This past weekend the Yankees won their opening series against the Red Sox 2-1. They won the opener 6-5, carried by a Josh Donaldson walk-off in the 11th. Saturday’s game finished 4-2 after Anthony Rizzo launched another two-run nuke, and they lost the finale 4-3.
1: The Bullpen is good
After three short outings from the Yankees’ top 3 starting pitchers, the bullpen needed to combine for 17.2 innings in this past weekend’s series against the Red Sox to win the series. They pitched 12+ different relievers, including Ron Marinaccio’s MLB debut and flamethrower Miguel Castro’s Yankee debut. The staff had a 0.96 ERA, a 3.17 FIP, and 15 strikeouts. It’s safe to say that with their starters combining for 8 earned runs in 11 innings, the bullpen bailed the Yankees out this series.
2: Giancarlo is the same Giancarlo as last year
Giancarlo Stanton’s Yankee tenure has had its rocky moments. In Giancarlo’s first 3 years with the Yankees, he combined for 199 games and had a 131 wRC+. Aside from his obvious health issues, his production was not quite what the Yankees expected following his 59-HR and MVP winning season in 2017. In 2021 Giancarlo put it all together: playing 139 games with a 137 wRC+. This year, Stanton has not slowed down: against the Red Sox, he went 5/13 with a 1.231 OPS. Oh, and he put eight balls in play, averaging an exit velocity of 107.3 MPH.
3: Don’t worry about Gerrit
Last year, Gerrit Cole was used as a scapegoat by MLB for their spidertack/sticky-substance issue, and at a glance, it looked like he was heavily affected by the ban. Cole posted a 2.26 ERA with 11 walks in 75.2 innings prior to the crackdown and a 3.92 ERA post-crackdown. Surface level, these numbers were worrying, but after looking deeper, the core was actually great after the ban until he hurt his hamstring in the last month of the season. Pre-hamstring injury and post-crackdown, Gerrit had a 3.19 ERA. It was only after the hamstring injury that he really started to struggle. With this information, I beg you: please don’t give up on our ace after one bad start. Gerrit Cole will be fine.