Yankees: NYY must beware the Blue Jays as season wraps
The Yankeesâ 2020 âcakewalkâ regular season has officially turned into a nightmare!
âPatheticâ is a word Yankees fans are likely using to describe their ball club. âFrustratingâ is certainly another. A ball club that was 16-6 on August 17 is now barely above .500 and fighting for a spot in the October madness that is this yearâs MLB postseason. Fighting is probably too strong a word, as all too often over the last 21 days, this team has lumbered through games like extras from The Walking Dead.
Letâs face it, the clock has struck midnight this season for a team that magically overcame all those injuries last season. When your best players are not on the field, your chances of winning ballgames are drastically reduced. Itâs not rocket science.
But unlike last season, this team appears to have no spark. Maybe itâs the slapdash circumstances of this weird season with no fans, a tier 3 college-like travel radius and prorated salaries that has these players mailing it in. Whatever the case may be, this team needs to wake up now or start scheduling tee times for October.
Starting September 8, Labor Day, there will be 19 games left in the regular season. Nine of those games will be against the upstart Toronto Blue Jays, who the Yankees currently find themselves battling for the eighth and final playoff spot in the American League. The Mariners, Tigers and Orioles are also nipping at their heels. Suffice it to say that dropping six or more of the teamâs 10 total games vs the Jays will likely put the final nails into the 2020 Yankee season. Again, itâs 2020, so letâs keep it surreal.
The Jays have a solid young team, especially offensively. Guys like Teoscar Hernandez, Lourdes Gurriel Jr, Vlad Guerrero Jr, Randal Grichuk and Cavan Biggio, to name a few, can flat out rake. Hernandez has been en fuego in 2020, hitting .308 with 14 HR, though heâs now out with an oblique injury, likely long-term. This team is going to score runs. And after a disturbing weekend series in Baltimore where the Yankee lineup made the Oâs no-name pitching staff look like the â96 Atlanta Braves, who knows if these Yankees can even produce a multi-hit inning, let alone score runs!
Equally disturbing have been some of the head scratching decisions made by manager Aaron Boone. It was wild to see him sitting the teamâs best hitter, DJ LeMahieu, on Saturday, before giving more rest to a newly-activated Gleyber Torres on Sunday. Torres made Camden Yards his personal playground in 2019, hitting .400 with seven homers and a 1.667 OPS in nine games! Whether these were organizational decisions or just Booneâs, they seem to have been made without regard for the dire and urgent situation this team has found itself in. Note to the Yankee âGeek Squadâ: Adjust your algorithms! Itâs 2020!
As for the Blue Jays pitching, aside from Hyun-Jin Ryu (Mondayâs starter, who the Yanks took to task), nobody has really lit it up. But given the way the Yankees have been swinging the bats, the Jays could trot 65-year-old 1993 WS champ Jack Morris out there. Olâ Jack would probably give them seven strong (at least) vs. this anemic bunch!
The Yankeesâ pitching, of course, has played their role in this tailspin. A collective ERA of 6.00 over the last seven days and a bullpen that ranks 25th in holds and eighth in losses is certainly part of the problem. Chad Green and Adam Ottavino have been particularly awful. Both counted on as âHigh Leverageâ guys, they have all too often burned the few leads this team has had over the last three weeks, and made a likely victory into a disaster on Monday night.
Beyond all the repulsive numbers, this team has just been flat, listless. Theyâve certainly not provided any type of entertainment, or even a balm for their shell-shocked fans whoâve looked to them for an escape from the carnage that has been 2020. Toronto, on the other hand, has been an entirely different and more resilient story. Theyâve simply got a better attitude â as do the Tampa Bay Rays.
This certainly has been the roughest patch manager Aaron Boone has had to endure since taking the helm in 2018. Booneâs placid demeanor and strictly by-the-book style has also frustrated fans, many of whom have already started calling for his exit. While angry fans clamoring for a managerâs dismissal is nothing new, especially in New York, missing this expanded postseason when the team is one of the heavy favorites could push Boone back to the booth at ESPN. At the very least, it will weaken his staying power should things get rocky in 2021.
Perhaps a few emptied bat racks or Ditka-esque press conferences could fire things up, or at least show the team and its fans Boone is as angry and frustrated as they are. Letâs hope something turns this around, or it will be a September to forget. After all, it is 2020!