It's Getting Late Early Out There

Have I used that title, A rewrite of a Yogi Berra quote, before? I don't care. It really is getting late early out there.

Yesterday, before beginning a 3-game home weekend series with the Chicago White Sox, the Yankees got not one, but two bad pieces of news on the injury front. Gary Sanchez had to go on the Injured List. This left them with only Austin Romine as a catcher, and Romine is not a major league quality player. Fortunately, previously injured backup Kyle Higashioka was ready to be called back up, and was.

Then they found out that reliever Dellin Betances had an injury setback, and will be out at least another 6 weeks. So, we're looking at June 1 at the earliest.

As a Yankee Fan and an Arsenal fan, I began to think, "Oh, Santi Cazorla... "

Bryan Hoch of MLB.com wrote on Twitter:

UPDATED. So... when are these guys expected back, anyway? 

Andujar: May? (Maybe 2020) Betances: ??? Ellsbury: ??? Gregorius: June-August Heller: June Hicks: May? Montgomery: August Sabathia: April 13 Sanchez: late April? Severino: July? Stanton: late April? Tulowitzki: May?

About sums it up.

*

As for the game: The weather was a factor all the way, and I'm surprised that they got any of it in. Of course, the amount of it that they got in did not work in the Yankees' favor.

The Yankees led 4-1 after 3 innings, but then starter J.A. Happ fell apart, allowing 2 runs in the 4th and 4 in the 6th before being removed for Jonathan Holder. He and Chad Green were not appreciably better, each allowing a run in the 7th.

Brett Gardner hit a home run in the bottom of the 4th. But it was 7-5 White Sox after 5, at which point a rainout would have made it an official game. The Yankees closed to within 7-6 in the 6th, but the White Sox scored again in the 7th.

It was White Sox 9, Yankees 6 going into the 7th inning stretch, when the rain made it impossible to continue. WP: Lucas Giolito (2-1). SV: Nate Jones (1). LP: Happ (0-2).

The Yankees are now 5-8, with key players Didi Gregorius (shortstop), Troy Tulowitzki (the backup shortstop signed to fill in for Didi), Miguel Andujar (3rd baseman), Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Hicks (outfielders), Gary Sanchez (catcher), Luis Severino and Jordan Montgomery (starting pitchers), and Dellin Betances (relief pitcher) all injured.

If Bryan Hoch is right, Stanton and Sanchez may be back by the end of this month; Hicks and Tulowitzki next month; Gregorius, Severino, Montgomery and Betances, sometime in the Summer; and Andujar could either be back next month, or not until next season.

The season for which general manager Brian Cashman threw away 2016, 2017 and 2018 is close to being reduced to ashes, and we're only in mid-April. It has gotten late very early out there.

The weather should not be an issue this afternoon. CC Sabathia is scheduled to make his injury-delayed season debut, and starting for the White Sox is former Yankee Ivan Nova. We shall see if Cashman made another mistake in letting Nova go.