The Yankees had an opportunity over the last two weeks to rack up a bunch of wins against teams they theoretically should beat. It was a chance to not only get back over .500, but to establish themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the American League playoff race and to firmly declare themselves as obvious deadline buyers as June comes to a close.
But a 6-5 mark in 11 games against the Rockies and Twins leaves them at 37-37 after Sunday’s loss to the Twins at the Stadium and they’re no closer to declaring themselves as either buyers or sellers in a “pretty damn obvious” way, which is what GM Brian Cashman is hoping for, as he mentioned Tuesday.
They failed to take advantage of the chance they had against beatable opposition, and it may ultimately cost them, because their schedule leading up to the Aug.1 non-waiver trade deadline does them no favors. They welcome the American League-leading Rangers to town Monday for a four-game set before embarking on a 10-game road trip that includes series against the White Sox and Indians taking them into the All-Star break.
And what awaits the Yanks after the break? Three home series against the Red Sox, Orioles and Giants before three games in Houston.
Even just two more wins over this recent 11-game stretch would’ve made a significant difference as it would’ve put the Yankees four games over .500 for the first time all year.
“We really struggled with Colorado. We were 1-3 against them,” Joe Girardi said after Sunday’s rough 7-1 loss to the major-league worst Twins. “You win five out of seven against Minnesota, you can live with that. But the 1-3 against Colorado, we did not play well against them. We were somewhat fortunate to win one game.”
And fortunate they were to get a walk-off homer from Starlin Castro in Wednesday’s win over the Rockies in a game in which the Yanks blew a 4-0 lead and trailed 8-4 before narrowly pulling it out.
But they blew other chances the last two weeks, three of them with Nathan Eovaldi on the mound. Eovaldi took three losses during the 11-game stretch, giving up six runs in four innings in Colorado, four runs in 5 1/3 innings in Minnesota and five runs in six innings Sunday to the Twins.
Balls are flying out of the ballpark at an alarming rate lately when Eovaldi’s on the mound. After giving up four homers Sunday, three consecutive in the sixth inning, he’s allowed 10 homers in June, seven of which came in his last three games. He blew a 2-1 lead in the sixth inning in Minnesota in his last start, getting charged with three runs in the frame.
“If you looked at his outing at 5 2/3 (innings) you thought he was gonna have a really good day,” Girardi said of Eovaldi’s Sunday outing. “But it changed quickly.”
Competing for the AL East crown seems more like a pipe dream with each passing day. The Yanks are now 7.5 games behind the Orioles, who have won five in a row. They’re only 2.5 games back of Toronto for the second wild card spot but have five other teams within the same range.
All of that makes it less palatable that the Yanks couldn’t finish off a sweep against the Twins each of the last two weekends.
“We need to make up ground, and no matter who we’re playing we need to win the series,” Girardi said. “And you win a series here, but it’s frustrating because we had a situation where we won three in a row there (in Minnesota) and weren’t able to win the fourth. You win two in a row, you’re not able to win the third. The teams in front of us are playing well.”
July will be massive, but Mark Teixeira said the Yanks can’t think too far ahead.
“This game will eat you up,” he said. “So we want to try to win (Monday) night’s game and not worry about what’s gonna happen at the end of this month or the end of next month or later in the season. And if we do that and start playing better, we can make a run.”
There’s still time for the Yankees to distinguish themselves, but an inconsistent offense, question marks in the rotation and a tough schedule are signs that they won’t. And if they don’t, they can look back to this stretch against the Rockies and Twins and understand why.
