Bronx Bomber Ball

Photo credit: NJ.com

  Photo credit: MLB.com

  With just four days before Opening Day, the Yankees are rounding into regular season form down in Tampa and finalizing their roster they’ll bring up North with them for their Thursday matinee against the Boston Red Sox. Photo Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck/USA TODAY Sports

Photo credit: NY Daily News

Through all the troubles and frustrations in this Yankees season, the time is finally here. Playoffs. Thanks to the first ever walk off hit in the career of Aaron Judge, the Yankees beat the Rays in Game 162 to give the Bombers a playoff berth and send them to the Wild Card Game. 

Here we go again. Photo credit: Talkin' Jake

The Yankees aren’t boring anymore! Well, maybe they still are, but not for the same reasons as they were previously.   The Yankees have been in a rut most of the season of bland, vanilla, stale – whatever you want to call it – baseball and were dealt another series of blows this weekend to start the second half, losing Jonathan Loaisiga, Wandy Peralta, Nestor Cortes, Aaron Judge, Gio Urshela and Kyle Higashioka to the COVID IL. Loaisiga is set to return later this week against Boston, however, news broke on Sunday afternoon that Darren O’Day’s hamstring injury will cost him the remainder of the season. Zack Britton returned from the IL, but Tim Locastro tore his ACL on Saturday, and his season is done.   Rougned Odor is showing some signs of life, but Luke Voit is back on the IL.  One step forward, one step back.

Unless you live under a rock, or you don't have a television or Twitter, you've heard all about Corey Kluber's historic no-hitter on Wednesday night.   Photo credit: Cleveland.com

The Yankees have chosen to Get Higgy with it -- as they’ve made the decision to largely start Kyle Higashioka as their starting catcher. Photo credit: MLB.com

  In the final installment of our preseason positional preview, today let’s take a look at the Yankees forecasted bench for the 2021 season.

The Yankees announced their roster for the Wild Card series early on Tuesday, and Miguel Andujar was left off of it. Heading into the postseason, the INF/OF Andujar was the biggest question mark for the team, and whether he would be included on the roster or not. Instead, the Yankees decided in favor of having first baseman Mike Ford and third string catcher Erik Kratz on the bench. The third baseman and outfielder was hoping that a strong finish to the season could earn himself a spot on the roster, as he went 9-for-25 in September with four extra-base hits. However, it seems that the lefty bat of Ford (who went hitless at 0-for-19 in the final month of the season) gave him the advantage, as the team only has three lefty bats plus the switch-hitting Aaron Hicks on the roster, not including Ford.  

Your attention please, ladies and gentlemen… after a rather depressing dry spell, it is fun to be a Yankees fan again in 2020.  The Bombers just came off a ten-game winning streak, are locked in to complete their 28th winning season in a row and have clinched a postseason berth in the shortened 2020 season.  In spite of Sunday’s loss to the Boston Red Sox, they showed some fight in late innings in an attempted rally.  They swept the Toronto Blue Jays.  They set MLB records for most home runs hit in one game on consecutive days.  They came back from behind to beat the Red Sox in extra innings on Friday.  They’ve made such a comeback to the point that losing on Sunday did not hurt their playoff chances.  But there’s still something to play for in the upcoming regular season games. With one week to go, the Yankees sit 3.5 games behind the Rays for the division lead. With playoff rankings and home field advantage at stake, the Yankees will return to Buffal...

Prior to the start of Yankees Summer Camp, the Yanks’ once-faithful backup catcher, Austin Romine, bid the Bronx farewell and signed as a free agent with the Detroit Tigers.   However, the Yankees go into the 60-game 2020 regular season with three catchers: Gary Sanchez, Kyle Higashioka and Chris Iannetta.  Photo credit: Newsday

As the Yankees head down the final stretch of the regular season they will look to their minor league system for reinforcements to help them close out the year. They could activate up to 40 players but most likely will only call up a couple of guys. Here is a list of some of the players who could get the call: Clint Frazier : The time has come for Frazier to finally return to the Yankees. He has spent most of the season in the minors after struggling defensively but his bat will help the Yankees close out the season. In 53 major league games this year Frazier slashed .283/.330/.513. Frazier could get at bats at DH while the Yankees wait for the return of Luke Voit, Giancarlo Stanton, and Edwin Encarnacion. Photo Credit: Newsday

Right-hander Chad Green and backup catcher Kyle Higashioka have been optioned to Triple-A. In the corresponding moves, left-hander Stephen Tarpley has been called up and Gary Sanchez has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list. Jomboy of Talkin’ Yanks was first on the Green demotion and the moves were later confirmed by Yankees PR. Photo Credit: Chris Carlson/AP

After a strong week at home where they went 5-1, the Yankees headed west to open a four-game set against the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim. Coming off his best start of the season, the Yankees sent JA Happ to the hill to face old foe Matt Harvey. With the Yankees still struggling mightily with injuries, runs were hard to come by in this one but in the end, it was Gio Urshela that delivered an RBI single in the top of the 14th and sent the Yankees to a 4 – 3 victory . Credit: AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill

The Yankees were able to turn an August game versus the Marlins into one of the most intense games of the season. The Marlins left the bases loaded twice, in the bottom of the ninth and in the bottom of the eleventh. Both teams had ample opportunities to break out and failed miserably, but the Yankees eventually came out on top in the twelfth. Photo Credit: AP Photo

As seems to be a recurring theme, the Yankees made a pitcher look far, far better than their numbers. Coming in to this game, White Sox starter Reynaldo Lopez had an ERA well over four, yet had a no-hitter going until the bottom of the sixth. Kyle  Higashioka  seemed to have broken it, until Adam Engel made a spectacular leaping catch to rob him of what would have been a game-tying home run. It’s not  like  the Yankees weren’t getting help from their starter, either. CC Sabathia was nothing short of brilliant in his outing, striking out 12 and only giving up one run in 5.2 innings of work. Sabathia was able to work brilliantly out of a couple  jams   and  tied his season high with 103 pitches.  The White Sox got on the board in bottom of the third, when Jose Abreu’s sacrifice fly scored Omar Narvaez.    Photo Credit: AP Sports

The day after a game in which the Yankees almost blew a 6-0 lead, CC looked like he was going to implode early with the bases loaded.   But after 19 pitches, he struck out the impressive Ronald Acuna Jr. to leave the bases loaded.   Photo Credit: Julie Jacobson | AP

In a lineup initially missing rookie phenom Gleyber Torres, the Yankees were able to even up the series with a suspenseful 8-5 win against Atlanta. Despite a short performance from German and an exhausted bullpen, the Bombers took game two on a beautiful Bronx night.   Photo Credit: New York Yankees The action got started early in the Bronx with a two-run homer from Aaron Hicks, who now has nine home runs in his last 17 games. In the bottom of the second, Kyle Higashioka earned his second Major League hit as well as his second career HR with a long fly ball to left.  Brandon Drury collected an RBI after being walked with the bases loaded, which was the final strike for Braves’ starter Sean Newcomb. The potential All-Star was replaced after a meager 2.2 innings by Luke Jackson. Higashioka walked to earn his third career RBI, but Neil Walker’s bad luck continued as he sharply lined out to first for what could have been a multiple-run hit. Instead, the inning was o...