The Yankees spent the past five weeks trying to fight their way to the top of the wild-card🍒 standi🌠ngs, but the veteran team might be paying the price for a midseason swoon brought on by their countless injuries.
Because of the hole they put themselves, each game has taken on added 🍸importance with the knowledge that any misstep could mean the end of their season.
“It’s a grind. Every day you know if you lose a game there’s that p💧ossibility you are going to lose some g♔round,” YES Network analyst John Flaherty said of the Yankees, who are battling the Rays, Rangers, Indians, Orioles and Royals for the two AL wild-card spots.
“The players kind of feel that, the manager feels that. [Joe] Girardi does a great job taking caꦓre of the bullpen in his time with the Yankees, but guys are still wearing down. It’s a different level 🐭of intensity for these games that mean so much and unfortunately you are starting to see it show the last couple of weeks.”
Another spate of injuries has not helped, either. Leadoff man Brett Gardner was lost for the season with a strained oblique, Derek Jeter was finally declared out for the season and Alex Rodriguez, Ivan Nova and Boone Logan all have minor ailments. But even before the Yankees’ recent offensive funk it was the pitching that let them down when they lost six of seven🧜 in two critical series against the rival Red Sox.
“Unfortunatel꧅y, at that point the pitching went south,” Fl♌aherty said of the Yankees, who had gotten within one game of the Rays last week for the second wild-card spot before falling back.
“It’s been the strength all year and now it’s the question mark with a couple of weeks left when they are trying to get where they need to be. The bottom line for the Yankees is getting through this week and getting to that Tampa series a co🗹uple of games out of that last wild-card spot and then you kind of take your chances.”
Before the Rays come to The Bronx, the Yankees start return home Friday night for a series with the Giants, and CC Sabathia will be on t꧑he mound. The left-hander, who had been the ace they envisioned his first four seasons in pinstripes, has been inconsistent this season. That has been exacerbated by the recent struggles of Hiroki Kuroda, who had stepped up as the ace before hitting a wall the last month.
✅“As Joe𝕴 Torre used to say you control what’s going on in the clubhouse,” Flaherty said. “If it was me, I’d be looking at the starting pitching — get a couple of good starts at Sabathia, Kuroda. Get those guys deep into games and then you can save your bullpen.”
“If you get that then you can take your chances over the next couple of weeks. But if they don’t get that then I don’t see much 🔯of a chance.”