THE DEAD BATS SOCIETY

Source: Elsa/Getty Images North America

Yes, Gary Sanchez dropped the ball at the plate to end Game 2 in another 2-1 disaster for the Yankees. But, that's not the problem, truthfully. The NY Post cleverly coined the current Yankee team "The Dead Bats Society" and quite frankly, I cannot debate the team's new nickname.  I am not losing faith but I am disgusted.

Source: Getty Images

"After wasting a solid start by Masahiro Tanaka on Friday night, the bats didn’t offer much support to Luis Severino, Tommy Kahnle and David Robertson during a 2-1 loss to the Astros in Game 2 of the ALCS on Saturday in front of 43,193 at Minute Maid Park," reported the Post.

Source: Elsa/Getty Images North America

The empty bats include guys like Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez along with the Designated Hitter slot of the lineup- all who have added very little to nothing to the Yankee offense this post season.

Source: Elsa/Getty Images North America

"Judge and Sanchez this season combined for 88 home runs, with Judge setting a rookie record with 52 blasts, and 204 RBIs. In the ALDS, the two had a combined five hits, two home runs, five RBIs, four walks, and 26 strikeouts. Judge, in particular, was a mess at the plate, becoming the first player to have three four-strikeout games in one series. Yet thanks to some hot-hitting from players lower in the lineup, the Yankees managed to squeeze by the Indians," reported Business Insider.

Source: Getty Images

Then there's the absent DH to the Yankee lineup, clearly contributing to the Yankee Dead Bats Society.  "Heading into Wednesday’s Game 5 in Cleveland, the Yankees designated hitters are 0-for-14 with seven strikeouts, as Chase Headley and Jacoby Ellsbury have not even reached base," reported The Post.  That hideous record only worsened to 0-24 with Matt Holliday inserted into the lineup on Friday night.  The DH has been nothing more than a disastrous happening in the lineup this post season making me believe that we would perform better with our pitchers in the batters' box.

 Source: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images North America

The Dead Bats Society call for much needed life as the Yankees head back home to host the 2-0 Astros in Games 3 and 4.  For us to win, we need offense.  We can't rely on solid pitching alone.  We need to wake up the bats and do the damage against the Astros we know we can.  Let's hope the bats find that October magic in the Bronx on Monday.

--Suzie Pinstripe

BYB Managing Editor
Follow me on Twitter: @suzieprof

Casey BYB Merchandise (2017)

A "PROBLEM" FOR THE WILD CARD GAME & SANCHEZ...

(Sept. 13, 2017 - Source: Abbie Parr/Getty Images North America)     

The media is looking for someone to blame for Thursday night's loss to the Rays and they seem to have found it. It was days ago, and as the Yankees look toward their make it or break it game against the Twins on Tuesday the rumors are still out there. Fair or not, Gary Sanchez looks to be the scapegoat and some don't want him behind the plate on Tuesday.

Sanchez has been scrutinized a lot this season for his defense and now suddenly when the Yankees need to focus on putting the best lineup on the field Tuesday there is growing support around media that Austin Romine should be the starting catcher that night. I like Romine, but do I want him catching and taking a DH spot away from another big hitter?

Photo Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke 

A wild pitch and a low ball that should have been caught but instead scooted underneath Sanchez's glove are causing a lot of doubt in people's minds. Both Newsday and the NY Daily News are rallying for Romine behind the plate and Sanchez as the DH.

Do I have confidence in Romine defensively? Sure, but I don't have a lack of confidence in Sanchez either. No offense to Romine, he's not the same hitter as some of the other guys on the team. Using him in this game means losing a more powerful bat which I am not confident in with a one game playoff spot.

Sanchez is a young kid. He's had some mistakes and we've seen that but we have lived with his defensive blips all season long and still managed to get to the playoffs. I don't think this is the time to be taking certain guys out of their element and putting them into a position they haven't been playing consistently all season. Sanchez has a groove and maybe putting him at DH here isn't the best way to tinker with the lineup here. Experimenting in a one chance game could be a costly mistake.

