OAKLAND, California: No time for prolonged hangovers.
The Yankees went back admirably to this playoff race … and there’s plenty of time for them to get out of it.
When Tony Kemp smashed an eighth Chad Green quick ball entry over the right field wall of Oakland Coliseum on Sunday afternoon, the Yankees sealed their fate, a 3-1 defeat and their second straight loss. after his historic streak of 13 wins.
A two-game losing streak, in the void, represents a hiccup in the middle of a marathon of 162 contests. However, these 2021 Yankees have a history of two steps forward and two steps back. If they have come a long way with their 35-13 display, they have also required a climb after starting the calendar with a perfectly mediocre 41-41 mark featuring a number of peaks and valleys.
And boy, sometimes, these last two days, the Yankees sure looked like they were playing the hits of that tough look. “Hits” in this case does not mean absolutely single, double, triple or home runs.
“It’s going to hit the road even when we’re playing great,” Aaron Boone said, disagreeing with the thesis of this column. “Towards Anaheim. Our focus is where it needs to be. ”
The test will take place in Anaheim, where the Yankees will throw a three-game series against the mediocre Angels on Monday night. Because these last two days, which ended with the Yankees ’consecutive win in series at 11, he felt more hungover than Jack Tripper waking up and discovering a tattoo on his back in“ Three’s Company ”.
On Sunday, Gio Urshela made a couple of mistakes at third base, the first of which led to the A’s first run in the fourth and the second extended Jonathan Loaisiga’s seventh inning (and made it not obvious resort to the least reliable Green for the eighth). Their lone run was courtesy of two A errors in the seventh inning, as they added just five hits, none of them for additional bases. They qualified in two double plays, giving them three in two games after getting just four in the entire winning streak (thanks, ESPN).
And Boone made another call (or no call, in this case) that he countered: illuminating Green the right-winger Green, who has better performance against right-wing batters, to launch into Kemp, who moves with the left, which does better against right-handed pitchers. with two exits instead of walking him with first base open (and with Mark Canha at second base after a double scald) and going after Elvis Andrus ’ninth batter, who plays right and turns with the right.
Mitigating Factors: 1) Andrus was 3 to 5 for life against Green, although he became 3 to 6 when he came out on the ground after Kemp’s home run; 2) Veteran left-hander Mitch Moreland remained on the reserve as a potential hitter. Simply put, it didn’t work.
Because it didn’t work out and because the Yankees fell quietly against Andrew Chafin in the ninth, Boone’s group is now six games away from first-placed Rays, who won once again, in the Eastern American League. They maintained the two-game lead over the Red Sox in the race to get the AL wildcard, even though the A gained ground.
One can expect a decline after such an intoxicating journey. It simply cannot be tolerated for a considerable period of time due to the tenuous situation of the Yankees.
“We played two very evenly matched games,” Green noted. “It would be a loss for an explosion to move to the next game. We just couldn’t get ahead. I think we continue to play good baseball.
Eh. It’s not about winning baseball against a good opponent. It doesn’t come close at all to the ball mark they had been playing.
Whatever you want to call this blip (for now), a hangover or something, they have to get over it quickly to honor what they did to get to that hanger.