Jane Heller

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author

Curses, Verlander Again


I didn’t have high hopes for a four-game sweep of the Astros, despite the roll the Yankees have been on. Not with Verlander on the mound yesterday. Sadly, I was right. He was solid and Happ was not. (What is it with Happ anyway? He can be very good and then awful; consistency has not been his hallmark.)

But I’ve been trying not to dwell on the loss and look ahead to facing the Blue Jays, Despite their lowly place in the standings, they’ve always been a tough division rival, and the Yanks must beat them before heading to the UK for what I consider a ridiculous series against the Red Sox. I mean, I get that MLB wants to expand the audience for the sport. But do the British people really care about baseball? I was fine when teams played in Japan, Puerto Rico and Mexico. Those countries have a baseball legacy and major league teams have players from those countries. But how many Brits are in the majors right now? Who needs the Yanks to come back with jet leg and have to plunge right back into the pennant race?

But I digress. As for the here and now, I’m disappointed that Maybin has joined the injured list. He made a real contribution to the team. And I’m overjoyed that Mo hit an inside-the-parker during the Old Timer’s game. How cool was that!

The Big Sweep

Gosh, it’s nice to be able to use the broom image again. And it’s particularly nice to use it against the Rays, with whom we’ve been dueling for first place. There’s no doubt about who’s in first now: the Yankees are — by 3 1/2 games. Not a huge lead, but the best one yet.

Clearly, the Yanks have the Rays’ number at the Stadium. They absolutely dismantled the Rays during the sweep. They’ve been less successful at the Trop, but we’ll see how that goes next month when they come back to town. Also clearly, Blake Snell, the Rays’s ace, did not have a good day, while CC won his 250th game – quite a milestone.

Tanaka had a complete game. Haap was great. Which goes to show that when you have good starting pitching, good things come of it.

On the offensive side, what can I say about yesterday’s Janer, in particular? TWELVE runs. Torres’s first grand slam. Sanchez’s show of power. And LeMahieu continues to impress. I really don’t want to lose either him or Maybin. And by the way, the Yankees’ hitting coaches must be really good this year, because Maybin, for one, was talking about how he got to the Yankees batting, like, .120 and with a few tweaks he’s on a roll.

Now the Yankees take on the Astros, which should be a great test of how the team is gelling. Again, pitching will be key, and Boone hasn’t announced his starter. (Please don’t let it be Cessa.)

 

A Reverse Sweep – UGH

I don’t know which aspect of the Yankees’ failure at Minute Maid Park offends me more: Paxton’s ineffectiveness (with Seattle he knew how to pitch against the Astros, so how come he didn’t have his “good stuff” last night?), Kahnle’s ineffectiveness (has he ever been good?), Gleybar’s error (there have been way too much errors by this team) or the fact that the offense mounted a comeback that fell short.

In any case, the series was an abysmal failure. I would be less bummed if it were simply about missing our injured players. But Paxton was supposed to be a mainstay of our starting rotation and he’s been disappointing so far. I hope he’s not yet another talented guy who can’t pitch in pinstripes.

Also, I don’t know why Boone keeps Gardner batting first in the lineup. Does he really get on base that often? Or would Gleybar be a better choice?

Happ will be on the mound tonight against the White Sox. Boone said the Yankees are “turning a corner” and that they need to “tighten things up.” We’ll see. My mantra is: “It’s still early. It’s still early. It’s still early.”

They Weren’t Celebrating in Houston This Time

What a great road trip the Yankees had. First they took on the Angels – or, should I say, took down the Angels – and then came the Astros. I admit, I had my doubts about how they would do against the World Champs who have managed to beat them consistently, but wow. How about the way they kept coming back from the jaws of defeat to notch those wins?

Severino was a star. Tanaka, CC pitched well. German filled in admirably for the ailing Montgomery. (I do think Cashman will need to go out and get a seasoned arm; there’s nobody outstanding in Scranton to save the day.) Gleybar Torres has made his presence felt. Sanchez’s home run power can’t be denied (didn’t love the passed ball yesterday though). Stanton awakened. It’s all good, and the Yankees are now a very good team, give or take a few weak spots. Oh, I forgot to mention that Chapman got save after save, firing fastballs at full velocity.

So bring on Cleveland. It’s supposed to rain tonight, but hopefully the game will be played. Go Yanks.

The Party’s Over

But it was a lot of fun while it lasted.

Tell the truth. Did you ever think the 2017 Yankees would make it all the way to Game 7 of the ALCS? I didn’t. Not until the first win of the Cleveland series. Then I believed, truly I did, that this team might just be capable of anything, even winning the World Series. They were that resilient.

