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The Full 408: The New York Yankees Suffer A Power Outage

By Antonio Mendes

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The New York Yankees are coming off a rough week to start the month of August. After scoring a combined total of 25 runs on Sunday’s and Tuesday’s game against the Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox, the rest of the week would only consist of four runs from the Yankees and just one more win. They finished the week at 3-4 after suffering a three game sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium.

The Good

  1. Track: Justin Wilson had a dominant week in relief for the Yankees. He pitched 3.1 innings total with seven strikeouts and no runs allowed. Wilson’s name isn’t always mentioned when talking about the Yankees dominant bullpen, but he shined this week and strived in a lot of close situations he was put in.
  2. Wall: Masahiro Tanaka continued to look healthy as he’d have two strong starts this week. Six innings with three earned in a win against the White Sox, followed by giving up just two solo homers yesterday while getting no run support in a tough loss to Toronto. He went six full in both games and the team continues to save him for later in the season after pulling him at 80 pitches.
  3. SEE YA!: CC Sabathia who usually struggles against the Red Sox went six with one earned run, eight strikeouts, and three hits. Though the struggles seem to carry on more often than not, this was easily one of his best starts on the season, and once again hopefully something to look forward to. Joe Girardi has made it clear he will be given chance after chance to get his stuff going, let’s hope this is the start of good things to come! His next start will be against his former team, the Cleveland Indians.

The Ugly

  1. Aside from the first two games last week which were the blowouts, and the one Blue Jays game that was tied at zero going into the sixth, the other four games were decided by one or two runs. In those games it was almost like Joe Girardi didn’t even think to send any runners to advance into scoring position. In the 2015 season the Yankees are 27th out of 30 in stolen base attempts. With an older lineup it’s understandable, but since Jacoby Ellsbury has returned nothing has changed. In tight division games I need to see the want to win games early, you can’t expect to win by hitting bombs every night. Let’s get the base path moving Joe!
  2. The first game of the Blue Jays series was the only one the Yankees had a good chance to win it seems. The game went ten innings and Branden Pinder was at fault for the loss after giving up a home run to Jose Bautista. Pinder who was very effective his last two appearances was put in a situation he probably shouldn’t have been in to begin with. Shreve was available to pitch, he didn’t the day before, and before that he only pitched one inning. This is on Girardi as the Yankees were swept by the surging Blue Jays. Don’t get down on Pinder, like I said he has been taking steps in the right direction. Joe Girardi needs to stop mismanaging his bullpen, end of story!
  3. Nothing gets more ugly than the three games against Toronto. In those three games nine runners were left in scoring position, and nineteen were left on base. The hitting was nowhere to be found to support the two games that were actually in reach, and when runners were on they weren’t going anywhere. The Yankees need to get back to small ball and smart baseball in general. They face the Blue Jays again in Toronto later on this week, and it will be a great redemption series if they don’t perform like they did the past three days!

Player Performances

Keep It Up: Justin Wilson: As I said before, Wilson had seven strikeouts in 3.1 innings. Andrew Miller, Dellin Betances, and Chasen Shreve all headline the Yankees’ back three, but Wilson is one of the most important pieces to this bullpen as well. With pitchers who haven’t been pitching that deep into games, he is there come the sixth with a day of rest. His work is very underrated with how high Dellin sets the bar for this team, keep a look out for Wilson.

Pick It Up: Chase Headley: He continues to be a below-average fielder this year, which is nowhere close to how he ranks throughout his career, and where the Yankees thought he’d be when they gave him a new contract. Luis Severino‘s first game resulted in a loss, but it was easily on Headley’s error, which if had not happened, the game would’ve been tied when David Ortiz hits his home run. He’s not making life easy on Mark Teixeira with having him dig out numerous throws on a daily basis. If Teixeira wasn’t a gold glover, Headley’s error count would be through the roof! Also with close to no third base depth, there’s not many options or ways to give Headley a rest if needed.

Most Impressive Performances

Pitching: Luis Severino made his long awaited MLB debut on Wednesday August 5th, and he was nothing short of living up to the hype as a number one prospect. Severino went five innings, gave up two hits, one earned, and K’ed seven. Michael Pineda is out for a month, and Severino’s performance gave Yankees fans much needed oxygen. His next start will be tomorrow in Cleveland against Carlos Corrasco. Will Severino earn his first major league win?

Hitting: Chris Young had a historical day against the Red Sox in Tuesday’s 13-3 victory. He went 3-4 with four runs, three RBIs, and a home run. He is one of four to have multiple four run, three RBI filled games in the same season. He continues to overwhelm lefties, and give the Yankees’ outfielders rest with days off.

Most Impressive Performances

CC pumped up as he fans Ortiz

Didi Gregorius nabs a hot chopper

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