who seems to have raised his game with the reality that he has turned into prime trade bait.
Girardi, asked to map a path to second-half improvement, mentioned first the team’s offense and then increased length from the starting rotation. The Yankees will need CC Sabathia, booked for his second rehabilitation start (from a right knee injury) on Thursday in Trenton, to not only provide length, but also improved performance from the results he posted in his 40 starts from Opening Day 2013 through May 10 of this season. It’s unreasonable to expect anyone else currently under Yankees employ to step it up in that department.
If you want to be crazily optimistic, the 2007 Yankees were 40-41 at this juncture and then went 54-27 in the second half to grab the A.L. wild card. That team benefited from late surges of a number of veterans (like Bobby Abreu, Robinson Cano and Johnny Damon) who stunk up the first half a la McCann, Beltran and Soriano. It also saw Roger Clemens contribute after joining the team in June and Joba Chamberlain — that season’s version of Dellin Betances — aid the team with a dominant final two months.
That club had an in-his-prime Alex Rodriguez, however, not to mention Andy Pettitte and Chien-Ming Wang. It also enjoyed an extremely easy schedule in the days when the Rays, Orioles and Royals served as little more than human doormats. And at the halfway mark, the Yankees enjoyed a remarkably positive 428-370 run differential, boding well for their future.
Now, the bar might be set lower for these Yankees; the Blue Jays are on pace to win the division at 87-75. Nevertheless, the Yankees must turn around their fortunes in a huge way to overcome their brutal first half.
“We’re right there with everybody else,” David Robertson said. “We’ve got two more days against these guys. We can easily take the series from them. We play everybody else a lot more before the season ends. We’ve got a lot of opportunities to gain ground.”
Which means, naturally, that they have plenty of opportunities to lose ground, too. And complete their road to oblivion.