So Much to Love About What the Yankees Are Doing Right Now

The Yankees are playing great baseball right now. Everything is top notch, from the starting rotation to the bullpen to the offense and even to Aaron Boone who hasn’t given me anything to gripe about in quite a while. On the heels of an easy sweep of the Twins, they broomed the brutal White Sox as well and are now 33-15 and two games up on the Orioles in the AL East. Lets get to it.

Giancarlo Stanton - otherwise known as the Mayor of Exit Velo-ville - hits the ball the way very few major leaguers ever have. When he connects, which as we know can sometimes be very difficult for him, he hits rockets all over the place, and the nerds can’t tweet out fast enough the exit velocities off the bat, and the distance of the home runs should the ball clear the wall.

I generally don’t care about any of that, and so it shouldn’t shock you that I really don’t care about the newest thing MLB rolled out last week - their ability to track bat speeds. It wasn’t enough to measure exit velo and distance, now we have to know how fast guys can swing.

Here’s an amazing revelation they came up with: No one swings faster than Stanton, either. Shocking that someone who hits the ball the hardest would also swing the fastest. Sometimes I just roll my eyes at this stuff.

Far more important to me than all these Statcast metrics is production. That’s what matters, and that’s always been the issue with Stanton. When he’s hot, he can be great, but his hot streaks are usually swallowed up by weeks, sometimes months, where he’s basically useless.

Right now, Stanton is hot. But what I like about this hot stretch is that since the first week of the season when he was brutal - he started 3-for-24 with one homer and 13 strikeouts - he’s actually putting together a nice 2024.

“He looks like Big G," Aaron Judge said. “I know he’s been battling injuries the past couple of seasons, but I think he’s finally feeling healthy and feeling like himself.”

Stanton went 0-for-4 Sunday which ended a six-game hitting streak as the Yankees completed a sweep of the White Sox, but in his last seven games Stanton is 11-for-28 (.393) with a .786 slugging percentage and his season OPS is now .817. So far in May, he’s slashing .286/.310/.607 for a .917 OPS.

“I've sensed he’s been in the fight all year with his at-bats,” Aaron Boone said. “And when that’s the case, and he’s got his balance, he’s very dangerous, obviously.”

Stanton is still striking out too much - 32.5% of the time which is actually worse than last year’s 20.9%. But even with that, his results and production have been much better, especially with runners in scoring position. He’s batting .361 in those situations after last year’s .200 nightmare and his .229 with RISP in 2022.

“Last year is the past,” Stanton said. “You just live for now and try to help us win every night.”

That approach has worked well this year for him, and now all we can do is hope it continues, along with good health which is always a concern with Stanton.

May 17: Yankees 4, White Sox 2

The Lead: The rotation keeps rolling

What a tremendous turn through the rotation the Yankees completed Friday night as Nestor Cortes put up seven fairly stress-free innings.

Go back to Luis Gil’s start against the Rays last Sunday when he pitched six scoreless innings. Next came Carlos Rodon with one run in six, Marcus Stroman with six scoreless, Clarke Schmidt with eight shutout innings, and then Cortes’ outing. Add that up and it’s five straight wins with two runs allowed (just one earned) in 33 innings from the starters. And thus thru Friday night, Yankees starters had a 3.03 ERA, third-best in MLB.

“Their talent is shining through,” Boone said. “So I’m not surprised, but I’m happy to see it.”

If only Nestor could pitch only at Yankee Stadium. He’s now 2-1 with a 1.27 ERA and .168 batting average against in five starts, but on the road in five starts he’s 0-3 with a 6.75 ERA and .293 average against. That’s a pretty stark difference. “Good question,” Cortes said when he was asked about it. “I want to know the answer to that, too. I prepare the same. I try to do everything as I do here at home. It just hasn’t clicked yet (on the road). Hopefully we can turn that around.”

Game notes and observations:

➤ Cortes got whacked around pretty good by the Rays his last time out, and he started off a little shaky when he allowed two singles in the first inning to the worst offensive team in MLB. But he escaped that by retiring the last two batters including Andrew Benintendi on a fly ball to center. And then in the third he gave up his only run, and it was unearned when Oswaldo Cabrera threw one away, though I thought Anthony Rizzo should have caught it. If there was an error, it was Rizzo’s. Anyway, that batter, Zach Remillard wound up at second, later stole third and he scored on Andrew Vaughn’s single.

