You all know the drill so let’s get started.
- I didn’t mind the 4th of July uniforms and hats.
- I kind of like them.
- I know, sacrilegious!
- But, I own a floral Yankee cap so who am I to say anything?
- The Yankees should have swept the Braves.
- Monday’s game was so frustrating.
- So many squandered scoring choices.
- And Tuesday’s game was a bit scary.
- I really thought they’d blow.
- It seemed like that kind of game.
- Thankfully A.J. Cole and Chasen Shreve came to the rescue.
- That was an unlikely scenario, right?
- Especially Shreve.
- Two on, one out… I was fully expecting him to surrender a double.
- Luckily, he didn’t.
- The fourth of July is John Sterling’s birthday and when Giancarlo Stanton hit a home run, Michael Kay said Sterling’s call for Stanton.
- It was funny.
- Paul O’Neill loved it.
- Sterling turned 80!
- He looks good for 80!
- So the Yanks are off today and start a series against Toronto tomorrow.
- Toronto just played a series against the Mets.
- The Mets actually won on Wednesday.
- They blew a six-run lead on Tuesday.
- Hopefully, the Yankees will repeat what they did the last time they played a series against Toronto.
- Win it.
- Seems simple enough.
- The news of Gleyber Torres going on the DL was a bummer.
- How about Kyle Higashioka?
- All he can do is hit bombs.
- It’s pretty funny.
- Clint Frazier caught Masahiro Tanaka on Wednesday in Scranton.
- Yes, you read that correctly.
- After Tanaka was done, Frazier went out to centerfield.
- So MLB fined Brett Gardner for taking too long to get into the batter’s box.
- He was not happy.
- It was around $3,500 which is a lot of money to a regular Joe but Gardner was still pissed.
- He had a good quote about it.
- “Somebody else can [throw pickoff throws to first base] 27 times in a game and waste 15 minutes of everybody’s time, and I get fined thousands of dollars taking three seconds too long to get in the box.”
- He has a point.
- MLB is so worried about the pace of play and it seems unnecessary.
- And if you’re so concerned about the pace of play, fine the pitchers that take forever between pitches.
- That really slows the game to a snail’s pace.
- I remember loathing seeing the Yankees play Josh Beckett because he was so slow.
- And Clay Buchholz, I’m pretty sure he also moved at a glacial pace when he pitched.
- The pace of play also bothers me because there are so many other things to be worried about.
- Like how they handle off the field issues.
- I don’t want to get into a long diatribe about this so let’s move on.
- Sonny Gray is terrible and I will not watch him pitch anymore.
- My blood pressure cannot take it.
- It is frustrating to watch him fail so miserably when he starts.
- That start against the Red Sox when he had two strikes and two outs on four batters and gave up a grand slam?
- I wanted to launch Gray into space.
- He’s better than how he’s pitching and I don’t understand why the Yankees aren’t doing something with him.
- It’s almost always a guaranteed loss when he’s pitching.
- And how can someone be so putrid at home but do okay on the road?
- Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
- He’s pitching on Friday against Toronto because Brian Cashman doesn’t think Gray should miss a start.
- I think he should miss a start but the Yankees’ rotation is depleted so I can understand why they’re not skipping him.
- But I don’t have to like it.
- The Yankees’ schedule from now until September 1 the Yankees will play 43 out of their next 51 games against teams with records below .500.
- They need to capitalize this stretch and win as much as possible.
- They cannot afford to play down to their opponents.
- And when September rolls around, they still have six head-to-head contests with the Red Sox.
- The division will come down to that stretch of games as well.
- The Yankees need to aim for the division.
- This year they won’t be facing the Twins in the Wild Card game.
- It could be Seattle and while the Yankees swept Seattle when they last played them, the Wild Card game is a much different story.
- Anything can happen.
- The Yankees’ bats can go cold.
- The Yankees’ starter can leave after an inning because he couldn’t get anyone out.
- Wait, that sounds familiar.
- So, yes, aim for the division just to be on the safe side.
- We’re entering the dog days of summer.
- This is the most important time of the season.
- Let’s go Yanks!