Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Beating the Mets Can't Make Us Forget

I said I wasn't going to do full recaps of the remaining games this season, because I thought it was pointless, because failure to win the Division, even if it meant getting into the Playoffs via the Wild Card, would drop the Yankees chances to win the World Series from plausible to damn near impossible. And I meant it. But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy beating the Small Club In Flushing last night.

Call it the Citi Series. If you like soccer, call it the Subway Derby. Just don't call it a Subway Series. That can only be a World Series, and neither of these teams is making it -- not the Mets as long as they keep making bonehead trades, and not the Yankees as long as Joe Girardi is screwing up the pitching.

The Mets took a 2-0 lead in the top of the 3rd inning last night, with Curtis Granderson and Yoenis Cespedes both taking Luis Cessa deep. Cessa is not ready to be a major league starter, but with both teams' rotations in injury crisis at the moment, he might be a survivable alternative for either.

But from that point onward, Yankee pitching allowed only 1 hit and 2 walks. Cessa pitched into the 5th, Chad Green got us through the 7th, David Robertson pitched the 8th, and Girardi let Dellin Betances, not Aroldis Chapman, close it out.

The reason the Yankees were in position to close it out is because the Mets' pitching, so often cited as a reason why they won the 2015 National League Pennant, reached last season's NL Wild Card Game, and were supposed to "take over New York," or "take New York back from the Yankees," is in even worse shape than the Yankees'.

In the 4th, Gary Sanchez hit a sacrifice fly that got the Yankees on the board. In the 6th, Aaron Judge hit a home run to tie it. In the 8th, Aaron Hicks continued his post-injury hot streak with a homer that gave the Yankees the lead, and Sanchez followed with a homer to ice it.

Yankees 4, Mets 2. Robertson the winner, and Betances with his 7th save. And the Boston Red Sox lost last night, to the Cleveland Indians, bringing the Yankees back within 4 1/2 games, 4 in the loss column.

There are 45 games to play. Or, to put it another way, a little less than 7 weeks. It is not unreasonable to ask your team to be able to make up an average of 1 game per week. As long as there are more remaining weeks than games behind that you are (and, for the moment, there are), you have a legitimate chance to win the Division.

And yet... This win does not change much. After all, the Yankees are still not within a single series' worth of games against the Sox. (There have been 5-game series with the Sox, notably in 2006, but not many.) We were expected to have the upper hand against the Mets.

Judge seems to have shaken off his post-Home Run Derby slump, but Clint Frazier (who didn't play last night, and probably won't play much more, now that he's been exposed as far from ready and Hicks is back to play center field) is really not ready.

Chapman is still a question mark, as is Betances. And we're missing 3 starting pitchers: Michael Pineda is out for the year, and when CC Sabathia and Masahiro Tanaka come back, probably over the next weekend, they'll still be question marks.

If CC and Masa are all right when they come back, we'll have a better chance. If we can get that and can trust either Chapman or Betances down the stretch, we'll have an even better one.

And yet... Girardi is still the manager.

I'm beginning to sound like one of those "Arsenal fans" on Arsenal Fan TV. Like Liam "Mr. DT" Cunningham: "Yes, Robbie, I know we won, but this just papers over the cracks. We still need more world-class players." Or Ross "Troopz" Smith with his Ja-fake-an accent: "The manager is too stubborn, fam. He's lost the plot, blud. I hate him so much, I just want to punch him. It's time to go."

At least this last time, Troopz was positive -- and check out the Yankee cap!

The moment you say, "I know we won, but... " you've got a problem.

As Alcoholics Anonymous says, "The first step is admitting that you have a problem."

Hi, I'm Michael P., and I'm a Yankeeholic. I have a problem.

The difference is, if the Yankees had a better manager, there would be more games like last night against the Mets and Friday night against the Red Sox, and fewer games like Saturday and Sunday against the Red Sox. In other words, you can remove the harmful element and make it net beneficial.

In contrast, you cannot remove the harmful elements from alcoholic beverages while keeping the taste.

And while baseball can take your mind off bad things for a while, it can't make you forget, which is why some people drink. Do you know how much you have to drink to actually make you forget things? Look at Ozzy Osbourne. Matthew Perry says he's got about a 3-year gap in his memory -- including the middle years of filming Friends.

Baseball? I have forgotten many little things, but the big things I remember. Thurman Munson's crash. Mike Ferraro waving Willie Randolph home. Bob Lemon following George Steinbrenner's order and benching Reggie Jackson during a World Series. Trading Shane Rawley for Marty Bystrom. Dave Winfield missing an entire prime season due to a back injury. The Strike of '94. Edgar Martinez in the '95 Playoffs. Joe Torre using Mariano Rivera for 2 many 2-inning saves in 2001. Jeff Weaver. Alex Rodriguez' many postseason disappearing acts. Scott Proctor. Kyle Farnsworth. Boone Logan. Tyler Clippard. Joe Girardi's many, many pitching screwups.

And George Steinbrenner's managerial musical chairs -- and Hal Steinbrenner's refusal to do that just one time now.

Yes, I'm glad we beat the Mets last night. I hope we do it the next 3 nights as well. I hope we pull off the longshot comeback and win the AL East, and use that as a springboard to Title 28. The Yankees have done longer shots than that in my fan experience: 1977 in the ALCS, 1978 in the Division race and the World Series, 1996 in the ALDS and the World Series, 2000 in the ALDS, 2001 in the ALDS, 2003 in the ALCS, 2009 in the Division race.

Yes, I hope we do it. But I'm not expecting it. Like those "Arsenal fans," I need to learn how to stop expecting it, even as I hope for a manager with "more ambition."

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