Surging Yankees finally look like themselves
Yankees' Anthony Rizzo hits an RBI double during the fifth inning of the team's baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday, May 23, 2023. Credit: AP/Frank Franklin II
The early AL East narrative had mostly scribbled out the Yankees during the first seven weeks of this season. Other than to gawk at the $293 million team in last place.
Nobody’s mocking the Yankees anymore. And at this pace, they’ll be knocking on the Rays’ door atop the division before too long. Just ask the shell-shocked Orioles, who watched a 4-0 lead on Gerrit Cole crumble Tuesday night, then had their airtight bullpen shattered by Aaron Judge’s two-strike, tying homer in the ninth inning and stunned by Anthony Volpe’s walk-off sacrifice fly in the 10th as the Yankees completed an improbable 6-5 victory.
“He’s the best player in the world right now,” manager Aaron Boone said of Judge. “And he continues to show you why all the time.”
It’s nice to have the reigning MVP on your side, and for the Yankees, Judge is even bigger than that. He’s an irrepressible force, and with him doing damage like this, the rest of the East — regardless of how powerful the division is — becomes vulnerable. Heading into Tuesday night’s showdown with the Orioles, Judge had just been named Player of the Week, hitting .500 (11-for-22) with five homers, 11 RBIs (including five game-winners) and a 1.273 OPS. Overall, Judge is leading MLB with a 1.052 OPS and his 14 homers are tied for first in the AL (don’t forget he missed 10 games with a minor hip strain).
On Tuesday, Judge came to the plate against O’s closer Felix Bautista (1.17 ERA) and fell behind 0-and-2 on a pair of 100-mph fastballs. But Bautista then threw a flat 88-mph splitter that Judge launched 403 feet into the leftfield seats for the first tying home run in the ninth inning or later of his career.
“There’s a confidence in this team,” Judge said. “I think there’s a confidence in each other knowing that you’ll pick each other up. It’s been fun to be a part of.”
Judge bailed out the Yankees in more ways than one Tuesday night, making everyone forget about Cole’s clunker (five earned runs in five innings, two HRs, two Ks) and DJ LeMahieu’s disastrous bunt attempt that blew up the Yankees’ chance to tie the score in the seventh inning, drawing boos from the crowd. When blunders like that are erased rather than winding up on the back pages, then you know the tide is turning.
“We’re not looking at the standings or the numbers,” Cole said. “I think we’re just trying to settle into our brand of baseball and make sure we stay disciplined in that approach because we want to have that fine-tuned come October.”
For nearly two months, the AL East headlines were mostly about the Rays, once again the smartest team in the room, their dollar-to-W ratio being stretched to historic proportions. Or the upstart Orioles, whose perpetual rebuild was finally coming to fruition.
And what of the Yankees? They were supposedly destined to implode, thanks to Brian Cashman’s faulty construction project, a money pit with a bleak present in the now-powerhouse division and a worrisome future.
Turns out, that assessment was way premature. Over the past two-plus weeks the Yankees have crashed the AL East party, despite an injury-riddled roster that won’t resemble Cashman’s original 2023 blueprint until probably July 1, the tentative date for Carlos Rodon’s return (my educated guess based on his current rehab timeline).
The Yankees have now won 15 of their last 20 games, MLB’s best record during that span, and moved to a season-high 10 games over .500 (30-20). After falling behind the Rays by 10 games on May 8, Boone & Co. have cut that deficit in half, the lowest it’s been since April 22.
It’s true the Yankees’ recent flex has come against a few punching bags like the non-competitive A’s (10-39) and marginally-competitive Reds (20-27), but they also pasted the Blue Jays by taking three of four at Rogers Centre and six of their seven games (3-4) against the Rays were decided by one run. Over that stretch, the Yankees hit more homers (38) than anyone in the majors, had the second-highest OPS (.812) and scored the fourth-most runs (108).
Before Tuesday night, the East had a .660 winning percentage against the rest of baseball. Narrow it down to the AL’s other two divisions, it jumps to .687 (68-31). Also, the AL has nine teams over .500, but five of them reside in the East. And if the season ended today, three East teams would be in the playoffs — the Rays, Orioles and Yankees (Boston was two games out).
Now that Luis Severino is back, Giancarlo Stanton is creeping closer and Rodon presumably rejoins the rotation before the All-Star break, the Yankees’ best baseball should still be in front of them. The Orioles got bulldozed by it in the Bronx Tuesday night.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