But in the end, they didn’t have that little extra special mix of players. The starting pitching was brilliant until it was not. The relievers were almost without exception (poor Betances) terrific. The defense was spotty; too many errors. And the offense was both tremendous and nonexistent. Clearly, this was a team that thrived at Yankee Stadium and looked helpless in Houston.

We have a fantastic core of young players who, with more seasoning, could go on to be a force in future postseasons. But if I were Cashman, I would think about acquiring a top Verlander-type starter, maybe Yu Darvish, especially since we don’t know if Tanaka and CC will opt out. I would find replacements/new homes for Ellsbury, Castro and Headley. I would try to hold onto to Todd Frazier. I would send Gary Sanchez to catcher bootcamp and teach him how to hang onto the ball behind the plate. And I would make every single player learn how to hit a damn curveball.

Will I miss hearing Joe Buck go on and on about Altuve? No. Ugh.

But oh what was a wonderful season it turned out to be – a season of games that were so much fun to watch. This Yankees team gave us so much pleasure, along with the occasional frustration, and I applaud them for achieving far more than anyone expected, including me. I’m sad it’s all over, and I’ll throw my support to the Dodgers the rest of the way, but we got October baseball. Can’t ask for more than that.

 

A Bummer Road Trip

The Astros are a great team, so I didn’t expect the Yankees to storm into Houston and sweep them. My spirits were buoyed though when we won Game 1 of the series. And then it all went to hell. Games 2 and 3 were heartbreakers in their own way, with Saturday featuring a meltdown of Betances and Chapman (along with the inspiring debut of Clint Frazier) and Sunday showcasing how fleeting good offense can be. (Sunday’s finale also was notable for another Sanchez error. I think Girardi is getting a bit impatient with Gary’s defense.)

In Chicago, the situation wasn’t much better against a team we really should have trounced.

So what now? The Yanks are home for the holiday with lots of All-Star vote getters, but can they climb back over the Red Sox, who finally seem to have caught fire? Another slide, another slump, whatever you want to call it, will have them sinking in the standings at the A-S break, and I’d much rather see them end the first half on a high note. What I keep asking myself, even given all the injuries, is which team is this? The one that got off to such a torrid start after an equally torrid spring training? Or the one that’s coming back to earth, having overachieved and made us believe?????

We’ll soon find out. They’re still fun to watch, because they don’t give up. They fight to win ballgames, and I like their spirit.

Derek Jeter and Everyone Else

AP Photo/Kathy Willens

The series against Houston wasn’t memorable. The Yankees lost all but one game. Tanaka’s start last night was disastrous, and Chapman is off to the DL. Having had a rotator cuff tear with tendinitis in my shoulder (both shoulders, actually), I don’t expect to see our closer any time soon. Which leaves those duties to Betances. Is he up to the challenge that Randy Levine so publicly declared he wasn’t up to? Will Levine’s words and the bad blood from arbitration get inside Betances’ head? I really hope not. (Andrew Miller, please come back. All is forgiven.)

Early in the weekend, the Yankees offense seemed to have petered out against the Astros’ top-notch pitchers, and while they came alive yesterday, in the lone victory of the doubleheader and in the nightcap in a losing effort, they were facing a better team. Houston is the real deal. It’s now up to the Yanks to bounce back. (A minor gripe: must the players wear pink on Mother’s Day? It’s annoying.)

But baseball games were beside the point. This was Jeter weekend and last night was Jeter Night. All his friends and family members came out to honor Jeet for the ceremony to retire his number and add his plaque to the other greats in Monument Park, even his grandmother. All the Steinbrenners were there too (except Hank; where oh where is Hank these days?). It’s always fun to see Mo, Andy and the gang, and A-Rod knew enough to stay in Miami. Hannah Jeter’s water looked like it was about to break, but she hung in there, managing to look beautiful in full pregnancy mode.

Do the Yankees know how to do ceremonies? You bet they do. They always manage to make them wonderfully, over-the-top cheesy. I’m talking about wheeling Jeter in from centerfield as if the golf cart were a chariot, the presentation of gifts from the Steinbrenners (does he really need another diamond ring?), the sounds of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” wafting through the Stadium. Jeter’s speech felt like the only authentic, non-cheesy part of the proceedings. It was off-the-cuff, sincere, plain-spoken, pure Jeter. He was grateful, he was humble, he was on point: he’d always wanted to be a Yankee and he’d loved every minute of his career.

