Via Bob Nightengale:
The Yankees, losers for the 12th time in the last 18 games Wednesday, find themselves nine games behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East, and six behind the Boston Red Sox in the wild-card race.
“What makes this tough, and different than years’ past,” Yankees outfielder Johnny Damon says, “is that we’re chasing so many teams. Tampa Bay looks like they could win our division, and for the wild card, you’ve got the Red Sox, Twins, White Sox, Texas, and even the Tigers.
“We’ve got to get within four games by the end of the month if we’re going to do this.”
There are 12 games left this month. Barring any help from the other teams, the Yankees are going to need to win 9 or 10 of those 12 games to get within 4 games of the Wildcard by the end of this month.
Johnny, that’s a tall order my friend. Extremely uphill.
And, don’t forget that 6 of those 12 games are against the Toronto Blue Jays – who are now just 2 games behind the Yankees in the standings. Don’t you think that the Jays want to win as many of those as possible and put the Yankees in 4th place?
Shoot, at this point, you have to worry about the Orioles too. The Yankees are only 5 games ahead of them in the loss column. Yes, today, the Yankees are closer to last place in the A.L. East than they are to first place.
Yikes, how bad would that be…if the Yankees were in last place come September 1st?
6 Responses to “Damon: Yanks Not Dead Yet”
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August 14th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Yikes, how bad would that be…if the Yankees were in last place come September 1st?
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If that’s what happens, so be it. Jeter, Cano, and Melky have stunk this year and injuries have killed the team. It is what it is.
The key, however, will be to make sure that the Steinbrenners don’t have a collective meltdown and make reactionary changes just to make it seem like issues are being addressed. That means no thanks to Sabathia, Teixeira, Sheets, Burnett, or anyone else due to be grossly overpaid this winter.
August 14th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Damon: Yanks Not Dead Yet
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One foot in the grave, the other on a banana peel…
August 14th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Jeter, Cano, and Melky have stunk this year
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ok jeter hasn’t been “jeterian”, but he hasn’t been as bad as cano or melky. thats not fair.
August 14th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
With Hal at the helm there will be no more insane mega signings but a select few, MJ. Steve good call on the Jays. Getting Cito back up north was goodwill and the fans up there want to see the season redeemed as they were supposed to contend as well as the Yankees. Toronto is not going to do any favors for the Yanks, so the Jays want to take as many games as they can. The scary thing is that the Jays have had their share of injuries and RISP like the Yankees, but Doc, AJ,Marcum and new kids Richmond,Purcey and Litsch have all been pitching great lately.
As for the Os, the Angels and the Os own the Yanks this year. Scary stuff given the fact that the Yanks seem to be closer to the Os as opposed to the Red Sox.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
FWIW, I think the Bros. Stein were OK with this being a transition year. But, last place? At a cost of $209 million? If that happens, I think all bets are off and you might see something radical.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Re: Gerrit Cole. Says he is going to college.
http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/14/first-round-pick-gerrit-cole-opts-for-college-over-yankees/