The last week of Yankee games have been a whirlwind. Between the storms and heat, the game schedule has been nothing short of disruptive, with the Yankees playing two double headers in one week. And this disruption has caused the Yankees to win one game by a large margin and lose the next one by the same margin. August brings with it the dog days of summer and hence the dog days of the baseball season. The New York Yankees are certainly feeling both.
The New York Post hit it right on the head in its article following Saturday's erratic set of games for the Bombers, "In the span of about six and a half long hours Saturday, the Yankees showed the peak of their powers, a team that could out-talent others all the way to the World Series, and also what could go wrong along the way for a club that still has holes. An 8-0 win backed by Austin Wells, Aaron Judge and Carlos Rodon, followed by a 9-4, ugly loss to the Rangers that included a five-run, sixth-inning implosion, amounted to a doubleheader split in The Bronx for the Yankees (69-49), who have won nine of 13 and generally righted themselves after a lengthy malaise."
The holes include starting pitching which the trade deadline did not address. The bull pen has not had the stability it once showed earlier in the season either. Perhaps both are related to fatigue, which definitely reared its ugly head over the last week of wild weather.
"Nestor Cortes now owns a 9.26 ERA over his last five starts, giving up 24 runs across 23 ¹/₃ innings while not making it through five innings in four of those games," reported The New York Post. Couple that with the performance of rookie Will Warren who got shelled in the second game of the double header and you have a complete meltdown. Cortes pointed out that you can't blame it all on the weather; both teams had to battle, and the Yankees were on the losing side of it all.
Then you have the bullpen woes of the dog days of summer. "No one in baseball gets a better percentage of grounders than Clay Holmes (67.6 percent), and opposing batters’ 87.7 mph average exit velocity is better than most. But a good-but-not-great 24.5 percent strikeout rate helped prompt the Yankees to add Mark Leiter Jr. (33.7 percent strikeout rate) to a bullpen that needed more swing-and-miss ability," reported The Post. Holmes has not been the reliable closer that the Yankees hoped for simply because he has control issues. This has caused him to hit batters and walk in runs. The ghost runner certainly does not help Holmes keep things in check in extras.
Perhaps a reset is what the Yankees need; And guess what, maybe they will find that on the road against the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers. Along with some cooler weather and no tropical distractions.
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--Suzie Pinstripe
BYB Senior Managing Editor
Twitter: @suzieprof
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