Yankees win under Sonny skies, up and down season continues

If the New York Yankees have shown anything in the 2017 season, it’s their resilience and consistency in not having a genuine losing streak. The team holds on to what they’ve got, despite a record of 48-50 since they began the season at 21-9.

The New York Yankees have been an enigma to most everyone who follows the team. They have a better team than the Boston Red Sox and, probably, the banged up Indians as well, while the jury is still out on the Astros. They haven’t sunk, but neither have they been able to swim long distances.

The team is 15-22 in one-run games and trying to explain something like that with the bullpen they have defies logic. But here’s a stat that’s often overlooked when it shouldn’t be. The Bombers lead the league with more runners left on base than any other team.

As a stand alone statistic, that wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t also second to last in the majors in runners left in scoring position. Put together, that’s a lethal combination with the potential to stifle any offense in the league, even with the ability to hit the three-run home run, as Jacoby Ellsbury did today in the team’s win over Seattle.

Even today, a glance at the boxscore shows the Yankees going 2-10 with RISP and leaving eight men on base. Remove Ellsbury, and the team was 0-8 with RISP.

At this point in the season, you take a win any which way you can. But it’s something the Yankees should be concerned about if they expect to make some noise when they get there.

Sonny Gray turns in riveting performance

Besides Ellsbury, today’s game belongs to Sonny Gray, who equaled last night’s performance by CC Sabathia with seven robust and decisive innings, allowing only one run while striking out nine. This is the kind of outing the Yankees were looking for when Brian Cashman beat out several teams in landing Gray at the expense of some highly touted prospects.

Gray, together with Sabathia and Luis Severino will make for an interesting choice by Joe Girardi as to who he selects to start the one-game shootout, enabling the Yankees to move on in the Second Season if they can’t win the AL East.

Of note also in today’s game was the appearance of Greg Bird in the lineup for the first time since May 1. Girardi placed Bird in the six hole, and he went 1-2, drove in a run, and had two bases on balls. If that’s anything like the production Bird will some supply in September and October, those team negatives spoken of earlier can be quickly erased.

Another recent returnee to the lineup, Starlin Castro delivered a single driving in two runs, extending the Yankees lead at the time to 6-1. Dellin Betances pitched a perfect ninth inning, earning his tenth save while striking out two.

“Critical” games just keep on coming

So here we are with an up day after a down day that’s been the saga following the Yankees all season since they blasted off at 21-9. Fortunately, all of the Wild Card contending teams have also been unable to put together a decisive run and playing .500 ball themselves.

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Like any of those teams, the Yankees will take a spot in the Second Season anyway it comes to them. But confidence is everything in the game of baseball, and they don’t want to be in a position of “backing into” the playoffs and then having to make the run required to get anywhere in that crapshoot.

As always, tomorrow afternoon’s game is a big one for the team as they seek to cement a series against the Mariners. Masahiro Tanaka (9-10, 4.86) gets the start, needing to duplicate the efforts of Sabathia and Gray. He is more than capable of doing that, and it just depends on which Tanaka shows up.

As a final note, there is still no word from Joe Torre‘s office as to when the suspension appeals of Gary Sanchez and Austin Romine will be heard. If both players lose the appeal, the Yankees will need to convince MLB to not run the suspensions concurrently, allowing the Yankees to catch Romine in two of the four games Sanchez will miss.

Next: Who's your early wager to pitch the one-game shootout

Looming in the darkness are seven games with the Indians and Red Sox beginning on Monday. This causes me to wonder why the Yankees, or the players themselves, didn’t wait until the last possible moment to file their appeals, pushing the clock forward with the chance of eluding those all important contests.

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