(Brad Penner/USA Today Sports) 

I really want the best bats in the lineup. We have our best pitcher going and we need the best possible offense too so I don't want to think about who has to sit out just so we can give our backup catcher a night to play. Who do you have sitting on the bench? Aaron Hicks? Todd Frazier? Matt Holliday? It doesn't add up for me. We've had nothing but success so far against the Twins in the playoffs but now is not the time to sleep on them. This isn't a guaranteed win and we need the best guys on the field.

Sanchez has been one of our best guys all season even with those mistakes. He's earned his spot, and I know he is going to come out fighting that day. He's hungry for this game just like the rest of our guys and all fans. I think the media is going a little overboard here. It's do or die time and I am riding with my everyday catcher here so I hope Joe Girardi does too.



--Jeana Bellezza

BYB Managing Editor 
Follow me on Twitter: @NYPrincessJ

2 & A HALF BACK!

(Sept. 3, 2017 - Source: Patrick Smith/Getty Images North America)

Yankees won in an electric game.  It wasn't a 'must win', but sure... it kind of was!  Not only that, the Blue Jays beat the Red Sox... I guess Joey Bats read Suzie Pinstripe's tweet...

Let's go @BlueJays beat @RedSox #pennantrace #ALEast @BleednYankeeBlu

— Suzanne (@suzieprof) September 4, 2017

Nice.

The key guys in this one were Didi Gregorius and Starlin Castro.  But it's more than just them. What we are starting to see is the Yankees turn it up... big time as a freaking unit.

Photo: Getty Images

Veterans like Matt Holliday,  Chase Headley and CC Sabathia mixed with youngsters... guys turning into leaders... not one guy... a different one every night.  It's a truly wonderful formula and one that we have been looking for since 2009.  The Yanks are made for a run.  And last night with their win, and the Red Sox losing to the Jays... there was moving.  2 1/2 back now.

ESPN's Marchand writes:

"Starlin Castro homered and drove in three runs, Didi Gregorius also went deep and New York rolled to a 7-4 victory Monday.

After spotting the Orioles an early lead, New York bounced back for its fourth win in five games. The Yankees enhanced their position atop the wild-card race and remained relevant in the AL East after starting the day 3 1/2 games behind division-leading Red Sox. New York took three of four from Boston over the weekend.

Photo: Getty Images

'You want to keep it going,' manager Joe Girardi said. 'The other teams are chasing us and we're chasing the Red Sox. Every day we win it makes it easier for us to try to accomplish our goals. So we've got to play good again (Tuesday).'

Aaron Judge drew a career-high four walks, singled and scored a run to help New York extend its wild-card lead over Baltimore to 4 1/2 games."

Photo: Getty Images

I kept that Judge stat in there because it goes back to what I was saying... not only 1 guy.  Judge, who's been struggling, didn't try to hit it out of the park. He instead made adjustments, and used his brain to get on base.  Any way you can do it to help your team win.

That's the New York Yankees team I'm seeing these days.  It's glorious.

Just need to keep going! Go Yanks!

Final: Yankees 7 - Orioles 4



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THE YANKS HAVE 1 MORE CHICKEN BONE TO PICK WITH BOSTON

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In a series finale Sunday that mattered more than it should, the Yanks finished off their four-game set with Boston in a way that made you wish it mattered even more.

Playing out of their shoes to win a series that barely a hundred hours earlier had begun as a battle for sheer survival in the division race,  the entire team raised their game to a level that made one's jaw drop at the looming juggernaut GM Brian Cashman is assembling -- not just for this season but going forward.

Photo: Getty Images

Or as ESPN's Andrew Marchand more colorfully put it:  "The New York Yankees can dream. They can do it for the next month. They can do it for the next few years. They can do it because Sunday was another night in this surprising 2017 season in which remnants of the next Core Four showed their talent. It's not hard to imagine Luis Severino, Gary Sanchez and Aaron Judge playing in even bigger games than Sunday's series finale against the Boston Red Sox. But Sunday did hold a certain significance, as the Yankees tried to maintain a chance to catch the Red Sox in the American League East.

