After their Odysseus-like experience last week, the Yankees finally made it to Kansas City Thursday. By the end of the weekend, they had righted the ship, having taken two out of three from the Royals. It was their eighth straight series win, something they haven't done since 1998. Back in 1998 I was still eight years away from leaving my full-time job to begin what turned out to be a freelance writing career. I supplemented my writing by working part-time for an organization I have been with for nearly nine years. Two weeks ago I was offered a promotion by this organization, which I accepte ..read more

As Ken Singleton says, they won this series the hard way. After losing the first game on Friday night, the Yankees took the next two, giving them a 2-1 series win over Oakland, which completed a 7-2 home stand. They are still tied for first place with the Red Sox. The A's are such pains in the neck. They annoy you constantly, always threatening to smother you to death. Saturday's win was fought hard for, and though Sunday's was easier to come by, the A's made Luis Severino work. He didn't have his best stuff, which could have caused him to be smothered had he been a lesser pitcher. But Sevy d ..read more

When the Yankees finished a home sweep of the Minnesota Twins on April 26th, their season record was 15-9. That home stand seemed to lift the Yanks from the early season doldrums. It ended with an  impressive eight wins.  But the schedule was about to get a lot tougher.  The Yankees had won that April 26th game on a getaway afternoon thanks to a walk off home run by Gary Sanchez. The next scheduled road trip would take them to Anaheim to meet the Angels, then to Houston to face the World Champion Astros. The  home stand which followed would start against two first place t ..read more

When Hanley Ramirez homered off Chad Green last night, I thought to myself, okay, the winning streak ends tonight.  I looked ahead to the next game, trying to think good thoughts about CC Sabathia. Shame on me. After a shockingly great performance by reliever Jonathan Holder (of all people!), along came the eighth inning. Brett Gardner had been raking all game, but his biggest hit came in that inning. (He and Aaron Judge were a one-two punch, from the first inning, before even one out was made.) Let's not forget the table setters in that eighth inning: Miguel Andujar moving the runner ..read more

That's seven in a row. Their 16th win in 17 games. They are now tied for first place in the AL East--after being 7.5 games behind Boston as recently as April 20th. Who's "they?" The 2018 New York Yankees. Not the 1953 Yankees. Not the 1998 Yankees. The 2018 Yankees. Not even the 1998 team did what this team is doing right now.  Will it translate to a World Championship? Who knows? Right now, however, this team is clicking on all cylinders, and they seem unstoppable. Not even shoddy defense and bad sends by the third base coach could stop them last night. Honestly, Phil Nevin, were you t ..read more

Remember when the experts swore up and down that the Yankees would never field a team with two rookies (Andujar and Torres) on it?  Well, they were forced into it, but they did it nonetheless. And it's been working. I remember trying to get the nickname Baby Clutch stick for Melky Cabrera. That didn't work (though, it should have). Maybe it can stick for Gleyber Torres. Come on, guys, get it started. Miguel Andujar walks it off on Friday. Torres walks it off yesterday.  Both wins were part of a sweep of the Cleveland Indians, which is part of a six game winning streak, which is par ..read more

I have to admit I didn't want to see this road trip come at the time it did. Three games against the Angels at Anaheim and four in Houston to follow seemed like a daunting task. But maybe not that bad. Thinking we could see the Yankees go 3-4 or 4-3 in this stretch, right? That would be holding their own. Nothing to hang your head about such a trip to these two cities. The Yankees have not experienced many winning series in Anaheim in recent memory. Houston won all four games at home in the ALCS against the Yankees, as the Yankees did the same to the Astros in three games i ..read more

Should we call them the S & S Boys? David Cone joked that the rest of the team didn't have to get off the bus, because Giancarlo Stanton and Luis Severino took care of business all by themselves last night. On a warm Houston night, the roof at Minute Maid Park was open, and that might have contributed to the success of both players. Stanton, from the Los Angeles area and having begun his career in Miami, and Severino, born and raised in the Dominican Republic, were in mid-season form. Stanton drove in all four runs for the Yankees, and Sevy notched his first career complete game shutout ..read more

When Jordan Montgomery left last night's game with elbow tightness after just one inning pitched, I became convinced that the Yankees were just eight innings away from their second straight loss to the Houston Astros. After all, Justin Verlander was on the mound for Houston, in Houston, in a ballpark the Yankees hadn't won a game in in seven tries. I didn't count on the bullpen doing the stellar job it did. Nor did I count on the bad decisions AJ Hinch made after the eighth inning. But there you have it. The Astros went on a collision course towards Gary Sanchez, and he made sure it hurt, and ..read more

Things went as expected in Houston last night. Charlie Morton was better than Sonny Gray, and the Astros beat the Yankees 2-1, ending their nine-game winning streak. Then again, things didn't go exactly as expected. Gray probably had his best start to-date: 6IP, 4H, 2ER, 3BB, 4K. Austin Romine was his catcher again, renewing the argument about personal catchers. But was it really Romine that made the difference? Maybe it was the weather. Who knows? I just hope he builds on this start. We'll see this weekend when, as it turns out, Romine will catch him again, since it will be a day game after ..read more