THE WEST COAST STINK EYE

Source: NY Times

Early Saturday morning I was talking to a friend about arriving late for an appointment.  She said that she was calming down her six-year-old son who was complaining that someone gave him the "stink eye."  For those of you not Italian, that means a hex or hairy eyeball of bad luck.  We both laughed at his concern until later on, when I began to reflect on this in reference with regards to another comment from yet another friend in the evening.  "The team that left for the West Coast a week ago is not the team we've been watching over the past seven days." OMG, are the Yankees a victim of a West Coast stink eye?

Think about it carefully... before we left for the Pacific Time Zone, we were riding high off dramatic wins within our own division.  And even more importantly, we were healthy.  Except for a few, we were stable when it came to our lineup and consistency,  cruising along toward the mid-way point of the season, until we stepped onto the plane to LaLa Land.

Source: Jason O. Watson/Getty Images

Let's face it folks, this trip to California has been a bust.  According to the NY Post, "With the Red Sox (38-29) playing at Houston on Saturday night, the Yankees (38-28) walked out of the Coliseum with their AL East lead reduced to a half-game. When they arrived in California this past Monday for the start of a seven-game road trip, the Yankees led the second-place Red Sox by four lengths."

Source: The Mercury News

And as the Post warned in its analysis of the Yankees over the past few days during this horrific road trip, "It could get worse because the Yankees are starting Luis Cessa on Sunday, trying to avoid dropping four straight to the A’s, who entered Saturday’s action with the worst winning percentage (.433) in the AL. Cessa was recalled Wednesday from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre when CC Sabathia went on the disabled list and will be making his first big league start of the season."

Source: AP / Cliff Welch

Let's not forget we lost Aaron Hicks and Gary Sanchez to injuries in the midst of our trek from southern to northern California and to add more salt to the open wounds in the major leagues, Gleyber Torres has also been added to the list of injuries plaguing our unit.  "As the Yankees were in the late innings of a 5-2 loss to the A’s Saturday, the organization’s top prospect, Gleyber Torres, playing with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, left the RailRiders’ game in Buffalo after appearing to injure his left elbow on a play at the plate in the top of the fourth inning," reported Newsday.

Source:  NY Daily News

The Yankees finish up their West Coast stint later today, then head home and take a rest day on Monday.  Let's hope that the team can regroup, get healthy and move forward at home with six games against the Angels and Rangers respectively.  As a fan on Twitter said eloquently this evening, "This is our mid season slump. All teams have them. We get guys back & healthy, we'll be fine...Don't Panic!  This is me not panicking...#%@!

--Suzie Pinstripe
BYB Managing Editor
Follow me on Twitter: @suzieprof