➤ The only other jam came in the fifth when the first two men reached, but Vaughn popped out, Cortes picked off Remillard at second on a beautifully-executed play, and Eloy Jimenez grounded out.

➤ In the eighth, we were treated to another Ian Hamilton shit show. He faced four batters and here’s how that went: Double, RBI single, strikeout, double. Here, Caleb Ferguson protected the two-run lead by striking out Benintendi and getting Corey Julks on a liner to right. Nice job by the lefty who needed that. In the ninth, Clay Holmes issued a two-out walk and had to face Tommy Pham, who already had three hits, as the potential tying run, but he struck him out to end the game.

➤ Judge kept raking. He smashed a homer into the second deck in left in the first and the White Sox said enough is enough and they walked him in his other three at bats. One of the walks started the fifth, he advanced on a passed ball and scored on Alex Verdugo’s double. Verdugo then scored on Stanton’s double. The only other run came on a Stanton bomb to left in the sixth. The Yankees are now 35-4 all-time when Judge and Stanton homer in the same game.

➤ DJ LeMahieu began his next attempt at a rehab assignment at Double-A Somerset, played three innings and went 1-for-2, though the hit was an infield dribbler.

May 18: Yankees 6, White Sox 1

The Lead: Luis Gil was legendary

Look, I know the White Sox are the worst offensive team in MLB, but these guys are still major league hitters, so to look as silly as they did against Gil Saturday was something to behold. The kid was absolutely dominant as he struck out 14 men in six innings including one stretch of seven in a row.

“As good as his fastball has been all season, today felt like maybe his best one, just pouring it in there with presence of secondary stuff,” Boone said.

This is the third time this season in MLB a pitcher has struck out 14 - Tyler Glasnow of the Dodgers on April 9 at Minnesota and the Tigers’ Jack Flaherty on April 30 vs. St. Louis. Gil is also just the 11th Yankee to record at least 14 strikeouts in a game, Gerrit Cole being the last to do it on Sept. 7, 2022.

And the 14 strikeouts are the most ever for a rookie Yankees pitcher, breaking the mark of 13 set by Orlando Hernandez in 1998. And how about this: El Duque was in attendance at the ballpark and Gil was able to meet him. El Duque was presented the “Pride of the Yankees” award at the club’s annual Welcome Home Dinner on Sunday, and he threw out the first pitch in this game.

Not quite Don Larsen being at the old stadium when David Cone threw his perfect game in 1999, but still pretty cool for Gil. Gil said he was thrilled to meet El Duque, but the other pitcher he mentioned Saturday was Cole because while Cole is working his way back, he has taken Gil under his wing.

“I have a teacher, Gerrit Cole, who’s teaching me how to pitch, how to handle situations and how to execute,” Gil said. “And that’s what we’re doing, what he teaches me, and we’re applying it in the game.”

So to update what I wrote above regarding the rotation, this makes just two earned runs over the last six games and 39 innings for an ERA of 0.46.

“He was throwing three pitches for strikes, using his fastball really well,” said White Sox second baseman Nicky Lopez who struck out twice. “But then that changeup to righties and lefties, had that slider working and he was pounding the zone. He settled in and sometimes you are on the bad end of it. He had everything working.”

Game notes and observations:

➤ Gil didn’t get off to a great start. The first two batters singled and then with two outs, Benintendi hit an excuse-me check swing double to left that scored a run. Gil then issued a walk to load the bases before a strikeout ended his 29-pitch inning and it sure seemed like he was in for a short day. Instead, he threw only 69 pitches over the next five innings, during which he allowed no runs on two hits, no walks, and 12 strikeouts. What a performance.

➤ Nick Burdi threw two innings of one-hit ball and Dennis Santana had a six-pitch ninth to wrap it up. The Yankees pitching has been otherworldly over the past week.

➤ Juan Soto came into the game in a 4-for-31 (.129) slump over his previous eight games, but then he destroyed baseballs all day. He hit a solo homer in the second, an RBI single in the second, a solo homer in the fifth, and after he walked in the sixth he singled in the eighth to complete a perfect day.

➤ The other runs came when Verdugo, aboard via fielders’ choice, scored from first on Stanton’s double to right in the first, and red-hot Jose Trevino and Stanton hit solo homers in the second and third, respectively. Just another easy, easy victory which stretched the winning streak to six.

May 19: Yankees 7, White Sox 2

The Lead: How sweep it is, again

For the fourth time this season the Yankees finished off a sweep and like the one earlier in the week against the Twins, it was ridiculously easy.

