| Andrew Perna. 4th July, 2008 - 9:56 pm
 Heading into their series' finale against the Rangers on Wednesday night, Hank Steinbrenner demanded that New York’s bats wake up. By the bottom of the third inning at Yankee Stadium, the team’s hitters hadn’t just woken up – they had jumped out of bed like a kid on Christmas morning.
Jason Giambi kicked the explosion off with a grand slam that gave the Yankees a 5-3 lead heading into the fourth inning, but a shaky outing by starter Sidney Ponson squandered the advantage as Texas placed four runs on the board in the top of the sixth.
Luckily for the Yankees, their offense wasn’t done.
They batted around in the bottom of the seven, putting nine runs on the board en route to a season-high eighteen for the game. Giambi finished the night with six RBI's – more than the Yankees had as a team in their three previous games – Alex Rodriguez scored four runs, and Johnny Damon remained hot with a three-hit affair.
Such an outburst couldn’t have come at a better time as New York enters a stretch that will define their season.
Heading into the holiday weekend, the Yankees are a distant 7.5 games behind the Rays, yes those of the Tampa Bay variety, for first place in the AL East. They are also looking at the backs of the rival Red Sox, who have a four-game edge over the Bombers.
The Yankees will end their current homestand with six games against those two teams, beginning with the opener of a four-game set against Boston on Thursday night. The run will conclude with a pair against Tampa Bay on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.
The best-case scenario for the Yankees would be a sweep of the Sox, bringing them even with Boston heading into their important pair with the Rays. However, even their 18-7 win against the Rangers on Wednesday showcased the problems they have suffered through this season.
They used innings of four, nine, and three runs to beat Texas often looking lost at the plate during the other five innings they came up to bat.
If the offense doesn’t show up over the next seven days, the Yankees will spend All-Star weekend watching their playoff hopes spiral down into the depths of the Bronx sewer system instead of celebrating renewed hope.
If the best-case scenario for the Yankees is to draw even with the Sox, the gloomiest outlook would have New York more than a dozen games back of Tampa and nearly ten back of hated Boston just one week from now.
They have scored the fifth most runs (406, 4.77 per game) in the American League so far this year, much lower than they are used to being while posting the ninth best ERA (4.20) among the league’s fourteen teams.
Their run-differential is decent, but their inability to play constant baseball – other than over their seven-game win streak in the middle of June – has kept them from sniffing the top of perhaps the toughest division in all of baseball.
Through their first eighty-five games (45-40) of the season, the Yankees have scored seven or more runs on nineteen occasions.
However, they have also scored three runs or fewer thirty-six times, with a number of those instances coming during their recent offensive skid.
It’s tough to make up ground, and it’ll be even tougher to win games in September and October, when your bats are that inconsistent.
In order to make sure those games will even hold meaning at the end of summer and beginning of fall, the Yankees will have to find a way to swing well against three of the AL’s best pitchers – Jon Lester, Josh Beckett, and Scott Kazmir – in the coming week.
They’ll also have to remain close in games when young guns Darrell Rasner and Joba Chamberlain face the Sox for the first time as starters.
Unfortunately for the Yankees, they won’t be able to count on Hideki Matsui in the lineup. He isn’t likely to return before the break because of knee issues, and Joe Girardi will miss his .323 batting average and timely hitting.
Thankfully, guys like Giambi and Damon are red-hot while Robinson Cano is starting to show signs of a resurgence at the plate. After hitting .151 in April, Cano has his average up to .248 and has been hitting the ball extremely well.
The Yankees can’t count on nine-run innings very often, which means they’ll have to capitalize on scoring opportunities whenever they arise. That means playing small-ball at times, rather than waiting for Giambi to put four runs on the board with a single swing or relying on their pitching staff to hold opponents to just a run or two.
If they aren’t able to do that over this pending six-game stretch, their season will no longer be on the line, it’ll be on the ropes.
Andrew Perna is a Senior Writer for RealGM.com and will be covering the 2008 MLB All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium this month. If there is any specific coverage you’d enjoy from the Bronx, let me know via e-mail. (Andrew.Perna@RealGM.com). |
