It could be one of the most incredible September rallies since Oakland won the American League West pennant in 2012.
That is what the New York Yankees are hoping will happen after their 8-5 win against Tampa Bay Wednesday night. But can this aging, injured Yankees team actually pull a playoff rabbit out of their hat?
“Just to see our team come back, we could have easily crawled in a hole and lost the game, not really thought anything about it,” reliever Adam Warren said.
The win last night marked the first time all season that New York came back down four runs. Their 34 come-from-behind wins this year all took place with the Yanks down by three or fewer runs. The Yankees trailed the Rays 4-0 after the first inning. The Yankees bullpen combined for 8 2/3 innings of one-run ball while catcher Brian McCann sparked the rally with a solo homer in the first and a two-RBI single in the third with ex-Met Chris Young tied it at four apiece in the fourth with a solo shot.
After the win last night, the Yankees are 4.5 games behind Detroit for the second AL wild-card spot.
Now at 4-4 in the month of September, can the Yankees actually rally back with just 19 games left?
Here’s food for thought: should the Yankees miss the playoffs again this year, it’ll mark the first time since 1992 and ’93 that they missed the playoffs in consecutive years.
“We have to win a lot of games,” first baseman Mark Teixiera said. “We have very little margin for error.”
“Basically, we have to win every day,” manager Joe Girardi mentioned. “That’s the bottom line. We have to win every day. I’ve said all along, we can’t worry about the other teams if you don’t win. And we have to win every day.”
If it counts for anything, the Yankees’ only losing month all season came in June, when they struggled to finish 12-15 for the month.
But they also never won more than five games in a row all year, a feat that only occurred twice all season (Apr. 12-17, Aug. 21-25) and they’ve also found a way to lose five games in a row (June 28-July 2, Aug. 9-15).
The only way the Yankees can get hot at the right time is if their key players can stay healthy, something that (somehow) only Derek Jeter has been able to do all year.
Outfielder Brett Gardner, the Yanks most consistent hitter (.269, 16 HR, 56 RBI) had to miss Wednesday’s win over Tampa with an abdominal injury. If that sounds familiar, it should. Gardner was shut down for the rest of the season at the same exact time last year with the same injury, with the Yanks just a game out of the wild-card. They finished the season six games out, going 6-9 the rest of the way.
Carlos Beltran also missed Wednesday’s game with a sore elbow along with infielder Martin Prado.
“When you get behind in the standings, it’s a hard thing, trying to keep your players healthy (by resting them) because you know you need them every day,” Girardi said.
It’s one thing to rest players, it’s another when you don’t have adequate replacements coming from the Minors in September to fill the holes. The Yankees do have one legitimate hitter in their farm in outfielder/second-baseman Rob Refsnyder, however the Yankees decided not to call him up for September’s 40-man call-up due to 40-man roster and Rule 5 protection issues.
(For the record, none of the Yankees farm teams made it to the playoffs this year, something worth noting about what the Yankees don’t have: a solid farm system – still.)
At least there’s someone in the Minors, however at a time when you need help at both outfielder and second base, to not call up what may be your best prospect at both positions might signal a white flag more than a late-season rally. Instead, Chris Young, Ichiro Suzuki and Stephen Drew have to spark that late-season comeback at left, right and second respectively.
So can this beat-up, overpaid, old Yankee team rally back for an improbable postseason run?
At least they won Wednesday night to start their cause.