New York Yankees: Five Reasons Not to Panic About Final Six Weeks

A little more than a month ago, on July 18, the New York Yankees moved 10 games ahead of the Baltimore Orioles in the American League East. At 57-34, 23 games over .500, it looked as if the Yankees were set to cruise the final 10 weeks of the season and lock up their second consecutive division title.

The Yankees lost to the Chicago White Sox Tuesday night, 7-3, as starter Ivan Nova was roughed up (again), surrendering a game-deciding grand slam to noted Yankee killer Kevin Youkilis. It was the second straight night the ChiSox had come from behind after the Yankees moved out to an early lead.

Nova has been, well, awful over the last month. In his last eight starts, the 25-year-old righthander is 1-3  with an unsightly 7.02 ERA and has allowed 60 hits in 41 innings, including eight home runs.

He surrendered two gopher balls on Tuesday. Before Youkilis’ slam, Paul Konerko turned on a fastball that wasn’t quite up enough or in enough and deposited it into the left-field seats to tie game at 2.

New York is just 19-18 since the All-Star break and that huge lead isn’t looking so huge now. Entering play today, the Tampa Bay Rays—10½ games behind and tied with the Boston Red Sox for third place in the division on July 18—are just four games behind and the Orioles have pulled to within five games of the lead.

The Yankees’ run differential on July 18 was plus-80, second only to the Texas Rangers’ plus-81. Despite going 15-17 since then, somehow the differential has improved to plus-98, now the best in the American League and third in MLB behind the St. Louis Cardinals (plus-113) and Washington Nationals (plus-112). So that’s a positive.

So, too, is the fact that the Yankees close out this six-game road trip in Cleveland over the weekend. The Indians have lost seven in a row and are just 7-25 over their last 32 games.

There are other reasons why the Yankees and their fans need not panic just because the Rays and Orioles won’t go away. Here are five of them.

5. Eric Chavez

The six-time Gold Glove winner, now 34 and having returned from back problems that nearly ended his career five years ago, is not why the Yankees are struggling. Chavez is filling in admirably for injured Alex Rodriguez at third base and has been hot as a pistol in August.

Chavez is hitting .425/.465/.775 in 40 August at-bats, with four home runs and 10 RBI while splitting time at third base with recently acquired Casey McGehee, acquired from the Pittsburgh Pirates at the trade deadline for reliever Chad Qualls.

McGehee was picked up to give the Yankees another right-handed bat to play third base and first base while Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira were on the mend.

4. Rafael Soriano

The Yankees lost the best closer of all time when Mariano Rivera went down with a freak knee injury while shagging fly balls during batting practice on May 3 in Kansas City.

Rafael Soriano has proven that depth on a pitching staff is a good thing. The former closer for the Rays was pressed into service to pitch the ninth inning after Rivera’s injury, and the Yankees haven’t missed a beat.

Soriano has converted 31 of 33 save opportunities since assuming the closer’s role, with an ERA of 1.64 and 50 strikeouts in 49 1/3 innings of work.. His WHIP is a solid 1.14.

He was one of the most notable omissions from last month’s All-Star roster.

3. CC Sabathia

The ace of the starting rotation has landed on the DL twice this year. But on Tuesday, he declared he was ready to rejoin the starting rotation when the Yankees open a three-game series in Cleveland on Friday (per ESPNNewYork.com).

Despite the time missed most recently with a sore, stiff elbow and the time lost in June and July to a groin strain, Sabathia has been his usual solid self when able to go. His 1.21 WHIP and 3.56 ERA are right in line with his career marks of 1.23 and 3.52, respectively.

Sabathia is 12-3 with 140 strikeouts in 141 2/3 innings this season.

Some are whispering that the less-than-svelte 32-year-old lefty may be suffering the effects of carrying as much weight as he does. But he averaged 230 innings a season over the last five years, an almost unheard of figure in today’s game for a single season, much less five straight.

2. Hiroki Kuroda

The Yankees weren’t sure what they were getting when they signed the 37-year-old righthander, who pitched the first three seasons of his major league career with the Los Angeles Dodgers after toiling for Japan’s Hiroshima Toyo Carp for 11 seasons.

What they’ve gotten is a pitcher who has held the starting rotation together after Michael Pineda was lost for the season in spring training, and Sabathia and Andy Pettitte missed significant chunks of time.

Kuroda is only 12-8 but ranks in the bottom 20 among major league starters in run support at 3.84 runs per game (per ESPN.com). His ERA this season is a career-best 2.96 through 25 starts, and his 1.12 WHIP would also be the best mark he has posted since coming to the big leagues in 2008.

As the games have gotten more important, he’s gotten more locked in. In four August starts, Kuroda has surrendered just five runs in 29 2/3 innings for an ERA of 1.52. Since the All-Star break, he is 4-1 with a 1.98 ERA while limiting opponents to a .213 batting average.

It is hard to fathom where the Yankees would be had Kuroda not stepped up the way he has.

1. The Yankees Hit, the Rays Don’t

The Yankees are second in the major leagues with 606 runs scored in 123 games, trailing only the Rangers, who have scored 615 times. Their 192 home runs is far and away the best total in baseball, 29 better than the second-place White Sox (163).

As a team, the Yankees have amassed an OPS of .798 this season, .018 ahead of Texas. They also lead baseball with a .461 slugging percentage. In a word, the Yankees can rake.

Compare that with the Rays, who have scored 519 runs (18^th in MLB), hit 117 home runs (19^th), have a team OPS of .694 (24^th) and a slugging percentage of .379 (26^th).

There’s a reason the Rays have been shut out seven times this season, including falling victim to Felix Hernandez’s perfect game on Aug. 15 and being blanked by Luke Hochevar and the Kansas City Royals Tuesday night in a 1-0, 10-inning loss.

The pitching is good enough for the Yankees to win the AL East because the hitting is far and away the best in the division.