Surprising start has Bombers laughing off loss
THE media horde approached Brett Gardner’s locker Sunday afternoon, and then the Yankees’ current leader in service time uncharacteristically turned around and walked toward a restricted area, abandoning his inquisitors. That lasted about a half-second; Gardner spun back and smiled. “Just kidding,” he said. You know you occupy a tranquil universe when you can clown around after an extra-inning loss. The Yankees dropped a crazy one, 7-4 in 11 innings to the Orioles at Yankee Stadium, which prevented a sweep of Buck Showalter’s O’s and pulled the two teams, both 15-8, back into a tie atop the American League East. Joe Girardi took a page out of the Whitey Herzog/Joe Maddon playbook and switched Bryan Mitchell from pitcher to first base back to pitcher, and it nearly worked — if only the Yankees had capitalized on a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the top of the 10th. Instead, Mitchell, relieving Aroldis Chapman (who had relieved Mitchell), surrendered three runs for the loss. That Didi Gregorius tied the game with a two-out, two-run single in the ninth off Donnie Hart — man, the Orioles sure missed their injured closer Zach Britton this weekend — softened the blow of the final score, as did the comic optics of Mitchell missing one foul pop at first base and catching a second one to the loud approval of those from the announced crowd of 41,022 who stuck around. Plus the Yankees had the calendar working in their favor. For this marked their last April contest, and therefore another test this Yankees renovation has passed.
“I think you’d sign up for that,” Girardi said of the team’s record, especially in light of last year’s stud, Gary Sanchez, missing the bulk of the month with a right biceps injury.
“No one gives out trophies for April, but I’ll take the way we are playing right now,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said before the game. “I’ll take the wins that are coming with it especially with some of our key components down.”
Gregorius, the other key component who missed most of the month (he injured his right arm moonlighting in the World Baseball Classic), looked great over the weekend, and his replacement Ronald Torreyes as well as Sanchez’s backup, Austin Romine, performed superbly. Chase Headley has appeared reborn, Matt Holliday refreshed and Aaron Hicks worth the wait. On the pitching side, Luis Severino has retrieved his 2015 mojo, Michael Pineda displays hints of making the long-hoped leap and Sunday’s starter Jordan Montgomery shows flashes of being legitimate.
And rookie Aaron Judge, who singled and walked three times Sunday, has put himself in the (way) early running for not only AL Rookie of the Year honors, but also the Most Valuable Player conversation.
When you lead the league in runs scored (128) and rank second in runs allowed (85, behind only the White Sox’s 83), you’re probably going to own a nice record. Sanchez could return next weekend if all goes well with his rehabilitation during the week, so on paper, the Yankees will get even better.
“I’m definitely happy with where we’re at,” Gardner said.
You’d think the Yankees are due for a slowdown. That their starting pitching will not maintain this high level of performance and that Judge will not be a major threat every single game. Yet these Yankees, absolutely not all in for 2017, already can claim a minor victory with what they’ve accomplished. They enjoyed a strong two months in 2016 after they dealt away veterans at the trade deadline; they put together the best record in spring training at 24-9; and now they’ve built on that.
“We’re definitely pleased with the start we got off to,” Gardner said. “We’ve got a lot of work left to do. Hopefully we’ll continue to get better.”
There probably will be losses at which they can’t chuckle so heartily, injuries from which they can’t rebound so easily. Then again, after they started 1-4 with the Sanchez injury, who ever thought they would be here on April 30? You want to keep watching the Yankees as they head into May. And that’s not nothing.