The Yankees took the first half of the four game series, outscoring the Royals 18-6 in the first two games. Tuesday night’s victory was their 5th in a row. They have not lost a game since the horrible outing on Friday night vs Tampa. Here are a few notes worth mentioning:
1. Since the All Star break, the Yankees are 11-3. The team is averaging 7.7 runs per game, and the team hitting average is .324. This is how you get to the playoffs.
2. The Yankees are taking pitches. One of the biggest problems I saw with the team in the first half was that they were swinging miserably at the first pitch – they were trying TOO hard. In tonight’s game, 10 Yankees walked. Robinson Cano had a career high 3 walks tonight alone… The Yankees went 24 straight innings with having a baserunner on. This is a streak that could have NOT happened without the walks…
3. The Yankees are scoring early, scoring multiple runs early. This helps two-fold. Not only do the hitters gain confidence and momentum, they are also giving their starting pitchers leads early, leading to their own confidence build. The pitching staff all around is more relaxed, and definitely doing much better (sans Myers and Farnsworth)
4. The Yankees are winning on the road! The Yankees had the worst road record in the AL the first half of the season. In the second half they are leading. They are striking first on the road – taking two in a row on this current road trip against a good KC team – a team that took a series from Boston last week.
Things are looking up up up. The Red Sox defeated the Indians again today – and now the Wild Card lead over the Yankees is down to 4.5 games. As I have said before, there are two more months of baseball left, and there is no reason the Yankees cannot be in post-season play if they ontinue on like this…
