Yankees Get Shut Out 2 Games In A Row And Swept By Toronto
NYDN - The Yankees were traveling the fast lane toward the AL East title just a week ago. That was before the Blue Jays sent them on a detour. And now, here they are. The GPS isn’t lying. A division lead that was a comfy six games a week ago now stands at 1½ over the charging Blue Jays (61-52), who completed a three-game sweep of the Yanks (61-49) at the Stadium with a 2-0 decision before 42,034, Toronto’s eighth straight win. Ace Masahiro Tanaka gave up a pair of early home runs and failed to answer a loss with a win as he had all four other times this season. And a powerhouse Bombers offense that sets the table for a lights-out bullpen has gone silent. The Yankees were shut out for a second straight game for the first time since 1999— this time managing three hits against Marco Estrada (10-6) and three relievers. They’ve scored just four runs in their last five games — four of them losses — and have gone 26 innings without a run for the first time since 1991, according to Elias.
Don’t worry, I’m not gonna do… what you all think I’m gonna do, which is just FLIP OUT!! This week has been some of the worst offensive baseball we have seen in more than 2 decades, and in the middle of a playoff race, that’s not exactly what you want. But always the optimist, it can’t get worse right? That’s the way we have to look at it because there isn’t really much else we can do at this point. The trade deadline is gone and there isn’t a ton of great stuff out there on the market anyway so our biggest hope is going to be that on the flight to Cleveland, these guys figure something out. A few weeks ago it was the pitching we worried about, now its the offense. It’s always going to be something over 162 games.
As for the fans, it is amazing how quickly so many people are ready to give up on a first place team. You would think this was the Mets. Instead this is a team that is going through an offensive rough patch, at the worst possible time, after scoring 90 runs in 10 games. This is nothing new, though. Throughout this entire season, we have been the streakiest team in baseball, so it should be no surprise that this is happening. It also should be a surprise when we rattle off a few wins in a row. These things come in bunches.
Toronto has won 8 games in a row, but they aren’t going to win out the season. Calm down. And based on the players they have, they may not be able to stay healthy throughout the end of the year. If this time next week we’re a few games back, then we need to hit the panic button. But for right now we need to focus on getting right in Cleveland before heading up north to get these games back.