Major League Baseball has a 162-game season, and games are played nearly every day from early April to late September. The character of a team is defined in stretches like the one the New York Yankees are in now: 7 games in 7 days, at home; 4 against the Tampa Bay Rays, who have been their functional rivals in the American League Eastern Division in the last 3 seasons, including this one; and then 3 against the Boston Red Sox, who not only are their historical rivals, but have been their functional rivals in the AL East for about 25 years.
And after entering this week with a terrible slump, especially with hitting, and an injury crisis, it looked like the Yankees would need to take at least 5 out of the 7 to look like serious contenders again. And they lost the 1st game in ignominious fashion. But they won the 2nd game in dramatic fashion.
Last night was the 3rd game. It was the 80th Anniversary of the death of Lou Gehrig, and Major League Baseball celebrated its 1st annual Lou Gehrig Day, raising money for the research into the disease that killed him and now bears his name, and for other charitable causes.
Patch worn by all MLB teams yesterday
They couldn't do it on the anniversary of the original Lou Gehrig Day, at the old Yankee Stadium, in 1939, because that's the 4th of July, which already has planned celebrations. And they couldn't do it on the anniversary of his birth, because that's June 19. Some years, that's Father's Day, for which MLB has planned celebrations. It's also Juneteenth, a holiday for Black Americans. (I'm never sure: Is "Black" supposed to be capitalized here?)
Jordan Montgomery started for the Pinstripes, and gave the Yankees just what they needed: 6 1/3rd innings, 3 runs, only 1 of them earned, 5 hits, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts. "Gumby" may have gotten a big boost when the Yankees gave him a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the 1st inning, with a home run by Gio Urshela, driving in Giancarlo Stanton, who had singled.
The Rays took a run back in the top of the 4th. But the Yankees made them pay for it in the bottom of the 4th, with a leadoff double by Gleyber Torres, and single by Rougned Odor, a bases-loading walk by Gary Sanchez (yes, Sanchez drew a walk in a key situation), and a 2-run single by the previous night's 11th inning walkoff hero, Clint Frazier. 4-1 Yankees.
The Rays scored a run in the 5th, and another in the 7th. But the bullpen was very effective again: Between them, Jonathan Loaisiga, Chad Green and Aroldis Chapman went 2 2/3rds innings, allowing no runs on 1 hit, albeit with 3 walks.
Yankees 4, Rays 3. WP: Montgomery (3-1). SV: Chapman (12). LP: Shane McLachlan (2-1).
With the Red Sox losing to the Houston Astros in a Battle of the Exposed Cheats, the AL East is now led by the Rays by 2 games over the Red Sox, 3 1/2 over the Yankees, and 4 1/2 over the Toronto Blue Jays. In the all-important loss column, the Rays are 1 ahead of the Sox, and 3 ahead of the Yanks and Jays.
The series concludes this afternoon. Gerrit Cole starts against Ryan Yarbrough. Having Gerrit Cole available to possibly give you 3 out of 4 against the team you need to beat, giving you serious momentum going into a series against the team you really want to beat, with potential for a great season to come, reminds me of the close of Lou Gehrig's speech on his Day: "I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for."
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