Yankees Take 3 of 4 From Tampa And Sit 2 Games From The Playoffs
NEW YORK — One bad day can do a lot of damage this time of the year to ballclubs in tight playoff races.
Sunday was a Murphy’s Law day for the Yankees, who lost a game to the Tampa Bay Rays plus a game in the AL East and Wild Card standings.
And now their season is down to just 20 games, all but three of them coming against playoff contenders.
“Every loss hurts because it’s a day that you don’t make up any ground or you lose ground,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said after Sunday’s 4-2 setback that ended his club’s season-best seven-game winning streak.
The loss sunk the Yankees to two games out of a Wild Card playoff spot and four games behind the AL East-leading Boston Red Sox, who beat the Blue Jays 11-8 Sunday in Toronto.
Yesterday’s loss may sting in the short term but this series showed that The Yankees can make a deep run. With a comeback win on Thursday and strong showings on Friday and Saturday to get out ahead early, this team finds ways to win games. Sunday was a case of a young pitcher leaving the ball up in the zone, but that’s going to happen from time to time. A win yesterday would have kept us within 1 game on a Wild Card spot, with Detroit in our rear view, but with the way things have shaken out we very much have a chance.
With Toronto and Baltimore tied for the two Wild Card spots, The Yankees can ply their way into either position thanks to the remainder of their schedule. The Yankees will head to Toronto in a week and a half to play 4 games against the Blue Jays. Depending on how the next few series go for both teams, this series could have a playoff spot or even just a team’s chance at survival on the line. The following weekend we welcome Baltimore to town and if these teams are within 3 games of each other, this could be the most exciting end to a season we’ve seen in a while. All of this from a team that was 9-17 and sold at the deadline.
First though, we have to get by the Dodgers. LA is sitting in first place in the NL West with only a 3 game lead over San Fran, so this series is important to them too. With a 33-35 record on the road and only being 4 games better than The Yankees, this isn’t some impossible series. As a matter of fact, the Yankees are favored in game 1 and would be best served to get up early in the series because Kershaw is starting game 3.
Tonight the Dodgers will start Jose De Leon, who was their No. 2 prospect before being called up last week. This will only be De Leon’s 2nd career start and he fared well in his first, giving up three earned over 6 to get the win. Facing this Yankee team in The Bronx will be a bit different than San Diego. I hope.
For the Yankees, we have Bryan Mitchell making his 2nd start of the year. On Wednesday Mitchell gave us 5 scoreless innings to wrap up a sweep on Toronto but leaned on the bullpen heavily. Tonight, with Severino having pitched 2.1 innings yesterday, 6 or 7 innings out of Mitchell would mean not only are we in a position to win tonight, but keeps the bullpen strong for the next week.
Buckle up kids, this should be a wild ride.