Why Complacency Down the Stretch Is Biggest Danger for New York Yankees

The baseball gods have always been fans of the New York Yankees. The Yankee faithful may not like to admit that, but the fact that the Yankees have 16 more World Series titles than the next team on the list pretty much speaks for itself.

And this is what's so strange about this season. The Yankees are getting no help whatsoever from the baseball gods, who have done nothing to keep the dreaded injury bug from om-nomming the Yankees' roster down to the last man.

Not even Mariano Rivera was spared, and the fact that CC Sabathia has landed on the DL not once, but twice, this season is like a bad joke out of The Twilight Zone.

Joining Mo and Sabathia on the disabled list right now are Alex Rodriguez, Brett Gardner, Andy Pettitte and Michael Pineda, to name just a few. The Yankees know they're at least going to get Sabathia, A-Rod and Pettitte back before the season is over, but it cannot be taken for granted that any of the three will be 100 percent healthy even after they do come back. 

Despite all this, the Yankees still sit atop the American League with a record of 69-47 after Hiroki Kuroda's complete-game shutout against the Texas Rangers. Their roster may only be getting thinner, but that makes it three in a row and six out of seven for the Bombers.

So they're doing what they usually do even without the help of the baseball gods. Depending on your rooting interest, this is a sign that the Yankees really are the property of the devil or a sign that they're a really good, really deep team.

I'll side with the real-world explanation. After all, it's worth mentioning that the Yankees' actual record is exactly the same as their Pythagorean record, according to Baseball-Reference.com. There's nothing supernatural going on. Just good baseball.

There are pitfalls that the Yankees have to worry about, to be sure. I for one think they'll be in trouble if Sabathia is anything less than 100 percent healthy when he returns off the DL, and you obviously have to wonder just how many more injuries the Yankees can suffer before the team itself spontaneously combusts.

But if the Yankees are through the worst of their injury woes (knock wood, Yankees fans), the only thing that's going to keep them from playing in October is themselves. They're only missing out on the postseason if they cease to play good baseball and start playing bad baseball. They should fear complacency right now just as much as they fear more injuries.

Before you write this notion off, here's a hint: Don't. Complacency can be a problem for veteran teams, and the Yankees have been kind enough to demonstrate that for us in recent years. They were on their way to a 100-win season heading into September back in 2010, and stumbled to a 13-17 finish in September and October. They ended 2011 by losing five of their last seven games to once again miss out on a 100-win season.

Only in The Bronx can missing out on 100 wins be considered a failure, but what's really important here is that both the 2010 Yankees and the 2011 Yankees ended up falling short of the World Series. They were one of the top teams in the American League both seasons, but the fact that they failed to go to the Fall Classic lends credence to the notion that it's the hottest teams that tend to advance in the playoffs, not the best.

The 2009 Yankees can vouch. They went 59-27 in the final three-plus months of the season, including 19-9 in September. They started bulldozing the competition in July and didn't stop until they had No. 27 in their clutches.

That was the last time the Yankees really played like they had a fire lit under them. There have been flashes of excitement here and there from the Yankees since then, but they've definitely been guilty of going through the motions from time to time.

You know, sort of like what the 2012 Yankees were doing up until the last week or so. Before last Wednesday, they had lost 12 of their last 18 games. That included two four-game losing streaks, and they even lost a series against the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium that they really had no business losing.

Blame it on the injuries if you want, but this was all happening while Sabathia was in the Yankees' rotation. Their problems had more to do with a sudden lack of offense, a problem that has cropped up time and again throughout the course of the 2012 campaign.

The Yankees look like they've snapped out of it, and they've looked good doing so against three quality teams in the Tigers, Blue Jays and now the Rangers. Everyone can relax. Or rejoice. Whatever. Here's the thing, though: It's not going to get any easier, and the Yankees are a little short on breathing room in the division at the moment.

Immediately following their series against the Rangers, the Yankees will host the Red Sox for three games before heading to Chicago for a three-gamer against the White Sox. Awaiting them in September is a gauntlet run through the best the AL East has to offer with a three-game series against the Oakland A's mixed in.

Meanwhile, the Rays and Orioles are lurking. The Rays have been on fire ever since Evan Longoria returned off the DL, and they have more than enough talent in their starting rotation to keep winning ballgames. The Orioles are less of a sure bet due to their lack of starting pitching depth, but they've made it pretty clear that they're not about to stop winning games just because everyone wants them to.

The Yankees have 13 games remaining against the Rays and the Orioles. They would be wise not to underestimate these games, as it's clear that neither team is a pushover and the Yankees can safely assume that the Rays and the Orioles want to make it to October just as much as they do.

Probably more so, in fact. The Rays are a young team that is still looking for championship No. 1, and the Orioles are a young team that is looking to erase a 15-year postseason drought. They are neither old nor accomplished enough to assume that they're going to get where they want to go.

The Yankees are going to have to find it in themselves to want October just as much as these two teams, and that's going to take something we haven't really seen from the Yankees since 2009:

A sense of urgency.

A little extra motivation will get them to October. A lot of extra motivation may get them a lot further.

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