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Six franchises have won the World Series in the decade since the last Yankees title, and three of these teams are on their schedule this month. The Kansas City Royals (2015 champions) visit the Bronx this weekend. The Houston Astros (2017) swept the Yankees last week and this week, the Yankees swept the Boston Red Sox, who have gone from virgins to pitiful since they won the crown in the fall latest.
There is nothing better than an emphatic sweep of their rivals – even in a two-game series – to clear the clouds on the Yankee Stadium. After an eruption on Tuesday and a return on Wednesday, the Yankees and their disparate team seem able to withstand the rush of injury and fight again.
"There is always a guy and a guy and a guy coming in, trying to meet as best as possible," said runner J.A. Happ said after six innings and a third in Wednesday's 5-3 win. "We hope to find a group of players, but at the same time, these games have the same weight. We must hold on. "
The best way to do this is to start throwing. On Tuesday, James Paxton became the first Yankee since 2002 to record at least eight shutouts and 12 strikeouts during a game. A day later, Happ improvised after struggling with his fast four-seamed ball, using two-seam seams and changes to keep the game tight until Brett Gardner gave the big slam starting in the seventh.
With Paxton, Happ, Masahiro Tanaka, CC. Sabathia and Domingo German in their rotation, the Yankees should keep most matches close enough to the marker and the offensive to give them a chance. Paxton and Happ – who had combined for zero quality starts in six outings before this week – showed this in great detail.
"They are builders of character," said director Aaron Boone. "These are things during the season that I think are good for guys, when you make a breakthrough and find your way in a season."
Speaking of breaking through, Clint Frazier took the lead on Tuesday and went 3 for 4 on Wednesday, raising his average to .333. He takes advantage of the absence of the two championships Aaron Hicks and Giancarlo Stanton – two of the 12 Yankees currently on the injured list – and is catching up to the lost season that he has endured in 2018 after a concussion at home. spring training.
"I wanted to be in this field, but no one could put my hand on my head to work on it and make it more enjoyable," Frazier said. "It's the difficult part. Some of these injuries can go into the training room and do some things, physically, to make you feel better. And for me, it was hard to cross because there were so many strangers with this injury. It lasted a long time, man.
Before the injuries of his teammates this season, Frazier, 24, had no clear path to play with the Yankees. he started the year in the miners. He now shows why the Cleveland Indians have made him the first player at the high school position selected in the 2013 draft. It may take a bit of gymnastics on alignment to hold him back when his fellow fielders will come back from their wounds.
"I look forward to these gymnastics," Boone said, adding that "it's a guy, the talent and speed of the bat, as well as the ability to hit the ball, come out of it." screen, I think everyone sees it. "
The Yankees saw it in July 2016, when General Manager Brian Cashman acquired Frazier and Justus Sheffield Indians for the Andrew Miller Relay – a decision taken six days after extracting Gleyber Torres and Billy McKinney from the Chicago Cubs in part of a contract with Aroldis Chapman. .
Cashman played Kingmaker that season, helping to send the Indians and Cubs to the World Series. The Yankees have not been here for a decade, but these agreements continue to bear fruit: In addition to the production of Frazier and Torres, their initial stopping point, Cashman used McKinney to trade against Happ and Sheffield to trade against Paxton.
Chapman, of course, came back to the Yankees after winning the seventh game of the World Series for the Cubs, leaving the Indians in order at the ninth inning after canceling the save in the eighth. This effort, under the most intense pressure possible, without its best material, was instructive for the evolution that Chapman should eventually do.
According to Fangraphs, he averaged 96.9 miles at the hour of his fastball, his lowest level in career, and he launches more sliders than ever before. But this slider is still quite efficient, and it has reached 99.8 m.p.h. against his last hitter on Wednesday. Chapman remains a closer elite and should be the least of the Yankees' concerns.
The biggest question is the exhausted range, but Frazier, Torres, Luke Voit and D.J. LeMahieu seems pretty dangerous behind Aaron Judge.
"We are the Yankees, so we can strengthen our alignment in a thousand ways," Frazier said. "It's hard to be a young man trying to break through. You must catch a break from time to time. You hate it at the expense of someone's ability to stay on the ground, but it happens, and that's the next guy to play. I want to stay here a long time.
If it can do that, the Yankees' injury epidemic will have led to something lasting. Frazier deserves his chance.
"Sometimes I even forget that the Indians hired me because I felt that it was so long ago," he said. "It was a special moment for my family, to welcome me to professional football, but I'm happy to be here. I have the impression of having found a good home. "
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