So yesterday, we posted CASHMAN AND BOONE SAY THAT PITCHING DID NOT COST THE YANKEES THE SERIES. Awesome read by my colleague Suzie, but I disagree. And that's what makes Bleeding Yankee Blue unique. No agenda. Diverse opinion. It's the beauty of working here. We work as a team but, we don't always share each others opinions. This is one of those times.
We can dive deeper and say that our relievers also weren't at their best. Adam Ottavino did disappoint me, not going to lie there. J.A. Happ also struggled. It wasn't fun watching Jose Altuve take Aroldis Chapman deep in Game 6 for a walk off but those things happened. These moments are NOT what caused the Yankees to lose the series, but the lack of fundamentals did.
It's a familiar story we have talked about before. The Yankees left too many guys on base. The Astros left their fair share too but let's break it down.
So were the Yankees terrible with Runners In Scoring Position? Absolutely! But, so were the Astros. This series came down to moments, and capitalizing on mistakes. The Yankees made the mistake of leaving MORE guys on base and not driving them in. Justin Verlander was beatable, and so was Cole for that matter. They got hits, but they couldn't bring them home. The Astros were able to take advantage of our mistakes, and we simply couldn't do that with them.
We can't blame a lack of pitching for this loss. The stats say the pitching was better than the Astros so we should feel GOOD about that. What we should not feel good about is the hitting. You can't leave 10 guys on base and expect to win even if Masahiro Tanaka went out there and threw a no-hitter. The offense didn't do its job. The 42 men left on base and better team RISP prove that. Does it suck that Chapman pitched a walk off homerun in game 6? YES! But so do the 8 runners that were left on base before Altuve even got up to the plate. That wakoff could've been avoided.
Now, can we stop blaming the pitching and stop talking about the pipe dream of beating the Nationals if we did win the ALCS? That's the past. We made it to the postseason with the pitching we had so it wasn't a deal breaker. Let's talk about 2020 and that starting pitcher we want to get instead! It's time to move on.
--Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa
BYB Managing Editor
Twitter: @nyprincessj
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