The Yankees opened the season with a four-game sweep of the Astros and they swept the Tigers May 2-4 before these last two. And while the AL Central has been surprisingly competitive this season, the Yankees have played the Guardians, Tigers, Twins and White Sox and they are a combined 11-1. They haven’t yet seen the Royals, who at 29-19 might be the best team in the division.

Carlos Rodon pitched against his original team, the White Sox, for the first time in his career and he went six innings and gave up two runs on four hits and two walks with six strikeouts. It was yet another quality start for the Yankees’ rotation, the seventh in a row.

Rodon was a third-round pick of the White Sox in 2014 and spent his first seven big league seasons on the South side. “Going up against your former club is a big deal,” Rodón said. “I definitely wanted to beat them.”

Rodon has really come back well from his disastrous 2023 season, and he said Sunday that comfortability is playing a role. “I sit down in the dugout now and look around, and I feel pretty comfortable sitting in this stadium,” Rodón said. “I thought about that the first month here in April. I’m looking around and I’m like, ‘This doesn’t feel overwhelming anymore. This feels like home.’”

Game notes and observations:

➤ Chicago actually grabbed a 2-0 lead in the second when Corey Julks homered, then Korey Lee walked and scored on Remillard’s triple. But with one out, Remillard committed a ridiculous gaffe as Trevino picked him off after he lazily retreated back to the bag after a pitch and Jon Berti tagged him out to end the inning. The White Sox were never heard from again.

➤ The bottom of the Yankees’ order did the bulk of the damage in this one. Right after the pickoff play, Rizzo singled, Torres doubled, and Trevino drove them both home with a tying single. Then in the fourth, Rizzo and Torres singled and they trotted home on Berti’s first home run as a Yankee, a game-changing three-run shot to right in the fourth. “We take a lot of pride in being the bottom of the lineup,” Trevino said. “Just try to have good at-bats for the big boys. Get on base and let those guys do their job.”

➤ The “big boys” didn’t their help to produce the last two runs in the fifth to make it 7-2 as Soto walked and Judge hit a two-run homer to right, the ultimate porch job as it went just 339 feet and would not have been a homer in any other park.

➤ Michael Tonkin, whose days are probably numbered because Tommy Kahnle is due back perhaps as early as Monday, pitched 2.1 innings but he needed help from Holmes who got the last two outs on four pitches in the ninth to end it.

➤ Speaking of Kahnle, he pitched in five games between Single-A Tampa and Double-A Somerset on his two-week rehab and he was perfect, 15 up, 15 down with 11 strikeouts. That’s impressive, regardless of the competition. If he can come close to that when he rejoins the bullpen this week, that’ll be a huge boost and it might mean we no longer have to walk the tightrope with Ian Hamilton in high leverage spots.

➤ In that same game Sunday for Somerset, LeMahieu batted four times and reached base every time - three walks and a well-struck RBI single. He won’t be back this week, but he’s making progress.

Seattle comes into New York for four games starting Monday, and the AL West leaders (25-22) will certainly give the Yankees offense a big test. This has all the makings of a low-scoring series because both of these pitching staffs have been outstanding to start the season.

The Yankees lead MLB with a staff ERA of 2.81, having just moved ahead of the Red Sox over the weekend. The Mariners ran up against the Orioles and lost two of three while giving up 18 runs so their team ERA slipped a bit to 3.50, but that’s still 10th-best.

Offensively, the Mariners have struggled as they’re hitting .228 (25th in MLB) while their OPS is 21st at .676. Catcher Cal Raleigh has been their best hitter as he leads the team in homers (10), RBI (25), and OPS (.764). Outfielder Julio Rodriguez is their big-money star, but he has yet to ignite as he’s slashing .269/.318/.330 and has just two homers and 14 RBI.

Seattle won’t be throwing George Kirby, arguably their best starter, because he pitched Sunday, but they still have four excellent guys lined up for the Yankees.

The pitching matchups are as follows: Monday at 7:05 on YES it’s Marcus Stroman (3.33 ERA) against Logan Gilbert (3.07); Tuesday at 7:05 on YES it’s Clarke Schmidt (2.49) against Bryan Woo (0.93); Wednesday at 7:05 on Amazon Prime it’s Nestor Cortes (3.56) against Bryce Miller (3.08); and Thursday at 12:35 on YES it’s Luis Gil (2.39) against Luis Castillo (3.28).