It hasn’t been perfect, but it’s better than it was. The Yankees faced off against the MLB-best Rays this past weekend and displayed an inspiring brand of baseball that made the seemingly unbeatable Tampa squad appear on par with what was within their own clubhouse.
It’s a long way from where the club was just two weeks ago when they were 15-15 and ranking near the cellar of baseball in runs scored with few bright spots to point to. Now, Aaron Boone’s squad is trending in the right direction. There are still plenty of loose ends to tighten up — three of their starters (Nestor Cortes, Jhony Brito and Clarke Schmidt) own ERA’s north of 5.5 — however, they are at least beginning to earn back the title of the Bronx Bombers.
The club is averaging 7.4 runs per game over their past seven games — thanks in part to the Oakland A’s historically bad pitching staff — the best mark in baseball during that span while also owning the top average (.274) and OPS (.914). Despite dropping the final game of a four-game set to Tampa on Sunday, the tone of the clubhouse was mostly positive as they nearly fought back from down 8-4 in their loss a day after erasing a 6-0 deficit in their win Saturday.
“I think we’re in a good spot,” Aaron Judge said after Sunday’s loss. “These were some battles back and forth. [The Rays] are one of the best teams in baseball. We battled back and forth. I think this team’s coming out of here with a bunch of positive stuff.
“[Fighting back] is what this team’s made of. We did that a lot last year, had some big comeback victories and this year’s no different. We’re never out of any ballgame no matter what the score is, if it’s 6-0, 3-0, everybody in this lineup knows what they need to do.”
The recent emergence of rookie shortstop Anthony Volpe has helped matters, too. The 22-year-old was bumped down from the leadoff spot to seventh in the lineup after a 2-for-23 stretch that still featured a lot of hard-hit balls.
The New Jersey native appears to have found his stroke as his recent power surge combined with his ability to turn singles into triples — and even home runs after he stole second, third and scored on a wild pitch Saturday — has put the Bombers in position to win ball games. His two-run homer in the eighth of Sunday’s loss that brought the Yanks within a run of Tampa was his third long ball in the past five games.
The 22-year-old is 5-for-11 since dropping down to seventh — although Boone added Sunday that he believes there is no correlation between the positive results and the lineup shuffle — and is feeling the positive vibes ringing throughout the clubhouse.
“I think the way we’ve been playing, nobody’s ever losing belief,” Volpe said Sunday. “[The games] have been very, very intense and we’ve been playing that way for the last, little over a week.
“If we take that into the road trip and keep competing the way we have been, we’re going to be in a good spot.”
The Bombers will begin the road trip with another four-game set against a division rival, this time facing off versus the Toronto Blue Jays and will finish up with three games in Cincinnati against the Reds. However, they may return home to the Bronx adding another bullet to their chamber as Luis Severino is a real option to start the last game of the trip at Great American Ball Park, per Boone.
As the club begins to get more whole, the on-field product has been much easier on the eyes. The returns of Harrison Bader (.333 in 12 games) and Judge (two homers in Saturday’s win) provided immediate sizable impacts. With Severino on his way and Giancarlo Stanton (hamstring) along with Carlos Rodon (forearm/back) — who Boone said will begin to ramp up throwing Monday — a few steps behind him, the flow chart of the season could soon see a significant spike north from what appeared to be rock bottom just two weeks ago.
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