The August slump is finally over and the Yankees are back to the winning streak that they had until July’s first week. With the team getting its offense back, injured players returning, and backup firing beyond its potential, New York fans have started to see a dream run for their team.
The memories of the 2000 Subway Series are returning. That year, the Yankees and the Mets topped of their respective East divisions. The Yankees beat the Mets in a five-game World Series in 2000 that was exciting from the first pitch to the last. The city can think about a second act again now that the Yankees have woken up.
This summer, the cross-town rivals topped their respective leagues for four months. They played four close games in two boroughs. While the Mets swept two games in Queens, the Yankees emerged victorious in the Bronx. After a brief summer meltdown, the worst since 1991, the Bombers are back to restore their pride.
Before the Yankees, no team had ever had a .700 record in the first 60 games of a season and then lost the next 60 games. No matter what else happens, the 2022 Yankees will always have the record of being the first team to be both that strong and that slow right before the stretch run.
Aaron Judge, who leads the offense for the Yankees, feels that the team has learned from its mistakes. Following their third straight win, 4-2, on Tuesday night, the slugger told:
“The most important thing is that we learned from it. We learned what to avoid doing.”
They won against the Twins, equaled the Rays to remain in the AL East race, and beat the Red Sox to announce their return. A healthy divisional lead makes fans think of celebrating the pennant.
The Mets have a better record but the Yankees are in a stronger position. They left for the West Coast late Tuesday night, leading Tampa Bay in the American League East by eight games. The Mets were only two games ahead of the Braves in the National League.
On Sunday, the Mets stole a win in Philadelphia by getting most of their outs from pitchers, who were making their first appearances in the Major League. Max Scherzer is a future Hall of Famer, so Showalter sent him out to pitch on Monday. The Mets lost, of course, because baseball is so strange.
The Yankees had lost six straight series before winning that game. That hadn’t happened since 1995 when Showalter was their manager. After thousands of games in other dugouts, Showalter has naturally gone full Met. When a reporter asked him about the crowd at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, he shot back, “Yeah, it was almost as good as ours at Citi Field.”
There was a home run by Judge for the second night in a row, and the Yankees played great defense. Frankie Montas and Andrew Benintendi, who joined the team at the trading deadline, also played well. Before that, there was no such performance by the team in any of the previous nine games.
“Shortage of home runs? I had no idea,” told a surprised Judge after Monday’s blast, which was a shot off Scherzer from the opposite field.
On Tuesday, Judge hit a 453-foot shot deep into the stands above left-center off Taijuan Walker. As usual, he dominated the game. He now has 10 home runs in 21 games against the Mets.
Roger Maris hit 49 home runs for the Yankees in the same number of games in 1961, on his way to an American League record 61. Maris hit .269 that season, and he was on base 37.2 percent of the time and hit .620 home runs. Judge is better in every way: .294, .394, and .663.
“The dude is pretty much the best hitter right now,” Montas said and continued, “I feel like every time he steps to the plate, everybody expects a home run. I mean, he’s a stud.”
The Yankees probably wish Judge had signed the contract they offered him in April, but they have to be impressed by how sure he was to turn it down. Judge turned down seven years and $213.5 million because he wanted to prove he was worth even more. Now, he is bringing up names like Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle, which is a good thing.
“You still don’t believe it,” Judge said. He added, “It’s pretty wild to think about, especially the things that they accomplished over their career, the things they did for this game of baseball, the records they set; I try not to look at it, because we’re still a long way away from even being in that class.”
The subplot will get more interesting as the season goes on. The Yankees are almost certain to win their division, and the next week should help them get even farther away from their 4-14 start to August. The Oakland Athletics and the Los Angeles Angels are both bad teams, but that’s not the only reason.
Giancarlo Stanton, a power hitter, is ready to join the active roster. Closer Clay Holmes too waits for his return. Luis Severino already has good rehab. Zack Britton has recovered and may join after a rehab assignment.
Most people don’t realize that the Yankees’ great start was partly due to how healthy they were. General Manager Brian Cashman said that the first few months were “probably the best stretch of not getting hurt I’ve ever had.” Still, Cashman took a chance by trading for Harrison Bader, who was hurt and is still getting better from plantar fasciitis.
Bader was the center fielder for St. Louis last year and won a Gold Glove. He is now a Yankee, but his long blonde hair has been cut short to follow team rules. Monday night, the pitcher the Yankees got in exchange for Bader, Jordan Montgomery, was throwing a one-hit shutout for the Cardinals. This was shown on the TV in the clubhouse. Some of his old teammates cheered when he was done.
Montgomery is now 4-0 for the Cardinals, while Montas has yet to win a game for the Yankees. But on Tuesday, he pitched well and got the Mets’ Pete Alonso out. Alonso missed a high fastball and took it out on his bat, cracking it over his left leg as he walked back to the dugout.
Alonso’s bat broke again and the video will be around forever. Everything gets bigger in the World Series, and now that the Yankees are back to being themselves, an all-New York version is back in play. If the summer games were a sneak peek, a repeat in the fall would be amazing.
Is a repeat Subway Series going to happen? What are the chances for the Yankees?
