Splitsville

 

The Yankees had two different double headers this week, and split both of them. One with the Angels, who also took a third game from them, and another with the Rangers, who they had no trouble with yesterday. In fairness, the 2023 iteration of this team would have done a lot worse in this stretch. 

That's honestly what I keep telling myself about this Yankees team, because they did hit a wall there in June, but where last year's team completely fell apart, this year's rebounded and stuck themselves right back into the race. The Yankees are working with more competent starting options, more lower-lineup guys capable of hero moments, a full season of peak Aaron Judge, and, most importantly, a full season of peak Juan Soto. Having someone like Soto has added an entirely new dimension to this team, and to see him have multi-homer games for us is truly wonderful. Yesterday he and Judge went back to back. I know there's a chance he goes somewhere else next year but I really adore his presence on this team. 

What's also made a difference is having a full season of peak Carlos Rodon. I'll say that I was worried when we signed Rodon, because he'll have an excellent season and then not show up for years after. But it had looked like he'd figured it out later than expected, as evidenced by his 2021 and 2022 seasons. The Rodon we got last year wasn't great, as he was coming back from an injury, rushed, and hit a 6.85 ERA in 14 starts. So that was pretty worrying. But this season, Rodon has been our most important workhorse, because he takes on a ton of innings, doesn't give up many runs and just keeps people at bay. Rodon is 13-7, and he's tied with 4 other pitchers [Sale, Lugo, Skubal and Grayson Rodriguez] for the lead in wins. Though his ERA is kinda high at 4.18, he has 146 strikeouts and a 1.2 WHIP. He's not perfect, but he's very efficient. 

Him, Cole and Cortes are kinda playing the same game right now, in that they're not...100% terrific, but they're doing the right things and coming off well in select stats. Cole's finally hit his groove, which is nice. Cortes is getting beat up a lot but still staying in for 5 or 6 just for dominance's sake. And Luis Gil, while clearly not May good, is still a very handy guy to have around. I'll even say that while Marcus Stroman has lost a lot of his bite, he can definitely keep runs in play, and was great against the Rangers yesterday. The pen, however, made it a lot closer than it needed to be.

The Yankees are doing enough correctly right now that a competitive fall seems possible, and I'd love to see this team actually accomplish some things prior squads walked away from. It just takes this same style of full-team readiness. It's not just the Judge and Soto show, it's gotta be the Yankees.

Coming Tonight: I suppose he thought he'd be the backup this year in Atlanta, but he's surprised a lot of other people as well.