Alex Rodriguez checked out via knee surgery on July 11. A.J. Burnett went 0-3 with a 4.83 ERA in five starts. Three games at Citi Field where the designated hitter wasn’t used returned the icicles to Jorge Posada’s bat that have slowly started to melt.
And when yesterday’s 4 p.m. trading deadline passed, the Yankees had the same club they had at 3:59. That means the Yankees have a lot of faith in Bartolo Colon, Freddy Garcia, Phil Hughes and Ivan Nova.
Yet, CC Sabathia went 4-1. Nick Swisher continued his climb out of an early-season ditch. Derek Jeter returned from the DL, hit well and delivered a game on July 9 that nobody who saw it will ever forget. After filling in very well for Jeter, Eduardo Nunez did the same for Rodriguez — at least at the plate. And David Robertson developed into a bona fide eighth-inning reliever and All-Star.
On July 1 the Yankees held a 2 1⁄2-game lead over the Red Sox. Today they trail their blood rivals by two. They are in good shape in the wild-card chase, but the best way to the World Series is winning a division.
Here is a look at July and a gander at August, a month in which the Yankees and Red Sox see each other five times and Rodriguez is expected to return.
MVP
For the second straight month NICK SWISHER resides here. The right fielder hit .323 (30-for-93) with four homers and 19 RBIs. When Rodriguez went down, Swisher insisted there was enough talent to make up for the loss. It turns out he was talking about himself.
LVP
Four games are a small sample even for starting pitchers who generally make 35 starts a year.
Yet when the pitcher is as bad as Phil Hughes was, it’s legitimate. And don’t forget, the Yankees demoted a very hot pitcher — Ivan Nova — to make room for Hughes.
Hughes came off the DL on July 6 after spending 11 weeks on the shelf with an inflamed right shoulder. His first outing wasn’t good, the second one OK, the third one a disaster and the fourth one could have been a lot better.
In four games Hughes went 1-2 with a 5.49 ERA. He allowed 28 hits and 11 walks in 21 1⁄3 innings and hitters batted .290 (9-for-30) against him with runners in scoring position.
The poor performance added fuel to those who believed Nova never should have been sent to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre while on a four-game winning streak to make room for Hughes.
LOOKING AHEAD
Four games with the schizophrenic White Sox open the month and then it’s three in Fenway Park against a Red Sox team the Yankees are a pitiful 1-8 against.
If the Yankees have any chance of copping the AL East they will have to beat the Red Sox. Of the 29 August games, nine are at home.
NEED SOME RELIEF
You don’t want to be Joe Girardi if Rafael Soriano can’t help in some role. Robertson has been as good as anybody in baseball, but the Yankees need Soriano to help lighten the load on Robertson.
Signed for three years and $35 million against the wishes of general manager Brian Cashman, Soriano has been a bust. First, he didn’t pitch well. Then he landed on the DL with right elbow inflammation in the middle of May.
Now Soriano is back and if the Yankees are to catch the Red Sox or hold off the Rays and Angels in the wild-card race, he has to help more than being the very expensive mop up man he was in Saturday’s 17-3 win over the Orioles.
Prediction: He lands back on the DL at some point.
GAME OF THE MONTH:
Yankees 5, Rays 4, July 9
With so many Yankee Stadium moments that pebble your skin, it’s hard to anoint the best in the vaunted history. But Derek Jeter reaching 3,000 hits with a 5-for-5 day on July 9 that included the magical hit being a homer into the left-field bleachers certainly deserves to be high on the list.
With the Stadium packed, the sky cloudless and his family on hand, Jeter looked 27 again. He homered, doubled, had three singles and stole a base. And the Yankees beat the Rays, 5-4.
And after signing items for Steiner, Jeter got the 3,000 hit ball from Yankees fan Christian Lopez, who refused to see how much the ball was worth on the open market. Lopez was viewed as a great story or a fool for not seeing what the ball was worth.
5 key stats
0 The number of trades the Yankees made prior to yesterday’s deadline.
17 Games Rafael Soriano has appeared in. Not good for somebody making $10 million.
1 Amount of left-handed relievers in Joe Girardi’s bullpen. And the lone lefty is Boone Logan. Good luck with that this weekend in Boston.
9 The number of wins Ivan Nova has compiled as a member of the Yankees’ starting rotation this season.
1 The number of wins Phil Hughes, an 18-game winner last season, has recorded this year.