The Yankees were able to salvage yesterday’s finale against the Rays at The Trop, thanks to starting pitching from CC, another save from Betances, great defense by Judge and nice offense from Didi and Gardner. But the other two games in the series were not the stuff of happy dances.
The headline from the weekend really has to be Tanaka. What is wrong with him? Where’s the pitcher we saw early in the season? Who’s the guy who’s getting pounded these days with seemingly no command, no game plan, no sense of how to fix whatever has gone drastically awry? He claims he’s not hurt, that it’s all mechanics, so it sounds as if his entire pitching motion needs an overall in addition to which his confidence has to be shot. He’s our ace, so I really hope Rothschild can figure this out asap.
The other headline from the two losses is Longoria. I say this over and over after we play the Rays. Why in the world do we ever pitch to the guy? He kills us, absolutely destroys us every time he comes to the plate. Didn’t I read that he has more RBIs against the Yankees than any player has against any other team? It’s sick. He must salivate every time he sees us on the schedule. Clearly, there needs to be a different pitching strategy against him – or several.
Now it’s back home to face the Royals again. It’s supposed to rain during the week so we’ll see how much baseball gets played, but after the recent victories in KC, I’m the one who’s salivating.
