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The Yankees’ offense scored only six runs at Wrigley Field, but that’s all the Cubs scored, too, and fortunately the Yankees’ six runs were enough to win two of the three games. And GM Brian Cashman is on the board before the trade deadline, adding a nice bat in first baseman/DH Luis Garcia. Lets get to it.
When you look back across a difficult 10-game road trip that saw the Yankees play three teams who are almost certainly going to be in the postseason, it’s somewhat incredible that they found a way to go 6-4 against the Phillies, White Sox and Cubs.
They won the series over the Phillies and the Cubs and for as gruesome as those last two extra-inning travesties were on the South side of Chicago, they split that four-gamer with the White Sox. Yeah, no series losses, even though they scored a pathetic 32 runs.
They did not lose a series because their pitching, especially from the starting rotation, was lights out and overcame their complete lack of support. The Yankees allowed just 37 runs in the 10 games, but remember, 11 of those came in one game, the July 26 loss to Philadelphia when Will Warren got lit up.
“Phenomenal, really,” Aaron Boone said. “Obviously, the pitching’s been outstanding, but also in a lot of those games, doing some big things - whether it’s bases, defense, enough with the bat, whatever. It’s about winning games.”
The Yankees now lead MLB with a staff ERA of 3.28, they’re fourth with a WHIP of 1.118, and third in batting average against at .225. In their last six games (two starts by Gerrit Cole, one each by Warren, Cam Schlittler, Ryan Weathers, and Max Fried, the Yankees’ rotation combined to allow just three runs in 37 innings allowing 19 hits and 10 walks while striking out 38.
The Yankees acquired first baseman/DH Luis Garcia Jr. from the Nationals on Sunday, beginning what should be a very active 24 hours on the transaction wire.
You can’t do any better than that, but they’ve needed it because going back to the past 40 games, the Yankees have the lowest batting average and have scored the fewest runs in MLB while also striking out the most at 27.7% of their at bats.
“We know we’ve got to continue to move the needle offensively,” Boone said. “But another outstanding performance, starting with Gerrit today. We got enough done again offensively.”
On that note, let’s shift to the big news Sunday, arguably bigger than the tense, series-clinching 2-1 victory over the Cubs. The Yankees made a trade for
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