Yankees' success: Offense, defense make for special team

CHICAGO — A bench coach for a rival American League club hardly paused in answering this question:

Just over a month into the season, did he see any glaring weaknesses when it came to the Yankees?  

“Nothing glaring,” he said. “Nothing at all, honestly. Glaring or otherwise.”

He continued: “You can talk about the lack of [offensive] production from the catchers but, come on … [it’s] obviously not hurting them.”

Indeed, the Yankees entered their four-game series against the White Sox, which started Thursday night at Guaranteed Rate Field, with the best record in the majors at 22-8. They entered having won each of their last seven series and 17 of their last 20 games.

And there’s no one specific reason why.

Yankees’ pitchers came into this series having posted a 2.60 ERA, ranking them first in the AL and second-best in the majors (the Dodgers are first with a 2.25 ERA). The group collectively allowed three runs or fewer in 20 of the Yankees’ first 30 games and two runs or fewer in 16 of those games.

Offensively, even with a somewhat up-and-down performance the last week or so, the Yankees ranked third in the majors in home runs (40), fourth in the big leagues in slugging (.404) and sixth in OPS (.720) and runs per game (4.50). The Yankees, after completing a two-game sweep of Toronto on Wednesday, had hit 29 homers in their last 17 games.  

“They just have good hitters,” White Sox manager Tony La Russa said before Thursday night’s game. “It’s a real challenge to pitch against them, and now it’s a real challenge to score runs against them.”

A rival manager from another AL club said while the Yankees’ more balanced lineup clearly has made a difference and the pitching “obviously” has been top-notch, to him the most striking difference in the 2022 Yankees compared to teams from the recent past is the improvement on defense, something the organization this offseason gained a renewed interest in.   

“Night and day [compared] to the last few years,” the manager said. “It’s been a while since you could say they’re one of the better defensive teams. They are.”

Though Kyle Higashioka and Jose Trevino both have struggled offensively — neither catcher is hitting above .200 — pitchers love throwing to both backstops, who each are defensive standouts. Isiah Kiner-Falefa has been a huge upgrade at short, DJ LeMahieu has been terrific wherever the Yankees have put him in the field, Gleyber Torres has looked far more comfortable back at second base after his horrible experience at shortstop in 2021 and Anthony Rizzo has been gold-glove caliber at first.

For their part, the Yankees are laying low when it comes to any best-team-in-the-league proclamations.  

And for good reason.

Anyone taking bows at this time of year are begging to be humbled. The dustbin of any given season is filled with teams that started strong and, for whatever reason(s), either flamed out in early October or weren’t even around in October.  

It’s hard to envision the Yankees missing the postseason but getting there isn’t the goal either. It's advancing once they're in and none of that gets accomplished now, no matter how good things look at the moment.

“It’s a long season,” general manager Brian Cashman said on the field here Thursday as the Yankees took batting practice. “It’s filled with ups and downs and trials and tribulations. Right now, we’ve had a good run of quality baseball with good health. We’ll want that to continue as long as it possibly can but we also know the other side of it. You’re going to have to deal with both ends. So there’s nothing [to celebrate]. We’re happy where we’re at at this point, but we have a long way to go. We’re not going to make that mistake.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.