And now he’s moved on, trying to buy the Marlins. For the moment, it looks like MLB prefers the investment group led by Mitt Romney’s son – a head-scratcher. Apparently, Bob Manfred wants his money up front and the Romney group can provide. But I’m sure the Bush-Jeter group can scrounge up enough dough if given a chance. And wouldn’t you want the sport’s greatest ambassador to be an owner, MLB? I would and I do. Sure, I’d rather Jeter buy the Yankees, but the Marlins are for sale. If Jeter has shown us anything, it’s that we should never count him out.

It Was Fun While It Lasted

Getty Images

Not much to say except the Yankees’ winning streak was snapped last night against the Reds. I fully expected our resilient hitters to come back from the hole CC dug for them (it wasn’t that insurmountable), but maybe their fatigue caught up with them. I do wonder about CC though. Were his last couple of starts an indication that he’s dealing with his own fatigue or will he make adjustments?

Anyway, on to the series at the Stadium against the Astros. Get a good night’s sleep, Yankees. We need you rested and ready to start a new winning streak.

 

Darlin’ Starlin!

Photo: Jim McIsaac/Getty
Photo: Jim McIsaac/Getty

If I was excited about our new Yankee before, I’m super excited about him after the first two games of the 2016 season. Wow. What a way to make friends in New York. In last night’s Janer, the Yanks beat the Astros 16-6 and Castro was a good reason. Pineda clearly has work to do on his control (or maybe it was the cold weather), but there was nothing wrong with the bats. Even old warhorse Carlos Beltran was a beast at the plate.

It wasn’t the most tidy of games, but beating a contender for the pennant and beyond is always great. I was a happy fan last night.

Opening Day Chill

icicles gif

I tip my cap to those who braved the cold temps to be at the game today. Brrr. Not my weather. Not the Yankees’ weather either, judging by the eighth inning when things went awry. Oh, Betances. His throw set the loss in motion, which was a shame since the big bad Astros starter, Dallas Keuchel, was no longer a factor in the game and not as invincible as he’s been in past match-ups.

I love that both Starlin and Didi made important contributions though. And Tanaka, who’d been shaky in Tampa, pitched better than I expected.

So the Astros won the opener. No biggie. The cool thing about the start of the season is that, from now on, there’s always tomorrow.

 

An Embarrassing Way to Gain Home-Field Advantage

head shame

The Yankees blew the weekend series in Baltimore – just sucked, let’s face it – and yet, thanks to the loss by the Astros, managed to win the opportunity to open the playoffs at the Stadium on Tuesday night. They were awful from top to bottom, and I have no idea how they’ll be able to get it together enough to beat the Astros, whose starting pitcher has virtually shut the Yanks down all season long. Tanaka will have to be perfect and the offense will have to emerge from its collective slumber. Stranger things have happened and as John Sterling says, “You can’t predict baseball,” but I’m not wildly optimistic. Hopeful, but not counting on it.

We’ll all need our lucky charms on Tuesday. I’ll be having lucky turkey burgers for dinner and wearing my lucky Mo T-shirt. Other than that, I’ll be pacing and pretending I’m not as nervous as I really am and watching between the fingers over my eyes……unless, of course, the Yankees jump out to an early lead – like a 10-0 type of lead – and I can relax.

If only that would happen. Sigh. Let’s go Yankees.

The Yanks Need to Get Hot in Hot-Lanta

Atlanta-map

Boy, am I glad to see the Yankees get out of Dodge the Bronx. Yes, they won one of the three games against the Astros – by a hair – but the offense went back into a slumber and the pitching, with the exception of Evo, never woke up. Pineda and Nova didn’t have it, which would be worrisome enough but now with CC out indefinitely it’s extra worrisome. Capuano was DFA-ed for the 100th time and Adam Warren hasn’t been the same since he was shuttled back and forth between the starting rotation and the bullpen. That leaves the kid with the fractured nose. I hate to keep saying it, but it would have been nice to have acquired a veteran arm (a good one).

What to make of the slumping offense? Girardi talks about how everybody’s “banged up” at this time of the year, and I don’t doubt it. Not having a healthy Teixeira in the lineup has made a difference. Ellsbury hasn’t caught fire since coming back from the DL. Didi was bound to taper off at some point. A-Rod couldn’t possibly stay hot through the entire season. Beltran has been surprisingly resilient and McCann’s had some pivotal hits. But now we’re down in the standings again to the Blue Jays and I liked it better when we weren’t.

I do have to say it was fun watching Brendan Ryan pitch a couple of innings in that blow-out game. He was good!

