M’S 5 ERRORS HELP YANKS WIN:
Yanks rip seattle but division no laughing matter
THERE truly is no excuse for the Yankees, whose roster is essentially whole again for the first time in months, not to reach the playoffs this season.
As Hal Steinbrenner put it earlier this month, such a shortcoming has to be considered a failure now, and Sunday’s runaway 10-1 win over sloppy Seattle at the Stadium accentuated that point yet again.
After all, of the seven or eight teams (depending on your level of generosity) chasing the Yanks in the wild-card hunt, there isn’t a single great squad in the bunch. The Mariners committed five — five! — errors in the first inning alone on Sunday, with a generous official scoring decision sparing them yet another one inning later. With that said, the Yanks still should be, must be, clinging to loftier pursuits.
And this week’s slate against AL divisional leaders Cleveland and Boston — beginning with Monday’s marquee pairing of Cy Young candidates Corey Kluber and Luis Severino — finally will take us into September and provide a firmer idea whether the division title realistically remains within the Bombers’ grasp over the final weeks of the regular season.
“Especially at this time, every game is important. We’re going to continue fighting. We’ve been doing that all year,” said All-Star second baseman Starlin Castro, who rapped four hits in his third game back from the disabled list. “Now it’s really fun baseball, especially when we play the other teams in our division and other good teams coming to our home now.”
Notably, in just seven days
since glumly departing Boston last Sunday night five games removed from the top spot in the AL East, the Yanks already have halved that deficit. The Red Sox got pummeled a few times and were swept by Baltimore this weekend, unable once again to pull away when they firmly appeared poised to do so while grabbing two of three last weekend at Fenway.
Meanwhile, the Yanks have won consecutive series thereafter — and nine of their past 13 games now — backing each other up time and again in a fight-filled set in Detroit and then dispatching hobbled old friend Robinson Cano and the Mariners on Sunday behind resurgent righty Masahiro Tanaka.
The erstwhile ace has gone 3-1 with a 2.88 ERA over his past five starts (wrapped around a brief DL stint) to even his record at 10-10 after overcoming a shaky first inning Sunday to last seven solid frames with 10 strikeouts. “I thought his stuff was really good,” Joe Girardi assessed. “I got to watch most of it on TV, and it looked pretty good.”
Indeed, Girardi’s disagreeable week with the umpires was extended on Sunday, shifting from his automatic ejection as part of the bench-clearing incidents with the Tigers last week to a fiery capslamming tirade and thumbing in the third inning for what he rightly believed should have been a baserunner interference call on Seattle’s Jean Segura at second base.
“I just wanted an explanation,” he said, “but I didn’t get one.”
What Girardi did get was an early 6-1 lead to work with courtesy of a gifted first inning from the Mariners, who became the first MLB team to commit five errors in one inning in more than 40 years. “It’s tough for them, but we’ll take it,” Castro offered. “Them making five errors in one inning, I think that’s the first time I’ve seen that.”
That rarity only added to a weekend that saw the Yanks finally get back two long-awaited lineup reinforcements — Castro and first baseman Greg Bird (two-run pinch-hit single) — to give Girardi the type of lineup maneuverability and bench depth he’s done without for much of the summer.
Of course, the Central-leading Indians also pulled off a rare feat this weekend, shutting out an opponent (Kansas City) in a threegame series for the first time since 1956. And that was before they’ll send Kluber to the mound for Monday’s series opener against Severino. “It’s a really good matchup, you have two pitchers who are throwing the ball extremely well,” Girardi said. “Corey Kluber has been an ace, and Sevvy is developing into an ace.”
Indeed, Severino (3.10) trails only Kluber (2.65) and Boston’s Chris Sale in the league ERA race. And the first-time All-Star hardly appears daunted by Monday’s assignment. “That’s the hitters’ problem right now, Kluber, but that’s a good challenge,” Severino said. “I look over there at the batters. I really don’t care (who’s pitching), I just have to do my job. It’s a big (week), but every week is big.”
The Yanks have been taking care of business against teams below them in the standings, starting this string with a fourgame sweep of the injury-riddled Mets. It is time to do the same now against those above them.