New York Yankees: Five Reasons Not to Panic About Final Six Weeks
August 22, 2012 · Phil Watson · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
A little more than a month ago, on July 18, the New York Yankees moved 10 games ahead of the Baltimore Orioles in the American League East. At 57-34, 23 games over .500, it looked as if the Yankees were set to cruise the final 10 weeks of the season and lock up their second consecutive division title.
The Yankees lost to the Chicago White Sox Tuesday night, 7-3, as starter Ivan Nova was roughed up (again), surrendering a game-deciding grand slam to noted Yankee killer Kevin Youkilis. It was the second straight night the ChiSox had come from behind after the Yankees moved out to an early lead.
Nova has been, well, awful over the last month. In his last eight starts, the 25-year-old righthander is 1-3 with an unsightly 7.02 ERA and has allowed 60 hits in 41 innings, including eight home runs.
He surrendered two gopher balls on Tuesday. Before Youkilis’ slam, Paul Konerko turned on a fastball that wasn’t quite up enough or in enough and deposited it into the left-field seats to tie game at 2.
New York is just 19-18 since the All-Star break and that huge lead isn’t looking so huge now. Entering play today, the Tampa Bay Rays—10½ games behind and tied with the Boston Red Sox for third place in the division on July 18—are just four games behind and the Orioles have pulled to within five games of the lead.
The Yankees’ run differential on July 18 was plus-80, second only to the Texas Rangers’ plus-81. Despite going 15-17 since then, somehow the differential has improved to plus-98, now the best in the American League and third in MLB behind the St. Louis Cardinals (plus-113) and Washington Nationals (plus-112). So that’s a positive.
So, too, is the fact that the Yankees close out this six-game road trip in Cleveland over the weekend. The Indians have lost seven in a row and are just 7-25 over their last 32 games.
There are other reasons why the Yankees and their fans need not panic just because the Rays and Orioles won’t go away. Here are five of them.
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