It’s the last day of August and the Yankees and Rays have been tied for first place in the AL East for a record eight straight days now! Exciting? Yes! But something Yankees fans could probably do to live without? For sure.
Not to take anything away from the Rays, who are playing great baseball, but if this is the Yankees team that’s going to be donning the pinstripes one month from now, they may not be division champions. 15-13 isn’t a bad record for September when you’re resting your best players and preparing for a championship run, but when you’re in the middle of a penant race, and your division rival goes 17-11 in that same month, it’s not acceptable for August!
Of their 13 losses, five of them came in games where the starting pitcher had allowed four runs by the 4th inning. After going 3-1 in July with a 2.00 ERA, A.J. Burnett went 0-4 in August with a 7.80 ERA. In three of Burnetts’ five starts he gave up at least six earned runs. This is the Yankees’ number two pitcher! With Andy Pettitte recovering from an injury, Burnett’s more important than just a number two pitcher and has left Joe Girardi with very little to be confident in.
Aside from the stress derived from Burnett, Yankees Universe has to be sick of Javier Vazquez and his inconsistencies as well. After going 3-0 with a 3.54 ERA in July, Vazquez stunk it up and lost his spot in the rotation going 1-2 with a 5.96 ERA in August. Vazquez pitched 4 and 2/3 innings in relief against Oakland last night and recorded a win, but is one outing enough to feel better about the Yankees second most inconsistent pitcher after the mediocrity he's returned to in New York this season?
It’s not quite a crisis for the Yanks yet, but they cannot enter the playoffs with CC Sabathia being the only pitcher they can trust to win them a big game. Phil Hughes and Dustin Moseley both had winning records in August but neither one of them have significant playoff experience. Ivan Nova has looked impressive in two starts, but these are the first two starts of his career! Then there's Pettite, the 38-year old is having the best season he's had since he pitched in the National League, can he return from his groin injury and be as lights out as he was before he went down? All I know is the Yankees can’t depend on a rookie and a veteran coming off of an injury to get them through the playoffs.
Not to say that the guys that are getting wins for the Yankees can't do it in the playoffs, but they aren’t the team that won in the playoffs last season, and they have never been in a big situation like they currently are. The odds most likely aren’t in the favor of a Sabathia, Nova, Moseley rotation come October. The Bats have been swinging, and there’s still an A-Bomb to return to the lineup, but as the Yankees proved all last decade, the bats don’t win in October.
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