Time For Yanks To Attack
At this moment, the Yankees are 9 games back, in the loss column, behind the first-place Tampa Bay Rays – with 73 games to play this season.
Now, suppose that Scott Kazmir edges Andy Pettitte in a close one this evening; and, then, the Rays pound Sidney Ponson tomorrow afternoon (while Edwin Jackson holds the Yankees to four runs). Hey, it’s possible for these things to happen. If you don’t think so…then you’re not paying attention this season.
If the Rays win their next two games against the Yankees, that would put New York 11 games back of Tampa Bay, in the loss column, with 71 games left for the Yankees to play. (These 71 games would include six more with Tampa Bay.)
Would a Rays sweep of the Yankees, over the next two games, pretty much knock the Yankees out of the race for the A.L. East flag this season? It might, it just might…
For this reason, the Yankees need to come out of the chute tonight like a team looking to kick some patootie and take names later. New York cannot afford to start this game with a “O.K., let’s stick our toes in the water, ease into this, and see where it goes” attitude. If they do, there’s a great chance that the Rays will steamroll right over the Yankees and knock New York flat on its back – as, it seems, once you allow the young Rays to get some momentum in a contest, their emotion and enthusiasm starts to snowball.
It’s time to use that ol’ Billy Martin approach of “Get the first run in a game, get it early, and then start tacking on from there.”
It will be interesting to watch the very first inning of tonight’s game…as it could be a clue as to what to expect for the rest of this series.
I actually think the Yankees can win this game, if they aren’t flat like they were at the start of the Boston series. The Sox did them a favor by playing so poorly the last two games. It doesn’t hurt when one team feels a little better about themselves, and the other might be due for some bad luck. Key will be keeping Molina behind the dish to give them a chance to minimize their base stealing. Between that and Andy, the Yanks have a chance to keep the Rays from scoring a bunch of runs.
Or am I just trying to talk myself into believing that the Sox have a shot to gain ground, or at the worst not lose any?
the Yankees need to come out of the chute tonight like a team looking to kick some patootie and take names later.
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The game isn’t designed to be played that way. Then again, that could explain why Cano swings at everything in the same zip code, or why Melky has a tendency to swing from his heels sometimes…