When you circled Derek Jeter’s No. 2 retirement on your Yankees schedule last December, you would’ve traded something of real value — let’s say one of your Andy Pettitte bobbleheads — for the team to depart Yankee Stadium that
Cody Allen Youth Jersey night with a 22-13 record.
So you’ve got that going for you, which is nice. Yet this showcase weekend against the Astros, one that produced a doubleheader split Sunday and Houston taking three of four overall to remain the industry’s best team at 26-12, presented
http://www.officialindianstore.com/Cody_Allen_Jersey pretty clear road map for what it’s going to take to keep this upset machine going:
“Our starting pitchers had a tough time in this series,” Joe Girardi said late Sunday, after the Yankees followed an 11-6 victory in Game 1 with a 10-7 loss in the nightcap. “It wasn’t how we wanted this series to go. But to me, we had chances in three of the four games.
“We’ve had some shots. We keep getting
those shots, and we’re going to be all right.”
Actually, if they keep putting up a 9.72 starting pitchers’ ERA in each series, they’re not going to be all right. Especially after losing their closer Aroldis Chapman to the 10-day disabled list on Sunday.
Game 1 starter Luis Severino, unhappy with home-plate umpire Gabe Morales’ strike zone, lasted just 2 1/? innings, allowing three runs as he threw 77 pitches, before Girardi gave him the hook. The Yankees tied a season high with nine extra-base hits as they overcame a pair of deficits to halt their losing streak at three games.
Then, following the outstanding Jeter ceremony, with the full house making the new Stadium arguably as loud as it ever has been, Masahiro Tanaka took a pummeling to the tune of eight runs, a career worst, over 1 2/? innings, tying the shortest outing of his time with the Yankees. That the Yankees actually brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth, with Aaron Hicks ending the three-run rally with a comebacker to Houston closer Ken Giles, improved the optics somewhat.
Nevertheless, this Yankees team, still leading the Orioles (22-14) by a half-game in the American League East, face the very Achilles’ heel we all expected them to have at the outset: Shaky starting pitching.
After Monday’s travel day, they’ll turn to the slumping CC Sabathia to stop the bleeding against the Royals, the majors’ worst offense with 119 runs scored, in Kansas City. Sabathia and Tanaka were supposed to serve
Benardrick McKinney Authentic Jersey as the reliable veterans; instead, at 5.77 and 5.80, respectively, they own the two highest ERAs in the rotation.
Tanaka blamed his lack of a slider and splitter on “a mechanical flaw” and insisted he wasn’t injured. While he has earned the benefit of the doubt on the health front, he also has never delivered a pair of stinkers like this one and his Opening Day loss in Tampa Bay.
The Yankees have totaled 201 runs, most in the AL.
“We’re gonna score runs,” Girardi said after Game 1. What he should have said, if he were to be fully frank was, “We’re gonna have to score runs.”
All the more so after Chapman’s deactivation with
http://www.texansproshops.com/Benardrick_Mckinney_Jersey_Cheap inflammation in the rotator cuff of his left shoulder.
“He’s not replaceable,” Girardi said. “You can’t replace an arm like that.”
The Yankees’ bullpen, so good so far, has been shortened;Girardi gave new closer Dellin Betances some mop-up work in Game 2 just to get him some action. The more runs the Yankees score, the more comebacks they post like that in Game 1, the more pressure they can alleviate on their pitching teammates.
Chase Headley, whose three-run, seventh-inning triple broke a 6-6 tie in Game 1, said, “Obviously, when you’ve done it before, I think it gives you confidence
that you can do it again.”
How deep that confidence well goes could determine the 2017 Yankees’ fate.
