For the Yankees, it is time for a wake up call. We are wearing into the heart of the season and, due to the competitive American League East, the Yanks can't afford to fall asleep.
As of now, the Rays are atop of the division with the Red Sox a half game back.
The Yankees are four and a half games back, which is certainly where they don't want to be, even without two "key" starters—if you can classify the dismal Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy as such.
I have to say, it is hard to point towards Yankees management for the blame when injuries have prevented manager Joe Girardi from posting a consistent lineup and pitching rotation (Derek Jeter at cleanup? Are you kidding me? He can barely hit when he is batting second).
The Yankees need to hope that Ian Kennedy will give them a quality start on Thursday, and they need to hope that he will keep doing that so they don't have to reach down to pluck another Triple-A pitcher from their patched-together field of young arms.
I also don't want to see the Yankees duct tape together their season by acquiring a lackluster veteran pitcher who will barely fix the major leakage that is the Yankees pitching staff.
With that said, even when the Yankees are pitching well, it does not mean that they are a lock to win the game.
Take last night for example:
Chien-Ming Wang was pitching a hell of a game, but the offense didn't give him any support until the ninth inning when Hideki Matsui launched a home run right to the right field foul pole. That tied the game, and eventually in the bottom of the eleventh inning, Gabe Gross hit a single that knocked Jonny Gomes in from second base to score the winning run, game over.
Obviously, if the Yankees want to be competitive in this division, they are going to have to find more ways to squeeze out wins, and work around the roadblocks that certain injuries have created for them.
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