Hanging Tough

Two weeks ago I asked how the Yankees would respond to a stretch of 13 games against inferior competition. The results are in and they were good, with a final ledger of 9 wins and 4 losses. And it was done despite the fact that the lineup on most days looks like one for a spring training road game. (You could argue the Yankees got lucky playing five games in NL parks because they are so thin in the lineup that not having to field a DH was an advantage).

How did they do it? Timely hitting and some good starting pitching. Raise your hand if you thought the Yankees would have the seventh-best starter’s ERA a month into the season…you’re lying. That has helped to compensate for a bad bullpen so far (20th in era) Chad Green has been banished to Scranton to figure things out and Adam Ottavino is struggling to adjust to his surroundings with his ERA deceptively low for a guy who has walked 11 hitters in 15 innings.

But the bullpen should sort itself out, and the Yankees should still have enough firepower to make it work. It’s the lineup than is the problem that the Yankees are going to have to hope heals quickly. Andujar sounds like he will be back this weekend. LeMahieu should be as well. (That was a smart signing) Stanton and Hicks could be back soon too. They still won’t have Judge or Didi for awhile, but they would be able to run out s competitive lineup, something that they really aren’t doing when the bottom of the lineup consists of Tauchman, Urshela, Wade, Maybin, and Estrada.

The next ten games will be tough. They face two first place teams and a team almost in first. Considering the state of the club, 5-5 wouldn’t be terrible, they just need to avoid a stretch must worse than that.