It is just baffling to watch these Yankees platoon to the plate and get their bat handed to them as they fail to put the ball in play time and time again. Just not enough hits, not enough runs and not enough innings. The Yankees are a deeper team than the Dodgers, but they aren't playing that way. Bottom line, you don't hit, you don't win. It is that simple.
"Joe Torre told Fox News Digital Saturday night the Yankees wouldn’t have gotten this far if they couldn't handle tough moments. "They’re here because they can deal with stuff like that," Torre said before the first pitch of Game 2. "These are the two best teams, and, trust me, when you go through 162 games, it’s not always a day at the beach. You’re gonna have to respond to negative stuff and bounce back."
I am still waiting for that bounce back, but to Torre's credit, I have also witnessed that bounce back thanks to Joe Torre. 1996 is a perfect example of the Yankees coming back from an 0-2 deficit and still winning the World Series. 15 teams have come back from a 0-2 deficit in the postseason. In fact, teams that win the first two games in the MLB postseason have won the series in 77 of 92 chances in the best of seven format.
The bigger question for me is what is going on with the Yankees? Even if the Yankees slipped through to a victory on Friday night, they would have done it very passively- squeaking by. Yes, Aaron Boone mismanaged his players even taking his ace Gerrit Cole out of the game with less than 80 pitches and he continues that pattern. Yet, really for me the bottom line is the Yankees are simply not hitting. And they should be bashing the ball. Instead, they are giving the Dodgers' starting pitchers' length and retiring chance after chance.
I am usually very positive. I always say things like "baseball is a minimum of nine innings" or "it's the best of seven" or "it's not over yet." And I do subscribe to that positivity. But if the Yankees don't find themselves, and start hitting the baseball, there is no positivity that can help them. I even thought the one on one between Aaron Judge and Derek Jeter during the pregame on Saturday was an opportunity for positivity. Just having Jeter around brings on positivity. None of that works unless the Yankees get out of this funk and turn this thing around.
As CNN reported, "The way in which the Yankees utilize their bullpen will be heavily scrutinized in Game 2 as well after manager Aaron Boone’s decision for Nestor Cortes to pitch in the bottom of the 10th inning." The way Aaron Boone has been using or rather misusing the bullpen is the way he manages this team. And yes, that is a huge part of the game.
But if the Yankees don't hit, they won't win, and that's the bottom line.
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--Suzie Pinstripe
BYB Senior Managing Editor
Twitter: @suzieprof
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