Yankees’ ugly season still has a chance to be good

In the midst of this Yankees roller coaster season – “You have to enjoy the ride,” Aaron Judge advised club fans on Monday – you can find a cohesive adjective.

Ugly.

Ugly victories, ugly defeats.

An ugly season that still has the potential to turn beautiful.

The Yankees won the ugly Tuesday night, slamming five home runs to post a 7-2 victory over Baltimore to demand a slice of Oriole Park at Camden Yards revenge against the O’s, Major League Baseball’s worst entity, which has picked up two of three of Aaron Boone’s group during Labor Day Weekend in the Bronx.

With their third triumph in four tries, the Yankees (81-64) tied the Blue Jays (81-64), who lost to the Rays, for the first wild card spot in the American League. Both teams are one percentage point ahead of the Red Sox (82-65), who beat the Mariners later in the evening.

“Every day is going to be a chore. We’re used to it, ”Boone said afterwards. “Every day will be a fight.”

Kudos to the Yankees for putting an end to the heinous streak in which they lost 12 of 15 (which of course followed their historic 13-game winning streak), dropping out of the playoffs entirely on Sunday night before coming back all the way. following. Man, however, they don’t make it easy. Not even a win over the Orioles with ace Gerrit Cole on the mound and balls flying from the park off the Yankees bats.

Cole, who made his first start in seven days after leaving his Sept. 7 start with strain in his left hamstring, needed 108 shots to complete five one-run innings against these guys. Particularly stressful for the right-hander (and surely his teammates and superiors) were the first inning, when he threw 29 pitches and escaped from a base-laden jam, and the fifth, when he blocked the Orioles to the first and second after allowing the only point. .

“I wish I could have taken it a step further,” Cole admitted, “but Mike King understood me pretty well.”

King did, but not before starting with some angst: Gleyber Torres made his first mistake in 2021 on second base, joining the 18 he made at shortstop, giving the first and second to the O without any withdrawal. Torres cleaned up his own mess by turning Pedro Severino’s 100.4 mph ball into a double killer, though Boone lifted Torres in the eighth, inserting Tyler Wade on shortstop and knocking down DJ LeMahieu (from third base at second) and Gio Urshela (from shortstop to third base). Afterwards, the manager said he didn’t expect this to be the late-game norm for the Yankees to lead.

Boone said, cryptically, of his decision to eliminate Torres: “Just a few things, I thought it was the right thing to get him out of there tonight.”

And in the ninth, just back, Sal Romano recorded just one out as three Baltimore hitters hit base, prompting Boone to warm up closer to Aroldis Chapman – who entered the match after Romano injured his hand while trying to shoot Kelvin Gutierrez’s ball with his bare hands in the middle. . Damn, so much drama.

In 1983, before most of you were born, Rangers manager Doug Rader mocked Tony La Russa’s White Sox by proclaiming, “They win ugly. The White Sox adapted this as their identity and rolled it all the way to the AL Championship Series.

Maybe the Yankees can call La Russa, who runs the Chisox again, and ask if he still has any “Winning Ugly” T-shirts lying around. It doesn’t matter that the average height of a baseball player has roughly doubled since then. These T-shirts would suit those Yankees.

“It’s time to start now,” said Giancarlo Stanton, who went deep in the third set. “Secure the W.” Easier said than done with this band.

“This is the fun time of the year, where you want to chase after October baseball,” Boone said afterwards, although I suspect the, say, the Rays are having even more fun, despite their lack. roller coaster.