STAY PATIENT YANKEE FANS, THE TIDE IS TURNING

OK, so we were all Gung-Ho with pupils dilated about the 2014 version of our Bronx Bombers going into Opening Day. 

Except our workhorse ace laid an egg, giving up six runs before the filled stadium seats were warm.

 Not a problem, we’ll get the next one we said.  After all, our consistent “Mr. Reliable”, Hiroki Kuroda, would return our world back to its expected orbit.

Only our offense fell on its face, going 0-10 with runners in scoring position (RISP).  Flashbacks to a lineup anchored by Overbay, Stewart, and Wells have begun to haunt us.

Fear not Yankees fans, there are still 160 games to play.

On my drive into work yesterday morning, I was listening to the MLB network on my XM Radio.  A worried Yankee follower (“Frank”) called in lamenting the plight of our new lead-off hitter Jacoby Ellsbury, who is zero for the season after the first two games.  He pointed out the amount of money we are spending on the former Red Sox outfielder and that “he’d better start hitting…”

Having either played baseball or followed baseball all of my life, my response to “Frank” and others like him would be: “Chill out”.

To use an old adage, “the season is a marathon, not a sprint”.

So our horse has come out of the gates a little behind.  The law of averages will catch up, trust me on this.  Ellsbury isn’t going to go 0 for 560.  His career batting average is .301.  That means at some point he will have a hot stretch to bring his average back to the norm (I graduated with a degree in Math, can you tell?).

CC Sabathia is a notorious Opening Day starter.  Before even taking the mound on Tuesday his Opening Day ERA was well over 5.00.  I’m betting that as the weather gets warmer, so will he.

We need to trust the players we have.  So what if they’ve collectively slept through the first series with the Astros.  It just means that they will collectively bounce back. Last night, we did in THE SUZUKI & SOLARTE SHOW!

There are some other shining points of light that we can hang onto until the Yankees become THE YANKEES.

With three hits, Brian Roberts has begun the season hitting .300 and our new catcher Brian McCann is hitting .375 in the heart of the order. 

Kuroda didn’t pitch poorly.  Over six innings he gave up just three hits and two runs while striking out five.  On any other day in the season, that’s a winning performance.

Our bullpen has looked pretty strong so far.  Other than Matt Dominguez’s home run off David Phelps, the pen has been virtually perfect.

Every MLB team will experience highs and lows throughout the year.  When you play 162 games, it happens.

We Yankees’ fans are a passionate group, and expect our team to win EVERY game. We here at BYB get that.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  We just need to accept reality when it doesn’t happen. 

Remember this: The best team the Yankees ever had (in terms of won-lost record), LOST four of its first five games.  That’s right, the 1998 Bombers were 1-4 after five games against the Angels, A’s and Mariners.

They went on to win 114.

I’m not saying this team will win that many games, but the potential is still there when looking at it from strictly a numbers point of view.

Keep the faith, trust our players.  We have a nice blend of experienced stars and young prospects that will carry us into October play.

Be patient, our problems are nothing that a little “home cooking” won’t fix.


    

--Steve Skinner, BYB Writer
Twitter: @oswegos1


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