Yankees Facing a Must Win Game, Already? Shouldn’t Be….

The Yankees were shooting blanks on Black Sunday. Is it possible that the team is already in a must-win situation tonight when the old man takes the mound to save the season?

Yankees fans have a tendency to hit the panic button sooner than the players and coaches who occupy seats in the dugout. It’s typical behavior for those of us who have never played 162 games over six months of a calendar year.

For the players themselves, though, Sunday’s game was stored in their long-term memory before they even left the clubhouse, having decided in small groups where to eat dinner that night. It’s the way of a major league ballplayer, or at least those who last in this game.

Pennants are never won in April, but they sure can be lost in April

The highs can never be too high and the lows never too low. It was the way that Derek Jeter learned to play the game from his father-in-residence, Mr. Torre, as he called him. Joe Torre had a knack for taking things in stride, and often you would be challenged to figure out if the Yankees had won or lost day by looking at his demeanor in post-game interviews.

This Game Is A Grind – CC Will Lead The Way

CC Sabathia

was around at the tail end of those days when the remnants of the run that produced four Championships in five years and then, produced another one in 2009. And it’s likely that he remembers the grind of that season and what it took to win that 27th Championship.

Video Courtesy of the YES Network

And if Sabathia jogs his memory, he’ll probably recall that the Yankees were crushed by the Baltimore Orioles 10-5 on Opening Day at Camden Yards. And he’ll probably also remember that he was the Masahiro Tanaka on the mound that day taking his lumps surrendering six runs on eight hits, with five walks over just 4.1 innings.

And he might also recall that the Yankees lost four in a row in the middle of the month, dropping their season record to 9-10 and that he was losing pitching of record on that fourth day against Justin Verlander.

But Sabathia will not recall any of this when he takes the mound tonight to face Jake Odorizzi in his first start of the 2017 season.

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CC Sabathia understands the game of baseball. But as he looks around the clubhouse this afternoon before he heads out to begin his warmups, he might have pause to wonder about Greg Bird and Gary Sanchez, who both failed to show up Sunday with the bats that were supposed to power this lineup to victory.

The Baby Bombers, who have never endured a full season in a major-league uniform. The same players who just swept through the spring with the same number of wins (24) as that championship team in 2009, what are they thinking.

And maybe this is the reason why Brian Cashman optioned Gleyber Torres and the rest of them to the minors, knowing that big league ballplayers need to adjust to the mental side of baseball as well as the physical aspects of the game. And, in that sense, that it’s probably the toughest sport to play.

This Is Not Football Where 0-5 Ends Your Season

Sabathia knows that 1-1 looks a helluva lot better than 0-2 at the end of the day. But unlike football, where a team that starts off 0-5 can pretty much kiss their season goodbye, baseball always has tomorrow for six solid months.

The Yankees don’t want or need a start to this season like the one they did last year when they ended the month of April at 8-14. And they don’t want to be playing the game of one up and one under (.500) as late as July, which they also did last year.

But remember, they did come back to finish six over. Albeit, too little, too late,

Looking ahead, the Yankees need only to avoid that same scenario this season when you spend all your time and energy digging yourself out of a hole that you created way back in April. One game at a time, we hear it every day in this game.

Yankees: Forget About The Pitching – Just Hit The Damn Ball!

The Yankees will struggle through the first half of the season with a rotation that is questionable at best. But the Offense can overcome that.

One game at a time, we hear it every day in this game. And there’s a reason for that. Jeter knew the reason, and Sabathia knows it too. And so does Brett Gardner, Chase Headley, and Matt Holliday. It’s just a matter of stepping up and leading the way so that the kids know it too.

Tonight, it’s Game Two of One Hundred and Sixty-Two. And that’s all it is.