There’s just 13 games left in the Yankees’ regular season, and they still remain four games behind Tampa Bay for the top spot in the American League. Failure to surpass the Rays would throw the Yankees down into the Wild Card Round for the second straight year, and into a gauntlet where they’d play against the Red Sox before getting a shot at Tampa again all for the rights to play in the ALCS. There’s still a four-game set with the Rays to be played in the Bronx next week, but if they can’t make
up some ground beforehand it’ll require an outright sweep to move the needle.
Tampa’s results are unfortunately out of their control otherwise, but the Yankees have been doing their part by winning in bunches of late. The team handled the Rockies and took two of three from the Mets, all while welcoming back their captain Aaron Judge from the injured list. Now they’ll hope to get him enough time in the batter’s box to become the Aaron Judge of old in time for it to matter the most, but the rest of the lineup still has to play their part and the pitching staff has to make it to the finish line. Ben Rice has answered the call of late, hitting for a .934 OPS in his last 15 games with 12 runs scored, and Cam Schlittler continues to dominate as he puts the finishing touches on a historic Cy Young campaign for the franchise.
There’s still so much to figure out over these last two weeks of play, and it can’t be helped if eyes start drifting towards October with the postseason looming. How much can the Yankees afford to ease Judge back into the lineup if they want him ready to go for Game 1 of their first series? Is Anthony Volpe going to win himself a last-minute ticket back into the team’s plans with his play covering for Jazz Chisholm Jr.? And how concerned should we be that Gerrit Cole is dealing with a long ball issue again? If you have questions like these, or anything else on your mind, send ‘em in for a chance to be featured in our Yankees mailbag.
Answers will run on Friday afternoon. All questions received by the night of September 17th will be considered. You can leave your submissions in the comment section below or by e-mail to pinstripealleyblog [at] gmail [dot] com.
