Yankees: Jacoby Ellsbury Is Finally Earning His Money

Yankees center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury continued his domination over Chris Archer, going 2-for-4 with a two-run homer, a double, and two runs scored.

Breaking up a 0-0 tie in the bottom of the 6th inning, Ellsbury laced a line drive home run over the right-center field wall to give the Yankees a lead they would be unwilling to relinquish.

The 5-1 victory over the Rays moved the Yankees to their seventh win in a row, and within one game of the final AL Wild Card spot. Depending on your level of optimism at this point in this season (and it ought to be at an all-time high), you have to be excited! The Yankees play 18 of their final 21 games against teams in their own division.

So essentially, the Yankees hold their collective fate in their own hands. As a professional sports franchise, or player for that matter, how could you want it any other way?

I would venture to say that anything less than 15 wins out of the club’s final 21 games may not be enough to make the Postseason, since three teams are still atop the Yankees in both the wild card and divisional races (though they only need to climb two of three teams for the right to participate in that dreaded one game play-in).

Luckily, for the Yankees, No. 22 has recently started to resemble the Ellsbury of forgotten Red Sox fame.

In the month of August, Ellsbury’s hit .275/.327/.392, two home runs, 15 RBI, and scored 17 runs.  As for September, he’s jumped out to .309/.419/.500, two home runs, five RBI, and scored six runs.

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All in all, we’re looking at a .271 BA, .335 OBP, eight homers, and 51 RBI for the duration of this season; with the most important contests still to come.

This is exactly what the Yankees need from a guy who has been a pariah to New York media and a punching bag to fans of the illustrious pinstripes.

While Ellsbury is never going to live up to the lofty expectations of the 7-years, $153M contract signed back in 2014, what’s the point of name-calling and demands for a trade at this point? No one is likely to take on his massive debt.

What’s done is done. The Yankees can’t get that money back right now, so why not hope and pray that Ellsbury continues to patrol center field like the gazelle he’s always been; gets on base with regularity, and surprises the opposition with enough power to make pitchers throw more strikes to lead-off hitter Brett Gardner.

Two telling stats of more good things to come are that over the past 19 games, Ellsbury has smacked 4 home runs; while going 9-21 on this current homestand alone.

It definitely helps that Ellsbury faced Archer on Saturday, a pitcher he’s now 19-for-34 (.559) with two homers and four walks against in his career.

Speaking after the game about on his recent scalding hot streak, Ellsbury said: “We’re having fun playing, leaving it all out on the field. It’s exciting coming to the yard–competing each and every day with a chance to win. You just want to contribute to wins. Ultimately that’s the goal, winning ballgames. And it’s been a lot of fun coming to the yard with that mentality as a team that we’re going to compete and give everything we have on that field.”

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The fact of the matter is that if Ellsbury continues to produce at his current clip, the Yankees’ chances of playing deep into October dramatically increase, even if you are still bummed about his monstrous contract.