Bronx Bomber Ball

Say it isn't so. Photo credit: DSK

This feeling is familiar.  Photo credit: ESPN

Gerrit Cole has played October baseball before.  Photo credit: Yahoo Sports

Coming off a brutal road trip that saw them drop five of seven games to the Phillies and Rays in addition to the loss of Giancarlo Stanton to a hamstring strain, the Yankees needed a change of momentum fast as they returned home to the Bronx this week and got just that by taking both games in a quick two-game set against the Atlanta Braves. Photo Credit: Kathy Willens/AP Photo

The Yankees come into this week ice cold and looking for a rebound.  After a week that saw them drop five of seven games on the road against the Phillies and Rays, while seeing their AL East lead shrink to just two games, the Yankees return home for the start of a nine-game homestand looking to get back on track. Game against the Braves and Red Sox are on tap this weekend. Photo Credit: Douglas DeFelice/USA TODAY Sports

The 2020 New York Yankees have officially hit their first rough patch of the season. The Yankees lost three out of four games to the Tampa Bay Rays this weekend to cut their American League East lead to just two games. The problem this weekend was largely on offense, as the Yanks only scored seven runs in their three losses (2.3 runs per game). New York has now lost five of its last seven games, and seven of eight at Tropicana Field dating back to last season. Photo Credit: Chris O'Meara/AP Photo In the series opener on Friday night, the Yankees’ bats fell silent. In one of their worst offensive performances in recent memory, New York managed just two hits and failed to score a run against six different Rays pitchers. The Yanks only real scoring chances came in the seventh and eighth innings when the team went a combined 0-4 with runners in scoring position. One of the defining moments of the game occurred in the eighth when Mike Tauchman led off the frame with a double,...

This weekend in the Bronx, the Yankees completed a three-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox to bring their record to 7-1 in this unprecedented short season. In game one, Suzyn Waldman serenaded an empty Yankee Stadium with the National Anthem and CC Sabathia returned to throw out the first pitch.  Jordan Montgomery and the bullpen held the Sox to just one run­–a solo shot off the bat of Michael Chavis in the third.  Home runs from Aaron Judge, Gio Urshela, and Brett Gardner propelled the Bombers past the Red Sox to a 5-1 win.  Gardy’s homer ended his hitless start to the 2020 season, where he was previously 0-for-12 with seven Ks. 

What a week it’s been, and we haven’t even played a game yet.   News broke early Monday morning that the Miami Marlins had an outbreak of COVID-19 in their locker room that threatened not only their series against the Baltimore Orioles, but also the Yankees vs. the Phillies as well as, potentially, the entire league.   While games on Monday and Tuesday for the Marlins, Orioles, Phillies and Yankees were all postponed, MLB reconfigured the schedule and the Yankees will now head to OPACY to play the Orioles rather than host the Phillies for the 2020 home opener.   The Yankees will then host the Boston Red Sox this weekend as regularly scheduled. Photo Credit: Alex Brandon/AP Photo

Can you believe we’ve finally made it?   Despite all the animosity and ugliness surrounding the labor negotiations the past few months, the Major League Baseball Players association and MLB owners finally came to terms on the provisions to allow for a 60-game regular season in 2020 in the face of this global COVID-19 pandemic.   The 2020 season will be unlike anything we’ve ever seen before, with a shortened season, new rules, no fans in attendance, and a unique schedule that has teams only play other clubs in their geographic area.   But the important thing is we’re finally going to get real, meaningful baseball back in our lives this week, and I for one could not be happier. Photo Credit: Major League Baseball via Twitter

Ladies and gentlemen, we have finally arrived.   The matchup the baseball world has been patiently awaiting since mid-summer is finally here. Yankees. Astros. The 2019 American League Championship Series. A shot at a World Series title on the line.   How the two teams got here, however, could not be any more dissimilar.