"Sunday night was all about the young guns, starting with Severino, the Yankees' 23-year-old ace, who looked Red Sox ace Chris Sale in the eyes and didn't back down. Then there was Sanchez, who in the sixth inning beat out a two-out RBI infield single that, thanks to a replay review, turned into a six-run inning. The exclamation point of that inning was Judge crushing his 38th homer of the season..."

Photo: Getty Images

Now, as scope-locked as Andrew was on the young guns, he did make a point of underscoring key contributions from the older guys -- in particular  Headley, Holliday, Castro, and I'll personally add that Ells had himself quite a game as well.

In fact, by winning the season series for the third time in four years and holding the Sox to a single hit in 27 at bats with runners in scoring position over their final four games; by dropping three dingers on Boston  ace Chris Sale (not to mention a fourth on coveted trade deadline pickup Addison Reed), forcing the Cy Young candidate's earliest exit of the year and leaving him winless in five starts against our boys,  NY surely served notice to both  Boston and the rest of the league the Bombers have the balls as well as the arms to make some serious noise this postseason if they manage to get there.

Photo: Getty Images

And while it's true, as Andrew noted, "The Yankees’ chances of winning the AL East are still slim," it somehow feels to this writer like Boston continues to overlook them.

The Boston Herald consoled their readers thusly following Sunday's  9-2 drubbing under a barrage of  pinstripe artillery:

Photo: Getty Images

"Don’t worry, Red Sox fans. The going-out-of-business Toronto Blue Jays are staggering into Fenway Park tonight to begin a three-game series against the American League East leaders. ...What the Sox do have going for them is six more regular-season games against the Jays. They also have three home games against the Oakland A’s, who are languishing in the barrel shed of the AL West. Oh, and there’s a three-game set in Cincinnati against the Reds. They, too, are in the bottom of the standings in their division, the NL Central. ...As long as they keep playing the Blue Jays, A’s and Reds, that shouldn’t be a problem."

That's admittedly a pretty cushy path shaping up for the Sox in their home stretch that has even Sale himself sounding like he expects smooth sailing now that he's put his Big Apple beat-downs behind him.

"We have a good home stand coming up," he said.  "So we’ll put in some good work and come out of there being where we need to be.”

Must be nice to feel so cocksure about an upcoming home stand. I hope they don't forget to order the fried chicken and buckets of beer...

But as I noted in my own cheery consolation to Yankee fans following our Indians sweep,  the Yankees continue to have one of the best home-field winning percentages and by far more home games scheduled down the stretch than any other team in MLB -- a path that's already borne them fruit with a convincing must-win series  against Sale and company.

Simply put, the Sox are  hoping to coast down Easy Street to the division crown, while the Bombers are looking to mount their assault on the title by blowing all comers to smithereens at their River Avenue bombing range.

I honestly don't know if our guys can catch them by their 162nd game or not. Obviously, Boston thinks they've seen the last of them.

I sure hope they're wrong.  It would be such a fitting end to this wild rebuilding year if our guys fought their way deep into the playoffs and suddenly, upon reaching the League Championship, found themselves face-to-face with an opponent whose ace and ass they already own.

Because original recipe or extra crispy, the last bird this Boston team wants to see in a ballpark again is ours.

--Barry Millman
BYB Writer
Follow me on Twitter: @nyyankeefanfore

RED SOX VS. YANKEES: A TEST OF WILLS

Source: Bill Kostroun/Associated Press

It's like a game of cat and mouse, a ping-pong match, and a hold-your-breath test of wills.  It's about endurance.  It's about game play.  And it's happening, right here in the Bronx as we near the end of the 2017 season in an all out foot race for the Division.

