Chicago looked to be a contender in the American League at one point this season, but they have fallen off of that track. Jeter scored, A-Rod went to second, and Yankee Stadium emitted. “We’re playing at home, so, we’ve been somewhat of a streaky team all year so hopefully we can get a streak going the right way here”.
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“Tuesday’s out of the question”, Girardi said. Any time you take that bat out of a lineup, the offense will suffer.
CF Jacoby Ellsbury did not start due to a back injury. It’s hard to drive in runs with no one on. I don’t think much about it and keep playing.
A-Rod, obviously, was gotten out for obstruction, and his faked innocence - standing on second in dismay before begging the umpires that he was just pumping his arms while running - can now be seen as a precursor to what would come later. In the years since then, he’s played 138, 124, 137, 99, 122, 44 and 0 games, respectively. But he started the year as a fallen star after two hip surgeries and a suspension by baseball for the 2014 season over his latest PED controversy, and he hadn’t been more than ordinary as a player in five years. “This was probably the first year since I’ve been here in ’04 that we were underdogs”.
I know some of you are thinking that he had a few days off when the Yankees played the Mets at Citi Field a couple of weeks ago, but he pinch hit in all three games.
The Yankees finished off their third win in the past four games, and they did so behind another strong start by Luis Severino. You could also argue that, even when he’s at his worst, he’s better than the alternatives. “Guys like Gardner and McCann sort of jump off the page for me, guys who can be future great leaders here for a long time”. Just because the team needs to win, it doesn’t erase the last two months of exhaustion from A-Rod’s plate. He won’t be ready in time for Tuesday night’s wild-card game but could be available out of the bullpen for any game after that.
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Lost in the euphoria of the playoff clincher was the fact that Thursday’s win was the 10,000th in franchise history, making the Yankees the first AL team to accomplish that feat. In addition, Joe Girardi managed the end of that last dynasty for the Yankees, and he hasn’t gone anywhere.
