It’s August 31st, the trade deadline looms over the Bronx Bombers, as they are desperate to shore up a beaten and battered bullpen riddled with injuries. They look to add a frontline starter with control to avoid two paydays for starting pitchers like Tanaka and Paxton. This team needs to get the job done. Today the Yankees don’t sit on a 17-15 record despite a 7-2 deficit with two outs in the 9th and an error by Luke Voit that tied up the game in the second game. They sit at 19-13, with a three-game winning streak, and with their bats starting to wake up. Gary Sanchez and Aaron Hicks haters trembled at the sight of those two being heroes.
They now face their fierce rivals in the Tampa Bay Rays who they’ve lost 6 out of 7 against. In a three-game set where they sit only two games back in the loss column. This is a matter of life or death in the divisional race for the Yankees, and this time they can’t lose.
No Injury Excuses
Yes, Judge, Stanton, Gleyber, Britton, and Paxton are all injured. The Rays are also battered with injuries with 15 IL trips this year. There aren’t any excuses for losing this series other than “The Rays are a better team.” New York needs to bear down, get ready, and take a win here. This series will show who’s the better team, and we need the Yankees to step up and win. They have no doubleheaders in this series, so playing DJ, Voit, Frazier, Hicks, Sanchez, Tauchman, and Urshela needs to happen in all three games.
Need Starters to Go the Distance
Gerrit Cole and Tyler Glasnow will go toe-to-toe in tonight’s game, and the Yankees need Cole to step up and have his best outing of the year. We need the Gerrit Cole that’s going to go seven innings and get 11 strikeouts while giving up one run. We need him to be the pitcher we paid him to be tonight. Masa takes the task of Game 2, and he can either win the series or put the Yankees in a spot to win the rubber match. He cannot falter either. The 3rd game, which could be for the sweep, for the series, or to stave off of a 2nd home sweep, lies on the shoulders of Jordan Montgomery.
These starters need to be ready and able to get the ball and get the job done. We can’t bank on trade deadline reinforcements until we get them.
The Offense Needs To Keep the Ball Rolling
The Yankees averaged 2.7 runs a game in that seven-game losing skid, but in their three wins, they’ve averaged 5 runs a game. This is despite the doubleheader lineups oftentimes involving at least one really bad lineup. Instead, we saw the lineups do their jobs in yesterday’s miracles. The offense no longer is so Luke Voit and DJ LeMahieu dependent, as we saw a combined .350 OBP in the two games from everyone outside of those two. That’s fantastic considering that Fraizer only played one game, and we have no Judge, no Stanton, and no Gleyber. This lineup has the next man up mentality, and it’s the recipe for success in New York.
This series is one that could redefine the entire season. A season mired in disappointment and seemingly spoiled by a seven-game losing skid and being 2nd in the division can be changed for the better if the New York Yankees are SAVAGES in the box.