We’re three weeks into the season now, and the Yankees are off to a hot start at 8-3. They swept their opening series, won the next two dropping individual games, and have the chance to win another with the series finale against the A’s today. The AL East was looking asleep at the wheel for the first few weeks while the Yankees charged to the top, but some of them are starting to wake up and are getting back to .500.
While it’s a little early to predict the Yankees’ placement in the division at the end
of the year off of just a handful of series, their current form is more than enough to look at the rest of the schedule and try to predict how they’ll be looking when April turns to May. The team has series with the Rays, Angels, Royals, Red Sox, Astros, and Rangers to close out the month, teams that range from middling to good in the early going. There’s a total of 20 games left in April including today’s finale, and a slim 2.5 game lead to hopefully expand on. How long can the Yankees keep their series winning streak alive, and where will they stand when the calendar flips?
Off the bat, the Yankees face a tough task in wrapping up this last game with the Athletics. The bats have been a bit could outside of Tuesday’s big eighth inning in this series, matching the weather in the city lately, but perhaps a getaway day game shakes that up. Then there’s an awkward one-series road trip to Tampa breaking up this homestand from another one, a perfect stumbling block if ever one could be designed. The Angels enter town for a four-game set, notoriously difficult to outright win, but a split for our purposes wouldn’t end the streak so if they make it to that point then there’s good odds it stays alive four more days. The Royals are no slouches, but they’ve only won a single series against the Twins thus far and don’t seem like a team that’s clicking yet — a perfect team to catch early in the year.
Realistically, the streak probably ends by the time the Yankees head back out on the road for a real trip, but if it’s alive then it’ll really get tested at the end of the month. The Red Sox may have started this season out poorly, but they found a bounceback opportunity against a strong Brewers team to win their first series — and frankly, regardless of how good either team is Yankees-Red Sox always manages to be a challenging matchup. Houston’s taken a stumble recently, but they’re also a nemesis that would love to get in the Yankees’ way, and Yordan Alvarez is back to mashing anything close to the zone. The Rangers represent the team with the best record at the moment of any opponent the Yankees will face this month, standing at 7-5 atop the AL West, and their pitching is good enough to compete in any series they enter.
The majority of these series are ones the Yankees should win, and that’ll set themselves up nicely to maintain their hold on the division lead. They’ve been given an early cushion thanks to their rivals starting off cold, and have a couple of them directly in their path to close out April too. I think if they can handle the Athletics today they’ve got a runway to keep the series streak going for a while, with Boston or Houston the most likely to ruin the fun. How long do you think the Yankees can keep the good times rolling?
Today on the site, Peter starts us off with the Sequence of the Week featuring Brent Headrick showing up with a solid showcase of pitch tunneling. Sam recaps the rest of the relevant AL action from Wednesday, as some of the Yankees’ rivals managed to get back on their feet. Jeff wishes a happy birthday to a fan favorite around these parts in David Robertson, and Michael gives us another minor league preview covering the Single-A teams in Hudson Valley and Tampa. After the game, Estevão discusses the upcoming roster shakeup as Luis Gil is set to rejoin the team and complete the five-man rotation while the likely cut candidate in Cade Winquest never managed to make it on the field.
Today’s Matchup
New York Yankees vs. Athletics
Time: 1:35 p.m. EST
Video: YES Network, NBCSCA
Venue: Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY
