Yankees GBU – Another series win in the bag

The New York Yankees continue to take care of business, even when their offense isn’t firing on all cylinders.  They kind of sleepwalked through their series against the Toronto Blue Jays but still picked up a series win thanks to their pitching.

That series win kept them six games ahead in the American League East, eight in the loss column over the Tampa Bay Rays.  It was important to win the series because they host the Tampa Bay Rays for four games at the beginning of the week.

The Good

Mingo and Masa dominate the Jays

The theme of the series against Toronto was excellent starting pitching.  J.A. Happ didn’t deserve a loss, going 5 1/3 innings strong of two run, five hit ball.  However, the Yankees’ other two starters, Domingo German and Masahiro Tanaka, dominated the Jays lineup and picked up the lagging Yankee offense.

German started the series off with an excellent start, which is a great sign considering he was beginning to fade before his brief stint on the IL.  He went six innings with just three hits and seven strikeouts and at points looked untouchable on the mound.

Tanaka was nearly as dominant, serving up only four hits over six innings as well.  His only blemishes were the usual Tanaka special, two solo home runs by the Jays.  With big starts by German and Tanaka, as well as a ringing endorsement of the pitching staff by manager Aaron Boone, the Yankees feel confident that they only need to add one more pitcher to round out their rotation.

Edwin and Gio save the day

There wasn’t much offense to go around in this season, with the Yankees only scoring nine runs total in the series.  However, the two biggest contributors were Gio Urshela and Edwin Encarnacion, who has looked more comfortable as the weeks have gone along.

Edwin contributed to three of the Yankees’ four runs in the first game of the series, including a double that cleared the bases and ultimately gave the Yankees the win.  Gio came up big in game three, hitting another one of his now patented singles with RISP.  Gio contributed to a third run as well, using a matrix like move to avoid Dan Jansen’s tag after a wild pitch hit off the backstop and came right back to the plate.  Without that game-winning run, it could have been a much different game.

The Sockman cometh

Mike Tauchman may not exactly be the sexiest Yankees player of all time, but he proved his worth in game three of the series against the Jays.  He made an incredible diving catch to keep the game close in left field, then added an insurance run with a solo home run.

Tauchman is on the team for his defense, and that is the sole reason why he’s on the Yankees roster and not Clint Frazier.  If Frazier wasn’t a complete liability in the outfield, he’d be up instead of Tauchman.  Here we are though, and Tauchman’s defense has been fantastic all season.

The Bad

Power outage

It was mentioned before that the Yankees had a bit of a power outage this series against the Toronto Blue Jays.  They scored four runs in game one, one in game two and four in game three.  The only home run recorded by the Yankees was Tauchman’s solo shot at the end of game three.

It’s not often that the pitchers were the ones carrying the Yankees to victory.  It probably won’t be the only series, but it most certainly won’t be a norm in the Bronx.  With balls flying out of the park on a regular basis, the Yankees will find their offensive stride soon.

An error filled game three

The Yankees pitchers may have been excellent in all three games but the defense behind them didn’t do them any favors in game three.  Gleyber Torres had two separate throwing errors and the always reliable, Gold Glover D.J. Lemahieu made a rare faux pas with his own throwing error.

It’s not a big deal because the Yankees won but it could have been disastrous.  If the Yankees are going to compete for a World Series they need to shore up their defense.  Gio Urshela has been a Godsend at third base and the rest of the infield (Didi, DJLM, Gleyber) have all been excellent but they can’t afford to give playoff teams extra outs.

The Ugly

None.