Yankees’ mighty ’pen might not save the day
It might be the most wicked bullpen since the Nasty Boys, but while the Cincinnati Reds deployed their vaunted relievers to win the 1990 World Series title, it might turn out to be only a sideshow in New York.
The New York Yankees have two months to determine if they’re going to be contending or pretending. If they’re not in contention by the Aug. 1 trading deadline, one or two relievers might become trade chips.
The triumvirate of Dellin Betances, Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman has been virtually invincible when summoned to protect a seventh-inning lead.
The trouble is days like Thursday, when they’re brought in to keep the score close and the Yankees still lose 3-1 to the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Yankees (22-24) have gone 11-6 since Chapman joined the team May 9 after his domestic violence suspension, but they still find themselves in fourth place in the American League East. If their fortunes don’t improve in two months, they might have no choice but to trade at least Chapman, who’s eligible for free agency after the season.
“If we’re in there, we’ll be trying to add,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told USA TODAY Sports after Thursday’s loss. “If we’re not good enough, then it will be the opposite.
“Those guys are valuable; that’s why we have them.”
The Yankees lost for the first time when at least two of the Fab 3 have pitched. They have yielded 13 hits and three walks and struck out 37 in 211⁄ innings.
“It’s the greatest bullpen ever assembled,” said Yankees starter CC Sabathia, who yielded two hits and two unearned runs in his seven-inning stint. “I mean, they’re just unbelievable.
“When I first got here, it was go eight innings and get the ball to Mo (future Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera). Now, it’s go six innings and turn it over to them. It’s the same feeling.”
And the same sickening feeling as National League teams remember from the glory days of the Nasty Boys, when Norm Charlton, Rob Dibble and Randy Myers led the Reds to the 1990 World Series championship. The trio combined for 44 saves and 351 strikeouts during the season.
“I’m not sure what you call us,” said Miller, the middle of one moniker, No Run DMC. “I hear a different nickname in every interview. It sounds like they’re coming up with something new every day.
“We’ll know which one sticks when we see it on T-shirts.”
If Sabathia and the Yankees rotation keep pitching like this, they should at least stay in the playoff picture. In their last eight starts, they’ve yielded a 1.95 ERA and pitched at least six innings.
Yet the team formerly known as the Bronx Bombers has scored the third-fewest runs in the American League. The Yankees have the league’s best winning percentage when scoring four or more runs but are 522 when scoring three or fewer.
The Yankees went on a tear when DH Alex Rodriguez went on the disabled list May 4, winning 14 of 21 games, with Carlos Beltran carrying the load, producing six homers and 15 extra-base hits. Yet with Rodriguez returning Thursday and Beltran going back to right field, the team went into a funk.
The Yankees managed three hits in seven innings off Blue Jays starter J.A. Happ, and Beltran and Rodriguez went 0-for-8 with six strikeouts. Rodriguez is hitting .184 with five homers and 12 RBI, compared to .250 with 33 homers and 86 RBI a year ago.
“(Rodriguez) is my DH,” Girardi said. “I will DH Carlos as well. We felt that Alex may have worn down at the end of last year, so the chance of me playing him seven, eight days in a row are probably not very good. But right now my plan is for him to be my DH.”
And Girardi isn’t buying the notion that Beltran’s four-strikeout game was a byproduct of returning to right field.
“I’m sure it all had to do to him being in right field, I’m sure,” Girardi said with disgust. “Let’s not keep stirring this and stirring this and everything we overvalue. Carlos had a rough day. A lot of our right-handers had a rough day today.”
The Yankees certainly need an influx of power from someone, and if they don’t start hitting and winning, there could be a prized closer on the trade block.
“There’s so much expectations and so much excitement around here about (the bullpen), it’s like an added pressure,” Miller said. “We all want to go out and do our jobs, but it’s more than just the three of us. It’s made for a fun story, I guess, and it’s nice the bullpen gets notoriety for something else besides blowing games.
“But we’ve got to win. That’s what the Nasty Boys did, right? Now, that’s what people remember.”