October is here and 11 wins and 297 outs separate the New York Yankees from their 28th World Series title. To get there, Aaron Boone will have to get creative with his pitching staff. Gone are the days of counting on a starter to go more than five innings in a postseason start, and the Yanks just won 103 games despite having a starting rotation that was, at times, shoddy. In last year’s postseason, New York got 27 innings out of the bullpen and just 17 frames from their starters. Ideally, it will be more of a 50/50 split this season, but the team only has three true starters heading into October due to injuries, ineffectiveness and a suspension. Photo Credit: Elsa/Getty Images

Heading into their final five regular season games of the 2019 season, the Yankees have wrapped up most of their business, with just a few loose ends left over.   The Yankees just concluded their final regular season homestand this past week, taking two of three from both the Angels and Blue Jays, wrapping up their first AL East crown in seven years in the process.   The final homestand saw the Yankees hit the 100-win mark for the second consecutive season, the return of Luis Severino (who dominated in his two appearances) and Giancarlo Stanton, as well as the final regular season start for future Hall of Famer Carsten Charles Sabathia.   CC was honored with an emotional ceremony on Sunday afternoon, his last ever regular season game at Yankee Stadium.

After what can only be described as a difficult series in Oakland last week, the Yankees went on to face the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers and took two out of three games.   While not a sweep, the outcome of Dodgers’ series was exactly the type of outcome that restored fan confidence in the Yankees, especially with the postseason approaching in just over a month.   They are still firmly in first place in the American League East, with a full nine-game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays.  

For the first time all season, the Yankees are headed to Fenway Park. This weekend’s four-game series presents an opportunity for the Yankees to put the final nail in the American League East coffin of their long-time rival. Entering play on Thursday 12 games up on the Red Sox in the division, a series win, or possibly even a split, would make it next to impossible for the Red Sox to make a run at the AL East over the season’s final two months. New York comes into the series at 66-35, which is the best record in Major League Baseball. Photo Credit: Billie Weiss/Getty Images

The Rockies come into this series at Yankee Stadium struggling, going 2-11 over their last 13 games and now sitting dead-last in the NL West. Their struggles have been due in large part to the 5.44 ERA their pitching staff has, second-worst in baseball to the Orioles. The Yankees are certainly not the team you want to face when dealing with issues like they have. The Yanks head into the series with the best record in baseball at 62-33, eight games up on the second-place Rays in the AL East. Photo Credit: Julio Cortez/AP

After an extremely successful 57-31 start to the regular season, the Yankees had five players named to the American League All-Star team. The five All-Star selections are the most the Yanks have had in a single-season since being awarded eight nominations back in 2011. What makes that fact even more impressive is that New York didn’t send perennial All-Star candidates like Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Dellin Betances or Luis Severino this year, because each of those players have missed most, or all, of the season with injury. In their stead, the five players that will be listed below have helped the team not only stay afloat, but excel. Photo Credit: Noah K. Murray/USA Today Sports

Heading into Wednesday, the Yanks owned a 5.5 game lead on the Rays atop the AL East. The Rays currently have home-field advantage in the AL Wild Card game, sitting at 50-36. A series win from the Rays at Tropicana Field would put them right back into the race heading into the All-Star break. Photo Credit: Julio Cortez/AP

The Yankees kicked off a historic week by taking three games from the Blue Jays. The Yankees tied the consecutive game home run record with a home run off the bat of Aaron Hicks in game one of the three-game. This game was initially a blowout, but Jonathan Holder’s implosion in the eighth resulted in the game becoming much closer than it should have. The Yankees were able to hold on.   Photo Credit: NY Post

It’s the weekend that baseball fans from across the pond have been waiting for all season. Major League Baseball’s inaugural London Series, between arguably the league’s two most storied franchises, takes place this Saturday and Sunday. These two rivals have played each other five times so far this season, with the Yankees taking home four of those wins. Coming into the series, the Yanks are a season-high 10 games ahead of the Red Sox in the loss column. The Yankees come in at a season-best 52-28 (winners of nine out of 10), while Boston enters plays with a 44-38 record after winning six of their last 10 games.

It's been a good run the past week for the first-place Yankees.  They are entering a series against the also first-place Houston Astros, fresh off a sweep of their division rivals, the second-place Tampa Bay Rays.  Meanwhile, the Astros come to the Bronx limping after getting swept by the now 34-38 Reds. While we at the BBB tend to focus on pitching matchups in our series previews, this series is going to be a notable one for reasons that relate to the Yankees’ offense.   Why?   More and more of the ‘A-Team’ is returning from the Injured List.   Giancarlo Stanton returned to the active roster this past Tuesday.   With his rehab assignment now completed,  Aaron Judge is slated to return by the end of the current week.   Didi Gregorius hasn’t been back for too long.   So, the spotlight in the press will be on the question of… who is going to be in the starting lineup? Does Aaron Boone sit Cameron Maybin to make room for Judge?...