Michael Kay finally makes a valid point about the Yankees

It’s not often I agree with the YES Network’s Michael Kay, but I’m on board with his recent statement that it’s “fair to raise the bar on the Yankees.”

Anytime I get into a discussion with a Red Sox fan this season and they point out the fact that their team sits four games or so atop the Yankees for first place in the ultra competitive AL East, my reply tends to be, “Yeah, well, we’re playing pretty well for a rebuilding year.”

Nine times out of 10, a smart Bo Sox fan agrees with me and the conversation continues in a civil manner where we both compliment each other’s young, athletic players.

You see, Red Sox nation, much like the rest of baseball fans across the country now know that the Yankees are back.

While I could very well dwell on the plague of injuries that have beseeched the organization, both at the big league and minor league levels — inconsistent pitching (starters and relievers combined), and an offense that leaves runners in scoring position as if it were a good thing, it’s about time I stop apologizing for the Bombers’ second place standing.

The bottom line is that even with Aaron Judge setting the record for the most consecutive games with a strikeout for someone not a pitcher (34 games), the soon-to-be AL Rookie of the Year still leads the league in home runs and OBP.

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Gary Sanchez, who resembles a human skeeball machine behind the plate, has been able to block (pun intended) the critics who doubt his committment and hustle while mashing the most long balls among MLB catchers (22) — and this after missing a full month of play.

So when general manager Brian Cashman pulled the trigger on three big trades before the July 31 deadline, the intent was clear that the timeline for this club to compete had been severely sped up.

This coupled with the Yanks’ continued effort to scrap and claw for victories gives the YES Network’s Michael Kay some credence about his feelings that anything less than one playoff series victory would shroud the 2017 season in a cloud of failure. As he recently told the New York Post:

“Everybody has to recalibrate and reset what they thought,” YES Network play-by-play man Michael Kay said. “Coming into the season it was, ‘Just be competitive, just be in the wild-card hunt in September.’ Now, it would be a disappointment if they don’t win the American League East. If they get to a wild card and they don’t win that game, I think it would be a disappointment. And if they don’t make the wild card I think it’d be a colossal disappointment.”

Possessing their largest AL Wild Card lead since June (3.5 games), the Yankees are in the driver’s seat of their collective playoff destiny.

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https://twitter.com/Yankees/status/898328721274175488

The goal is now for the Yanks to sweep the Red Sox this weekend, on the way to winning the division and avoiding the dreaded on-game play-in. And you know what, it’s entirely possible with the likes of Masahiro Tanaka, CC Sabathia, Greg Bird and Starlin Castro soon coming off the DL.