Yankees are delivering early
AMERICAN LEAGUE: Dominant bullpen makes up for an otherwise pedestrian lineup
WASHINGTON — They arrived in Washington with one regular position player younger than 30, and that guy, Didi Gregorius, is being asked to replace an icon, failing miserably along the way. Their best starting pitcher, Masahiro Tanaka, is on the disabled list. Their most accomplished starting pitcher, CCSabathia, is constantly battling a chronic knee problem.
These are the New York Yankees, and they reside in first place in the American League East in the first season the ‘Core Four’ is no longer.
Yes, Derek Jeter was a drag on the New York’s offence last year, the first time in his career in which the Yankees failed to reach the playoffs in consecutive seasons. And when Jeter departed — joining Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera in retirement, finally putting to rest what likely will be the last dominant era for a single major league team — the Yankees didn’t undergo some overhaul.
They traded for his replacement, Gregorius, and marched forward with what appeared to be a decrepit lineup set up to fail. The 2014 Yankees scored fewer runs than any pinstriped team since 1990, and they were supposed to return to the post-season by adding 39-year-old, what-do-we-have-here Alex Rodriguez, back from suspension? No off-season splash?
We’re a long way from putting the Yankees back in the playoffs, for sure, though the stench around the rest of the AL East makes anything possible. This week’s two-game test against the hottest team in baseball — the Washington Nationals — will provide another check point. Yet it’s not too early to decipher why this group entered this series in first place: 13 feet, three inches of reliever.
These Yankees don’t appear to do much with domination. They’re fourth in the AL in runs scored, fifth in on-base-plus-slugging percentage, fifth in ERA. But when they get to the eighth inning with a lead, the first 6-feet-8 of reliever emerges from the bullpen in the hulking form of right-hander Dellin Betances. And when Betances holds that lead, here comes 6-foot-7 lefty Andrew Miller, built like a beanpole who owns the ninth.
Let’s do some quick math. (Calculator out, carry the 1, borrow from over there. OK ...) Here is the number of earned runs Miller and Betances have combined to allow in 2015: zero (0).
Yes, there are plenty of peripheral numbers to show how that’s happened. And there are other reasons the Yankees are 22-17. The two hitters at the top of the order, Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner, rank fourth and 16th in the AL, respectively, in on-base percentage (.411 and .380). Michael Pineda, the 26-year-old right-hander whose greatest adversary to this point has been his own health, has anchored a rotation currently without Tanaka, going 5-1 with a 3.31 ERA and 55 strikeouts in 51.2 innings. And the Yankees have clubbed 46 homers, more than all but four teams in the game, with 10 from Rodriguez and 11 from Mark Teixeira.