A few takeaways from the recent massacre in Boston, all of these coming from the pages of the NY Post:
They have swept this series because they have been better on offense, defense, starting, relieving, baserunning, trade-deadline acquisitions, attention to detail and even video review. At this point, perhaps the Yankees could win a congeniality consolation prize. The AL East is about gone from their grasp.
The cutter Eovaldi never refined or believed in as a Yankee has become a weapon. He walked one, Aaron Hicks on a full count to open the second, and erased that on the next pitch by inducing Gleyber Torres to hit into a double play. Eovaldi faced 25 other Yankees and never even got to a three-ball count.
The Yankees aren’t catching the Red Sox.
Boston didn’t clinch anything this weekend, but it is fair to state now, after watching the teams share a field for three days, that Boston doesn’t have an 8 ½-game lead due to some weird bounces and some odd luck. It’s not an accident. The Red Sox are the better team right now. There is no shame in that, but that doesn’t make it any less true.
Between now and the first week of October, the Yankees have to figure a few things out about themselves, and specifically about how they perform when they’re on the same field as the Red Sox. Which means there is very little of substance that will change between now and then: The only thing that matters is winning three out of five when it counts.
The AL East switch was probably off before the ninth inning of the finale. But the Yankees suffered the kind of loss at the end of the kind of lost weekend that makes holding onto the wild-card lead, and maybe any kind of wild-card spot, both the priority and more tenuous than at any point this season.
They have swept this series because they have been better on offense, defense, starting, relieving, baserunning, trade-deadline acquisitions, attention to detail and even video review. At this point, perhaps the Yankees could win a congeniality consolation prize. The AL East is about gone from their grasp.
The cutter Eovaldi never refined or believed in as a Yankee has become a weapon. He walked one, Aaron Hicks on a full count to open the second, and erased that on the next pitch by inducing Gleyber Torres to hit into a double play. Eovaldi faced 25 other Yankees and never even got to a three-ball count.
The Yankees aren’t catching the Red Sox.
Boston didn’t clinch anything this weekend, but it is fair to state now, after watching the teams share a field for three days, that Boston doesn’t have an 8 ½-game lead due to some weird bounces and some odd luck. It’s not an accident. The Red Sox are the better team right now. There is no shame in that, but that doesn’t make it any less true.
Between now and the first week of October, the Yankees have to figure a few things out about themselves, and specifically about how they perform when they’re on the same field as the Red Sox. Which means there is very little of substance that will change between now and then: The only thing that matters is winning three out of five when it counts.
The AL East switch was probably off before the ninth inning of the finale. But the Yankees suffered the kind of loss at the end of the kind of lost weekend that makes holding onto the wild-card lead, and maybe any kind of wild-card spot, both the priority and more tenuous than at any point this season.