The Yankees aren’t perfect. Even on a day when they actually won at home and against a left-hander – areas of concern this year – they nearly blew two different five-run leads when their bullpen literally led the club to the brink of an unacceptable loss.
So you know what this imperfection does to the Yankees? Just like any other club that could win it all in 2024. There are no great teams. The Dodgers, the Phillies, the Orioles, every expected superpower has – or in the case of the Phillies – is going through phases that are typical of the White Sox.
No team is on pace to win 100 games. The best record is 95 wins. Do you know who that is? The Yankees and Orioles. Yes, despite all of these shortcomings, the Yanks are tied with Baltimore at the top of the AL East and have the best record in the major leagues.
So it’s all about fixing the imperfections. That means continuing to work with Marcus Stroman, who was one run better over five innings, leading to an 8-7 win over the Rangers. And finding a bullpen formula that doesn’t allow so many walks. And getting key players like Clarke Schmidt and Jose Trevino fit again.
But it’s looking more and more like the Yankees are solving a problem that’s existed all season — that their offense was a two-man show. Don’t get me wrong — the two remain phenomenal (Juan Soto) and whatever comes after that is phenomenal to describe Aaron Judge, who basically stopped making outs in May. Those two combined to hit three home runs on Sunday — two by Soto, allowing him to reach 30 (home runs in a season and home runs against any team in the major leagues) and one by Judge, who hit 299 in his 952nd game (Ralph Kiner is the fastest to 300 with 1,087 games).
But suddenly the band has expanded. The Yankees have had at least eight hits in 15 consecutive games – the longest they’ve managed since 1997 – and in doing so have raised their team batting average by six points. The contributions were varied. But nothing was more important than the momentum the Yankees gained just behind Soto and especially Judge, with the emergence of Austin Wells and the return of Giancarlo Stanton.
Wells against right-handers and Stanton against left-handers are the cleanup duo reversing one of the worst trends of this Yankees season. Through July 19, or 99 games, no Yankee has done much to protect No. 99 (Judge). The Yankees’ cleanup hitters were last in the major leagues in batting average (.199), on-base percentage (.260) and OPS (.578).
Wells took over that slot on July 20, and in the 20 games since then—Stanton returned from the IL on July 29—the Yankees’ cleanup hitters have been among the best in the major leagues in batting average (.350), on-base percentage (.400), and OPS (.966).
Wells and Stanton combined for 10 RBIs from the cleanup spot in three games against the Rangers — or four fewer than the Yankees’ No. 4 hitters in June.
Stanton had four great turns behind Judge on Sunday, with a sacrifice fly, a walk, a three-run homer and a 101.4-mph lineout. And the homer was the deciding blow, not only because it gave the Yankees a 5-0 lead in the fifth inning, but because it followed an intentional walk by Judge.
In the first 111 games, Judge was intentionally forced to walk seven times. In the last eight games, this happened six times. In the first five of those cases, the strategy paid off.
“You have to want that opportunity and be able to take it, otherwise it will keep happening,” Stanton said.
Stanton has long been the type of dangerous hitter who was intentionally forced into walks – 86 times in his career, including 24 in 2014, an MLB record. But injuries have left him more vulnerable, and Judge is Judge. He was already 2 for 2 when the Rangers intentionally walked him when DJ LeMahieu was on third base with two outs in the fifth inning and the Yanks led 2-0. Left-handed starter Andrew Heaney was replaced by Jose Leclerc, last year’s championship closer who held right-handers to a .186 average. The right-hander went 0-2 against Stanton, then Stanton took two balls before still doing what he does better than anyone except maybe Judge – hit a ball as hard as no one else. In a game where 16 balls were hit at over 100 miles per hour, nothing came close to the 114.9 miles per hour that Stanton threw.
“It’s always a little nicer,” Judge said, when someone hits a home run after an intentional walk.
The reality is that despite the hits from Wells and Stanton, Judge will only add to his MLB-leading 98 walks and 13 intentionals, as he also has MLB-best 42 home runs and 106 RBIs. And after a 3-for-3 performance, he passed Cleveland’s Steven Kwan (.325) and is now behind only Kansas City’s Bobby Witt (.347) with a .328 batting average as he pursues the Triple Crown.
To overcome their shortcomings, the Yankees must disrupt the strategy on a regular basis. That’s what they did on Sunday to end their longest home game streak of the season at 5-4 against three losing teams. Now they play three against the historically bad White Sox to start a streak of 12 of 15 more games against losing teams.
This is the moment for even the imperfect Yankees to clean up and score a run – or in this case, a fourth – that will build on the best record in the major leagues.