Source: Associated Press

2017 finds the Yankees leading the Red Sox 10 games to 8 in our head-to-head competitions for the season.  It's been a back and forth kind of season, since we lost our lead on the Sox before the All Star Break. This is the final series of the rivals, so however it ends after Sunday, in wins and losses against one another, both teams will have to succumb their fate to other teams who play them respectively.

 Source: Jim McIsaac/Getty Images North America

The Sox and Yankees are closely matched this season.  Some may say the Sox have better pitching.  I don't know.  Perhaps on paper, but not necessarily in action.  Others may say that the Yankees' lineup is not reaching its potential.  I would have to agree with that insight.  We should be producing more hits and more runs.

Source: Jim McIsaac/Getty Images North America

Saturday's performance seemed to cast a spotlight on the Yankees' offense of the past, prior to the All Star Break, led by slugger Matt Holliday. "Holliday made a smashing return to the Yankees' lineup after being sidelined a month, launching a three-run homer that led Masahiro Tanaka and New York over the AL East-leading Boston Red Sox 5-1 Saturday," according to the Boston Herald.  But, Friday, it was a different story as the Yanks lost to the Sox 4-1.  And Thursday, we dominated the Sox 6-2.

Source: Rich Schultz/Getty Images North America

Whatever happens in the final game of the series, the Yankees have a lot of games to gain and a lot of rebuilding to do with regards to the chemistry of the team, who have spent the season in and out of the DL.  Now that we appear to be healthy, let's see if we can create more consistency on the field when it comes to hitting and supporting our average pitching staff.  “We’re certainly not focused on anything but trying to win the division,’’ said Chase Headley, who has been hitting well, including having a multi-hit game in Saturday's win against the Sox, reported Newsday.

As I think about this notion of supporting our pitching staff with some extra runs from the lineup, I am reminded of the days of Ron Guidry, who took on a leadership role with his team in the late 1970s.  Guys like Thurman Munson, Chris Chambliss and Reggie Jackson used to ask Guidry how many runs he needed to win.  He would flat out tell them.  "I need four from you today...I need five from you today..."  We need that kind of banter again.  If we are going to win, we need to talk like winners and play like winners.  It is a test of wills and the team with the most endurance, wins.

--Suzie Pinstripe

BYB Managing Editor
Follow me on Twitter: @suzieprof

YANKEES GOT BOSTON RIGHT WHERE WE WANT THEM

Another game, another blowout. God bless Comerica.

Photo: Getty Images

There's nothing quite like Tigers in the tank to make a Yankee team playing .500 ball since the trade deadline look like kings of the jungle.  With two games gone and one left to go against the second worst pitching staff in MLB, the Bombers have outscored the home team a combined 23-6.

That makes the Yanks 21-4 in games decided by six runs or more and undefeated in 11 games decided by eight runs or more. In fact, they're the only team in MLB that hasn't lost a game by more than seven runs -- which makes them, one might say, blowout-proof.

Photo: Getty Images

Or put another way,  when they don't suck, they really blow.

So now all they have to do is keep the hot bats sizzling and hope the Red Sox don't do the same for long. And speaking of our old pals up the 'pike, you might recall a few days ago I wrote about the double-edged sword of sucking ahead of the stretch run and how "There's at least one nice thing about rough patches and trolls. When you're in one, the other tends to stop looking back."

Well, wouldn't you know that venerated dean of the Boston beat writer Pete Abraham at the Globe went right out and made me look prescient on the very night the Yanks put up their second consecutive double-digit hurt on those reeling Motor City kitties.

Now, I admire and respect Peter at least as much for his skill and stylings as a reporter and writer as for his fierce devotion to the preservation of all things geezer rock.

But setting aside Boston's rich and varied history of choke aside, to consider the division is somehow safely in Boston's pocket this far out with such an unremarkable lead as 4.5 games and that any change would be "unexpected" is the not only the height of group think folly but flat-out flies in the face of logic.

Why? Due to the simple fact that they've already coughed up  just such a lead to the Yankees this very season -- and they did it just last month. And they did it in a far shorter span of time.

