Yankees: Win in Seattle another false start or the beginning of a run?

The Yankees put together a strong game last night in Seattle, combining good pitching with some timely hitting, a combination that has been as fleeting as the wind of late. Is it, though, just another false start?

When the Yankees arrived in Seattle in the wee hours of Thursday morning from Minneapolis and a three game set with the Twins that saw the team lose its tenth consecutive series, they knew they were in for gut-check weekend facing the Mariners.

On the strength of an 8-2 run, the Mariners had climbed to within a couple of games of the Yankees in the Wild Card race and had managed to finally reach the .500 mark in their season. In other words, they were hot, and the Yankees were not.

But as we know, all it takes to win in this league is solid starting pitching and a scattering of timely hits to make the difference in a game. The pitching came in via seven shutout innings delivered by Luis Severino, followed by the one-two punch the team has expected but not always received from Dellin Betances and Aroldis Chapman.

And for the first time in a long stretch, Aaron Judge figured prominently in a Yankees win, singling Chase Headley in to up the score to 2-0 in the eighth inning. Brett Gardner homered earlier in the sixth for the team’s first run, and the Mariners gave away two more in the ninth on an error by Robinson Cano to seal the win.

A start or a sputter?

A game like this can be a start. And we’ve been saying all along that the Yankees need to start somewhere in playing .600 baseball, which means winning series and not necessarily the 21-9 run they had earlier in the season.

To reach the level of consistency the team needs, starting pitching remains the biggest obstacle. The Yankees have mashers and bashers who will continue to score runs that win games by large margins. And once in a while, they’ll eke out a game in which they score only four runs, only one of which was earned. That’s what good teams do.

Running down the Yankees staff

But when you run down the Yankees starting staff, with the exception of Severino, who has turned into an ace in the making as evidenced by 20-30 first pitch strikes to hitters and only one walk in last night’s win that saw his ERA sink to 3.21.

Jordan Montgomery seems to have hit a wall and, while he is not getting bashed around, he is not the same pitcher we saw earlier in the season. He’ll figure it out, but the question as always in July is whether he’ll figure it out in time while his team is pushing for the playoffs.

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Masahiro Tanaka looks better than he did a month ago. But again, when Joe Girardi hands him the ball, how sure is he that Tanaka will deliver a quality start. CC Sabathia, “Ole Reliable,” continues to get high marks and, barring injury, is a mainstay on the staff and in the clubhouse.

Luis Cessa, on the other hand, should not be pitching in the major leagues on a team that is in a pennant race. Blessed with all the talent in the world and a “keeper” in plans of the team, he does not appear to have the command necessary to pitch at this level (yet).

Which brings us right back to where these things have started and ended over the past few weeks. The Yankees need that pure and proven number one who Girardi can write-in now as the starter in Game One of the 2017 playoffs.

My choice as the guy who can put the team over the top was made a week ago. And I’m sticking to it.

The business at hand

In the meantime, the Yankees need to focus on the next three games in Seattle before they fly home Sunday night.

Three games are your typical series, and the Yankees need to start here by winning at least two of them. The win last night is a beginning and one that didn’t come until they got past Felix Hernandez, who pitched an even better game than Severino, and into the Seattle bullpen.

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But coming home with a 2-2 split in the series, even though it meets the usual requirement of playing .500 baseball on the road, will not cut it for a team that needs a jump start yesterday.

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