GENO’S TEST
Galvanized after A-Rod plunking, have Dempster to thank
Saturday’s preseason game vs. Giants could be Smith’s last chance to become Jets’ starting QB Seth Walder,
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, your 2013 Yankees MVP… Ryan Dempster?
Dempster, who fired up Yankeeland by throwing at Alex Rodriguez Sunday night, could find himself becoming the same kind of rivalry flashpoint that A-Rod is in Boston. After all, for years Beantown has been talking about how the 2004 brawl sparked by Rodriguez’s confrontation with Jason Varitek was a turning point for that curse-breaking team.
Dempster’s star turn in a revival of this year’s Yankees, of course, depends on whether the Bombers can prove that their recent spate of strong play is more than just a hot streak.
The Yanks have 39 games to prove they can be a real factor in the AL wild card chase or the AL East.
At least they look better now than they did even a few weeks ago, according to John Flaherty, the former Yankee and current YES Network analyst.
“Two weeks ago, they were not close to a playoff team and when I saw them (Sunday) night, it’s like they’ve got something going,” said Flaherty, who didn’t work that game but watched on television. “I can see it now (a run to contention) where I couldn’t a week or 10 days ago.
“You wonder if this is their moment, if Ryan Dempster got them to play together as a team. We saw intensity on the field, like we hadn’t seen. This was a diferent level.”
And, apparently, it was a different level of closeness, too. Whatever is going on behind closed doors in Yankeeland with a new twist in the A-Rod saga blooming on a seemingly hourly basis, the Bombers were passionate when Dempster plunked Rodriguez. Afterward, even Rodriguez told reporters, “Today kind of brought us together.
“I think no matter what happens, all the white noise, whatever is said or not said, our focus is to win games and we’re doing that.”
Is it enough to get back to the postseason? Entering Tuesday’s day-night doubleheader against the Blue Jays at the Stadium, the Yankees are 64-59 and in fourth place in the division. Entering Monday’s games, they were 7.5 games behind Boston, which played at San Francisco, and six games out of a wild card spot.
According to Baseball Prospectus’ playoff odds, the Yankees have a 5.4% chance of reaching the postseason; by the calculations of coolstandings.com, it’s 8.3%.
“I really believe in my heart to be in the playoffs, you’re going to have to be in the 90s when it comes to wins,” Joe Girardi said Sunday.
If that’s the case, Girardi’s club really has to continue to play at or near the level that has made it 7-3 over the last 10 games. To hit 90 wins, the Yankees must go 26-13. Thirty of their final 39 games are against the AL East and 20 of those games are against Boston, Tampa Bay and Baltimore, the teams ahead of them. Maybe Sunday night was the start. Flaherty, in a telephone inter view Monday, sa id, “That could’ve been the biggest win of the year for them, the way it went down. That had to be a good feeling on the plane ride home, winning the way they did, with all that drama.” Flaherty was a member of the 2004 Yankees and was at Fenway on July 24, when the benches emptied and the Red Sox season, some say, transformed into the team that won their first World Series since — all together now — 1918.
To an outsider, the change wasn’t obvious that day, though it’s part of Red Sox lore now.
That’s why Flaherty says now, “I think (Dempster’s) teammates are hoping that doesn’t happen here because they saw it with the Varitek-A-Rod thing. I don’t know if the Yankees will do it, but they got fired up (Sunday).
“If the Yankees don’t get fired up in that moment, that would tell you all you need to know about the team and there was no way they were going to lose (Sunday) night.
“So I think they added a level where their game can go this year.”