In the immortal words of Crash Davis: Respect the roll.
I did not want the month to end, no one is hotter than the Yankees right now.
21-7. Allowing less than 3 runs per game. And oh yeah, Judge found his footing and is leading the AL HRs.
The team is on a roll,
It may be a tad dramatic to say, but I think game one of this series turned the season.
Being shut out in another anemic offensive output, fans were down, social media was a blaze.
Then one by one in the 9th: Judge, Verdugo's drag bunt for a single, Stanton double, Rizzo base hit for the walk-off.
Stadium was alive - and so was the team. I think reinstalled a dose of confidence following the Baltimore series.
On the pitching front, solid all the way around - and hello, Clay Holmes, 16 appearances, 0.00 ERA!
Game 3 - Judge starts it off with a much needed homer. Then of course, Soto, superman, a patient, smart, and aggressive at bat to clear the bases.
Detroit is a good team, they will be contenders in the Central and for the Wild Card.
This was a great 3 game bounce back.
On Deck: The Houston Astros. Are they really as bad as their record says there are?
We shall see.
There were a lot of reasons to be optimistic with the Yanks prospects heading into the series with AL East leading and the new "it" team Baltimore Orioles.
Coming off of consecutive games of scoring 15 points against a quality opponent in Milwaukee, we could have hoped the offensive inconsistency days were behind us.
It wasn't to be.
As we stated in our first post of 2024, if we can't cure the Feast or Famine aspect of this team's production, it likely meant getting to the post season, but not enough to advance in it.
Baltimore is a team they will have to face, or a team at its' level.
How'd the offense do in this early season test in 4 games? 3 losses. Scored a total of 4 runs, and got shut out twice.
Aaron Judge went 1-13 and left 12 runners on base. To be clear, it is not all on Judge, but he's the most visible, the highest profile, the Captain, he's the guy. He will get the credit, he has to shoulder a bit of the blame. (we could also fill plenty of pages on Gleybar who is starting to remind me of Gary Sanchez in some ways - more on that later)
The pitching has been good enough to win, they are dealing. They can't do it on their own however, and need a consistent output from the offensive to help the cause.
If the pitching can hold until Cole gets back - probably June it will be seen as a major win.
If the offense can get right, and will just say, right means, putting out 5 or more runs a game, the Yanks will be tough to beat.
For now, they took their lumps, and Baltimore - until the next time.
