By Rich Mancuso/Sports Editor
This is as real as it gets and by now the New York Yankees know it is. And so do their fans who packed Yankee Stadium up in the Bronx this week. After their 16-3 annihilation against Baltimore Saturday night there is another game remaining in this 13-game stretch with AL East division opponents.
Combined, it’s 7-5 against Baltimore, Toronto, and Boston all done with an ineffective Masahiro Tanaka on the mound and an effective and resurged CC Sabathia. Saturday night, righthander Luis Severino remained undefeated in his seventh straight start, 3-0 with a 1.35 ERA in his last five.
“I think for him it was the understanding of pitching,” said manager Joe Girardi. “It’s down, the slider and consistency and also slowing down a little bit. Think about what you are doing and make an adjustment.” That is this year after a very skeptical time of doing that last year, and of course this has made the Yankees that much better on the mound.
Need you say more about this offense that also has seen a resurgence of Aaron Hicks and Brett Gardner. Five more home runs Saturday night from Aaron Judge, Matt Holliday, Starlin Castro Didi Gregorius and Gary Sanchez, 98 on the season after 59 games for this team
And four of those home runs came from the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth batters in the order. The last one hit by Sanchez, and that slow start after a stint on the DL is a distant memory. That is a sign of a good team when production comes in that numerical order.
These are supposed to be the “Baby Bombers” as they have been tabbed to be. But at this pace the maturity has come quicker.
Girardi said, “A win is a win and good the way we are scoring runs Great to see how everyone is swinging the bat and you want it to continue. We’re an offense that can score a lot of runs real quick because of the power we have.”
Saturday night, and more impressive was how the lineup from third to seventh went 5-for-20 and drove in 13 of those runs. Granted these are the struggling Orioles with a pitching staff in shambles, but the Yankees can;t seem to miss when they are at the plate.
“When you combine offense and pitching you are going to win and that’s what we want to keep on doing,” Sanchez said through a translator.
Need we say more? This unexpected pitching and production came a year before there was supposed to be a rebirth of championship baseball in the Bronx. The Yankees have won games and without their closer Aroldis Chapman who has been disabled since May 13th with a bad left shoulder.
Chapman is due back soon but with a team that scores runs in bunches, second in the American League and fourth in baseball, at this point Chapman can take more time. The Yankees are this good or the American League is mediocre but the overall consensus is these are not baby bombers.
These are once again the Bronx Bombers.
They have grown up and fast. In baseball, a game played everyday that is maturity right in front of your eyes. And it wasn’t supposed to transpire this quick in the Bronx.
Comment Rich Mancuso: Ring786@aol.com Twitter@Ring786 Facebook.com/Rich Mancuso
Follow Us