Will the series against the Braves bring everybody back to life? It happened once before after Girardi had a tizzy on the field in Atlanta and got tossed. I think there was a team meeting down there too. We need some kind of shove to get going again.

At Least There Was This

Photo: Getty Images/Al Bello
Photo: Getty Images/Al Bello

It was great seeing the old gang at the Stadium over the weekend, first for the retiring of Posada’s number, then the same for Pettitte today. They all looked great and I couldn’t help wishing they were still playing – particularly after today’s finale against the Indians. What is it with the Yankees and Indians? Are the dreaded midges still haunting the team? It sure seemed like it over the four-game series and even during the recent series in Cleveland. Aside from the one victory on Saturday, it was nothing but frustration and ineptitude.

And now there’s CC’s knee. Will he come back this season or any season? Does a stint on the DL do the trick and he returns refreshed and ready to pitch? Or will he concede that the knee is a chronic problem and retire? It’s all very sad to me because he’s been a warrior for the Yanks on and off the field.

With Pineda scheduled to pitch in the series against Houston and the addition of Severino, CC’s injury is easier to swallow. I still wish Cashman had gotten us a reliable arm at the trade deadline, but that’s old news. What’s also old news is that all the teams in the AL East have problems, even Toronto, and no one is running away with the division title so far. Which means all the Yankees have to do is play consistent baseball. Getting Teixeira off the DL would help. So would getting Ellsbury to go on a tear. So would waving a magic wand and making Stephen Drew turn into Babe Ruth.

Time will tell……

Yanks Vs Astros = Split

perfect-split-leap

This series was a snapshot of the Yankees’ season. They played well and they played ugly. There’s hardly any in between with this team.

What stood out for me was the second awful outing in a row for Tanaka. It’s worrisome. I’ve come to expect stellar performances from him and he’s certainly entitled to a couple of bad starts, but I can’t help wondering about that arm.

Pineda, on the other hand, rebounded nicely from getting battered his last time out. He was victimized by sloppy defense today and an opposing starting pitcher who stymied our offense, which had been so powerful just the day before.

Honestly, there were so many non-sports news stories breaking over the past week that I haven’t been all that focused on baseball or this series. Which is another way of saying I spent more time with CNN than I did with YES.

 

The Devil Doesn’t Wear Prado

Prado baseball card

Walkoffs are so exciting and Martin Prado’s single in the bottom of the ninth against the White Sox was no exception. I was on my feet cheering while Prado was getting mobbed by his teammates. He’s been playing well, both with the bat and the glove, and I’m glad he’s in pinstripes. Tonight’s heroics weren’t necessarily the start of the Yankees’ climb toward the playoffs, but the game was enjoyable nonetheless. Greene, like just about all the starters, was great after his initial floundering. The pitchers haven’t been the problem, as evidenced by McCarthy’s stellar performance against the Astros the day before to avoid a truly humiliating sweep. (I’m loving the fiery Cervelli as catcher. He seems to pull every last drop of energy out of his pitchers.) It’s the offense that’s been so frustrating. But for tonight at least the four runs were enough to get it done.

The Devil Doesn't Wear Prado

Prado baseball card

Walkoffs are so exciting and Martin Prado’s single in the bottom of the ninth against the White Sox was no exception. I was on my feet cheering while Prado was getting mobbed by his teammates. He’s been playing well, both with the bat and the glove, and I’m glad he’s in pinstripes. Tonight’s heroics weren’t necessarily the start of the Yankees’ climb toward the playoffs, but the game was enjoyable nonetheless. Greene, like just about all the starters, was great after his initial floundering. The pitchers haven’t been the problem, as evidenced by McCarthy’s stellar performance against the Astros the day before to avoid a truly humiliating sweep. (I’m loving the fiery Cervelli as catcher. He seems to pull every last drop of energy out of his pitchers.) It’s the offense that’s been so frustrating. But for tonight at least the four runs were enough to get it done.

Solarte!

Photo: Elsa/Getty Images North America
Photo: Elsa/Getty Images North America

I listened to parts of this one on my At Bat app in the car and was smiling each time the new guy got another hit, even the one that dropped in front of the Astros on the mound (a Castillo moment, kind of). Whatever magic he’s got I just hope it keeps up.

Nova had an odd game, pitching in and out of trouble a lot, but that seems to be his thing and he did limit any big innings. Nice job by Robertson for the save. I still miss Mo (huge shoes to fill), but I’m glad we have D-Rob.

And the Yankees won. Whew. Good to have that first one.

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