Sunday, April 15, 2018

Will Mother Nature Sweep the Yankees Today?...


Detroit’s “All Wet”…

It sounds as though it will be a soggy Saturday and, unfortunately, Sunday for the Yankees. Rain is forecasted the entire day with no potential breaks in the weather. The first game of the double-header planned for today has already been postponed but it will most likely be two games lost to Mother Nature.  

Meanwhile, the Boston Red Sox keep winning. The Sox lead the AL East by three games over the Toronto Blue Jays after their destruction of the Baltimore Orioles yesterday, 10-3. The Yankees are five games back. For the Red Sox, it is the best start (12-2) in franchise history. They are averaging 6.14 runs per game with team ERA of 3.07. By comparison, the Yankees are scoring an average of 5.5 runs per game with team ERA of 4.78. Pitching, pitching, pitching.

With the postponement of at least one of today’s games, the Yankees will be forced to give up an off-day for the makeup. Depending upon the status of tonight’s schedule game, the Yankees will play at least nine and possibly eighteen innings of work on a day that should have been a day of rest. Mother Nature is not kind. Today’s games in Cleveland, OH and Minneapolis, MN have already been postponed.  

Credit: The late great Charles Schulz
Here are the common days off for the Yankees and Tigers. I have not analyzed the impact on the Tigers, but some of these would be very difficult for the Yankees. Best case would be a flight path near Detroit, however, none are ideal. It’s a bad situation all around for the Yankees.
  • Thursday, May 24th: After finishing road game in Arlington, TX on the way home.
  • Monday, June 4th: Traveling between Baltimore, MD and Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
  • Monday, June 11th: Between games in New York at Citi Field and Yankee Stadium.
  • Monday, June 18th: Between two home series at Yankee Stadium.
  • Monday, July 30th: Between two home series at Yankee Stadium.
  • Monday, August 20th: After finishing home stand, en route to Miami, FL.
  • Thursday, September 6th: Between road games in Oakland, CA and Seattle, WA.
  • Thursday, September 13th: After finishing another road game in Minneapolis on way home.
I guess it could be worse. The Yankees could be playing like the Los Angeles Dodgers, who were pre-season World Series favorites. The Arizona Diamondbacks, with or without Brandon Drury, have the Dodgers’ number. The D-Back crushed the Dodgers yesterday, 9-1, to drop the Dodger Blue to 4-9 and six and a half games behind in the NL West standings. Arizona’s victory was their eleventh straight regular season win over the Dodgers. The D-Backs still feel the sting of the NLDS sweep by Los Angeles last October, but in the regular season, they own the Dodgers.

Photo Credit: Associated Press (Jae C Hong)
The San Diego Padres added to their collection of former Yankees yesterday. Their latest addition was former Yankees reliever Tyler Webb, claimed off waivers from the Milwaukee Brewers. The Yankees traded Webb to Milwaukee last year for first baseman Garrett Cooper (who has since been dealt to the Miami Marlins and is currently on the disabled list). I always liked Webb, a lefty, and I hope that he finds success in San Diego with Chase Headley, Bryan Mitchell and Jose Pirela.  

Nice job by the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders yesterday. They survived a four-run deficit to the Charlotte Knights (White Sox affiliate) and one of the best pitching prospects in baseball, Michael Kopech. In the seventh inning, after Kopech had departed with the Knights leading 5-1, the RailRiders struck for six runs on their way to the 10-5 victory. The RailRiders are 6-3 and share the International League North division lead with the Syracuse Chiefs (Nationals). I don’t want to take away anything from the other RailRiders who keyed the win (newly acquired L.J. Mazzilli had a bases-clearing double) but we’re clearly under a Gleyber Torres Watch right now. Torres was 2-for-5, with a run-scoring double during the six-run seventh inning. He had two doubles after Kopech had left the game and three RBI’s, and scored once. Torres is 14-for-36 with .389/.410/.583 batting line and .994 OPS in nine games. The dude’s on fire and is ready to take his game to the Bronx. We’ll see later this week if the Yankees make the move to bring the future star to Yankee Stadium or continue to wait a few more weeks. I think most Yankee fans are ready to see Gleyber in the Yankees lineup next Thursday.

Photo Credit: MiLB.com (Ken Inness)
Although there’s rain in New York today and tomorrow, Tuesday night looks good for Giancarlo Stanton’s reunion at Yankee Stadium with his former Miami Marlins teammates. 

One of these days we’ll see Yankees baseball again. I am not optimistic about tonight’s game but we’ll see.  

Go Yankees!

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