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Yankees: Abandon ship and concentrate on the Wild Card

By Steve Contursi |
. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

The Yankees have more games to play against Wild Card teams, including the Orioles and Minnesota, than they do with the Red Sox (zero after this weekend). Therefore, the smart play is to arrange your best pitching against those teams, ensuring they make it to the show.

The Yankees, and in particular, Joe Girardi, need to make the smart play in the final month of the season by going all out to secure the top spot in the Wild Card race, which would enable them to have the shootout game played at Yankee Stadium.

With a 5.5 game lead in the AL East, the Red Sox have, with only a small degree of comfort, a commanding lead. Anything short of a sweep of the four games with the Sox by the Bombers leaves the Yankees with only a hope and a prayer Boston will suddenly lay down.

Anything can happen in baseball, and we all remember the dramatic end to the 1951 season when the New York Giants overcame a double-digit deficit forcing the one-game playoff setting the stage for the “Shot Heard Round The World,” vaulting Bobby Thompson into baseball immortality.

Any good general on the field of battle makes plans based on what is, not what he thought it would be, or what he’d like it to be.

But if the Yankees are in this thing to win it, and by definition, that means making the playoffs and making some noise once they get there, then the wise choice is to ensure they make it to the show before it starts without them.

The Yankees have their four best starting pitchers going for them against the Red Sox, which was all fine and good a few days ago when they had crept to within 2.5 games of the Sox. And the kicker is when the Yankees travel following Sunday’s game with the Red Sox to Baltimore, the hottest team in baseball now, only CC Sabathia and Sonny Gray are in line to face the Orioles.

In retrospect, a mistake. But who could have known the Yankees would mail it in against the Indians, and the Red Sox would sweep the hapless Blue Jays on the road.

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Now, however, we do know, and any good general on the field of battle makes plans based on what is, not what he thought it would be, or what he’d like it to be. Written earlier today, I see no way Girardi’s job isn’t on the line based on the outcome of the next four weeks.

And failure, after all the Yankees have invested in this season by trading away legitimate prospects so they could make a run for it, is not acceptable to anyone, including Hal Steinbrenner, Brian Cashman, and most importantly, their fan base.

I’d take the bird in my hand

A wise man only counts the bird in his hand (the one-game lead in the Wild Card) and not the one in the bush that’s fixing to fly away in the blink of an eye.

After the Orioles, come the Twins for three games and then the Yankees go off on a long road trip taking them to Toronto and Tampa Bay, a team still in the mix, before they finish out the season against the Blue Jays.Count ’em; there’s not a lot of games remaining on the Yankees schedule.

The “Big Series” against the Red Sox is not as big as it could have been. And the Yankees might think better about simply relaxing a bit, so the pressure is relieved, and then going out there really doing battle with the teams that matter in the coming weeks.

If the Bombers capture three out four, that only pulls them to within 4.5 games instead of where it is as play begins tonight at 5.5 games. So what’s the big deal?

Next: Yankees 2017 title hinges on making three trades

The Yankees need to take care of their business and forget about the Red Sox. And if they do, who knows, they just might get a chance at the real thing when they meet them in October during the Second Season.

As always, I invite you to share your thoughts and comments about this story or anything Yankees on the Yanks Go Yard Facebook page.

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