Bronx, NY- The Yankees are no longer the underachieving team that saw the Red Sox with a nine game lead in the division when they last met in late July. Manager Aaron Boone and his team had more than one of those gut wrenching losses and they never threw in the towel as their season was going by the board.
But, Boone and his team always believed things would change. GM Brian Cashman made some significant additions at the trade deadline, acquiring Joey Gallo and Anthony Rizzo. The injury prone Yankees called upon reinforcements at Triple-A Scranton to assemble a pitching rotation that was decimated with injuries to Domingo German, Jordan Montgomery, and Gerrit Cole.
A month later, and after sweeping The Red Sox Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium in a day-evening seven- inning double header, Boone and his team are percentage points ahead of Boston for the second American League wild card.
Perhaps, in another universe, this wasn’t possible. But the Yankees are also 5.0 games off the pace from division leading Tampa Bay. They are playing near .700 baseball, and their 26-11 record since July is the best record in the Majors.
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But this is reality. The Yankees, unless they have a late season collapse, or are playing over their heads, are destined to be playing baseball in October and that is what all in baseball expected.
“It’s going to be a tough road ahead still, but the group is a confident group, and I think they know what they’re capable of,” Boone said about his team after sweeping two 5-3 and 2-0.
The reality is, the Red Sox are not playing like they were in late July. The Red Sox are 6-13 in their last 19 games, though manager Alex Cora has been impressed with the Yankees surge and at the same time looking at this team getting swept as just another two games.
“It’s not deflating,” Cora said. I mean, it’s just two games, we lost, whatever. That’s a different team than early in the season. They’re more agile, more versatile, more athletic and one thing they’ve done throughout the season is they can pitch.”
Luis Gil, the Yankees number six prospect has been more than a reinforcement and has now tossed 15⅔ scoreless innings in three starts to begin his Major League career, and that is the most by a Yankees starter in the expansion era.
Gil, the 23-year old Right-hander from Azua, Dominican Republic, tossed the 11th shutout of the season and Yankees starters have a 2.94 ERA and 217 strikeouts on their last 38 starts, allowing three runs or fewer in 33 of their last 38 starts.
So Gil is going nowhere. He has quickly evolved on the mound with a fastball and array of secondary pitches. And the Yankees, once with an offense that underachieved has evolved with an added dimension of a team taking chances on the base paths.
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And the home run ball has returned that accounts for enough runs that comes with the good pitching, which was evident again in the day opener with Jordan Montgomery and the bullpen cementing a win.
“A lot of adrenalin tonight.” Gil said through a translator.
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The two runs for Gil came on solo home runs. A rejuvenated Luke Voit in the second inning off Nathan Eovaldil, his second in three games. And Giancarlo Stanton hit his 19th in the fourth inning as Gil gave up three hits and four walks and struck out four in 4-⅔ innings.
So a month ago it was inconceivable about any discussion of the Yankees and being a part of the postseason. They won their fifth straight game, and 17th of their last 21.
Jonathan Loaisiga earned his fifth save of the year and managed to escape a bases loaded jam in the seventh and final inning in the first game win.His 19 scoreless relief outings this season of four or more outs are the second most in the Majors behind Boston’s Garrett Whitlock.
The Yankees go for the sweep Wednesday evening. They never succumbed to the adversity and were confident their season would turn around and that is a reality as they bypassed the Red Sox.
For sure, they are far from done and are now achieving instead of being a team of underachievers.
Rich Mancuso: Twitter@Ring786 Facebook.com/Rich Mancuso