Photo: Getty Images

The Yankees were four games behind the Red Sox on July 4th and barely three weeks later on July 27th that lead was gone and they were in a virtual dead heat.

That was less than 30 days ago, Pete. Think the Sox got better and the Yankees got worse over the last 30 days?

Think again.  Momentum is a funny thing. It can plays all kinds of tricks on the mind. It can make a bad team believe it's better than it is and a good team believe it's worse. But at the end of the day, teams, like  players, regress back and forth from their mean and they are what their records and stats say they are.

And a home run or win in April counts the same as a home run or win in September -- and a four-game fade in July can happen again just as easily in August or September, especially in this jungle of division cannibals where everyone who isn't in the race always tries extra hard to take down those who are.

Photo: Getty Images

And especially when we've got key players like Marte, Holliday and Bird about to return from the DL and they just put a key guy like Jackie Bradley Jr. on ice for awhile alongside David Price, who doesn't seem to be progressing well at all.  So thanks Pete for what may be our first  indication the Sox have once more stopped looking back to see if our guys are stuck in the muck or gaining on them.

It's deja vu all over again and the timing couldn't be better.

We've got them right where we want them.

--Barry Millman
BYB Writer
Follow me on Twitter: @nyyankeefanfore

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PANIC TIME: IS AARON JUDGE INJURED?

Source: Adam Glanzman/Getty Images North America

Something is up in Yankee land....I'm just not sure what yet. We all know Aaron Judge has struggled A LOT since the All-Star break. Rumors are swirling on social media and some Yankee fans blame Judge's struggles on the Home Run Derby. I'm not so sure I buy the last theory but even if the derby is partially to blame for this it would be nice to just know if this is just a slump or is it something more serious so we can deal with it appropriately. Is it just a slump or is Judge injured?

I hate to think the worst here. The Yankees once again have been screwed by the injury bug this year. It would be nice to have a break from this damn injury bug curse that has been hovering for the last few years. Injuries happen but this is just a long pattern now. Think about it, our first base curse (here's looking at you Mark Teixeira and Greg Bird) has turned into a team epidemic.

Source: David Maxwell/Getty Images North America

The last thing we need to hear is that Aaron Judge is hurt. I have been brushing off the recent rumors on social media but watching post-game interviews from both Saturday and Sunday suddenly have me wondering. If you look at videos HERE and HERE, Judge has his left shoulder iced in both videos. Apparently, the ice wrapped shoulder has been consistent recently and since he is a right-handed hitter, the left shoulder is his front shoulder when hitting and that is his power source. So couldn't a bad shoulder be a possible contributor to a slumping hitter? Sounds possible to me.

Now I have heard that Judge uses ice a lot for conditioning. At the beginning of the season I was reading online that Judge sits in ice baths regularly as part of his fitness routine. I know a lot of athletes who do that, so ordinarily the iced shoulder might not bother me too much....but not in this case.

Photo: Getty Images

On Sunday, a reporter asked him how and when he hurt his shoulder. Judge responded with a little chuckle and answered with "it's not affecting me at all."

OK Judge....I WANT to believe that. Ball players are all banged up and battling through stiffness or soreness at this point in the season but the answer was very short and it really wasn't even an answer a all. The iced shoulder and declining numbers suggest there is more to the story. Doesn't it feel like we are missing information here?

I'm working on nothing but a hunch here. I have no facts or figures to back this up but something just isn't right here. Reinforcements are on their way. Soon Starlin Castro, Matt Holliday and Bird will be back. Maybe it's a good idea to give Judge a rest one we get some other guys back. Even if this is a minor or nagging injury why not sit him out a few days and regroup rather than risk a more serious injury?

Photo: Getty Images

It's been a long season. Judge has been struggling, he's played in a lot of games and he's dealing with some sort of shoulder injury. I think it's time to grant Judge a recess here. It's in his best interest and ours. Let's hope this really isn't a serious injury.

--Jeana Bellezza

BYB Managing Editor 
Follow me on Twitter: @NYPrincessJ