Bronx Bomber Ball

***Edit*** This was supposed to be a Series Preview before the Yankees got fucked up by Covid, so maybe enjoy the little bit of optimism I had before this news, if you want to, and watch my reaction to the news as it came out *s show order of edits  Photo by Alex Trautwig/MLB Photos Yankees vs Red Sox Preview 7/15-7/18 The Bombers start their second half tonight  tomorrow night, beginning a four game series with the first  place Red Sox. The Yankees (46-43) enter the second half of their schedule 8 games behind the Red Sox (55-36) for first place in the AL East and 4.5 games behind the Oakland Athletics (52-40) for the second Wild Card spot after their nightmare first half of the year. Winners of five of their last seven games entering the All Star Break, this series will be a play a huge factor in determining how they play out the rest of their season. Will they look like the confident team, who was having fun playing baseball, that we saw about to sweep the Astros this ...

  Fresh off a weekend sweep against the lowly Detroit Tigers, the Yankees welcome the Houston Astros to the Bronx in a long-awaited rematch.   This will be the first time since the 2019 ALCS that the two teams have faced off against one another, the first time since the Astros were caught cheating during their 2017 World Championship campaign, and the first time fans will be in attendance to hopefully boo the ever living shit out of them.   Following the three-game set against the Astros, the Yankees will wrap up their homestand with a weekend series against the Washington Nationals.

  Opening Day is finally here, and boy are those words so sweet.   Major League Baseball battled through a pandemic last season which shortened the season to just 60 games and had empty stadiums throughout the regular season, but we’ve finally turned the corner in this fight against COVID-19 and MLB clubs will welcome back fans (albeit in limited capacities) starting tomorrow, April 1st.    The Yankees are locked and loaded and ready to finally achieve their decade-long goal of bringing home World Series title number 28.

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.

The best news surrounding the American League Division Series, at least for the Yankees, is that they will be heading right out of the metaphorical gate at Yankee Stadium.   Oh, and that if they are forced to head to a Game Five with the Minnesota Twins when vying for a ticket to the American League Championship Series, they will be able to play that important fifth game at home as well.   Out of the 103 wins recorded in the regular season for the Savages, 57 of them came in the Bronx.   What’s more, out of their 59 regular-season losses, they only lost at home 24 times.   That’s it.   Photo Credit: Wikipedia

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.  

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

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 are the hottest team in baseball, and it is not even close. Coming off an incredible two-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox in Major League Baseball’s first series across the pond, the Bombers have won 13 of their last 14 games, outscoring their opponents by an average of 3.1 runs per game over that span. On this 14-game tear, the Yanks have put up an average of 8.2 runs per game. Their offense has been impossible to stop and is a main reason they hold a seven-game led in the AL East.

The Yankees are rolling, having won eight of their last nine games as they welcome the Toronto Blue Jays to the Bronx for a quick three-game series. The Yanks are 1-2 so far against the Jays, having last played them in early June. It’s worth noting, however, that this is a very different Yankees team than the one that started out this month.    Toronto comes in struggling, as they come in at 8-13 in the month of June and are currently a whopping 20.5 games back of first place in the American League East. However, they did just take two out of three from the Boston Red Sox, which gives them a bit of momentum heading into this series. They are a slightly better team on the road than at home, with a .385 winning percentage in away games as compared to .342 at the Rogers Centre. Hitting has been an issue for Toronto, as they are well below league average in most major hitting categories and dead-last in team batting average. Pitching has also not been a strong suit, as they...

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?...

After an exciting 10th inning win in Cleveland, the Yankees are coming back home for a two-game series against the crosstown rival Mets.  The Yankees, who are now tied for first place, will be trying to right the ship after a little slide last week where they lost five of seven.  The Mets on the other hand are coming in a game under .500, and are third in the NL East, five games back of the Phillies.  Last week, they impressively took two of three from both the Giants and Rockies.  In 2018 the Yankees were 4-2 in the subway series, and hopefully they can use this quick series to get back on track.

The Yankees head to Toronto for their first meeting of 2019 with the Blue Jays. New York is looking to win their 10th consecutive series while Toronto attempts to right the ship after losing six straight and 10 of their last 11. The Yanks are currently 18-5 against division opponents so they will look to keep that success going. Photo Credit: Yankees.com

The Rivalry is back on in the Bronx, as the Red Sox come to town to take on the Yankees in a four-game set. The Bombers shut down the San Diego Padres Wednesday en route to their eighth consecutive series win, and they’ll look to ride that momentum into a very important series this weekend. While the Rays enter the day just a game out of first place in the AL East, they have a three-game set with the MLB-best Minnesota Twins on tap - it’s crucial the Yanks put away the Sox and begin to pull away from a surging Tampa team. The defending champions have not had it easy to start the year. They enter play just a game over .500, already 7.5 games back in the division race. Last month the Yankees swept a quick two-game set against the Sox - if the bats can take advantage of an unstable pitching staff (16th ranked 4.43 team ERA), they shouldn’t have an issue putting away their bitter rivals yet again. Photo Credit: FOX Game One, 7:05 PM EST, J.A. Happ (4-3, 5.09 ERA) vs. Chris Sale (...

The Yankees are still one of the most injured ball clubs in the league yet they continue to put tallies in the win column. The Bronx Bombers are one of the hottest teams in baseball having won ten of their last twelve games. They return home after a short road trip that saw them complete a four-game sweep of the Orioles as well as a 2-1 series win in Kansas City. The Pinstripes will start a seven-game home stand with a three-game set against the San Diego Padres. The Padres won the Manny Machado sweepstakes this offseason but many figured the 2019 season was going to be a rough one as San Diego sports one of the youngest rosters in the majors. They have vastly outperformed expectations as they sit at 28-25 through 53 games, good for second in the NL West. The Padres come into this series having won five of their last six as they look to keep pace with the LA Dodgers. The Yanks should look to continue their winning ways against three very young pitchers. The three p...

Heading into a three-game Memorial Day Weekend series against the Kansas City Royals, the Yankees are in first place in the A.L. East.  They are two and a half games ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays.   They have won six of their last seven games.  They swept the Baltimore Orioles in a four-game set, winning the last of the four games on a run driven in by an Aaron Hicks walk.  Players, the next of which will be James Paxton, are returning from the Injured List.   Not to put too fine a point on their situation, but, they are currently a pleasure to watch.

The Baltimore Orioles have, so far this season, proven an easy opponent -- as well they should be.  Of course, going into the season as the 2019 Yankees' first opponent of the year, the talk across the world of sports news was that the Orioles were in possession of one of the worst teams in MLB.  With a record of 15-31, and after dropping their most recent game 10-0 to the Cleveland Indians, they're certainly proving it.  While it's been an awfully convenient set of circumstances that has led the Yankees to easy teams in the midst of their unprecedented injury woes, the Orioles are beyond just an easy team.  They're terrible -- and even the "replacement" Yankees (who are proving to be quite the surprise force) have no excuse for losing.  In looking at the pitching matchups, there's only further evidence to the point that the Yankees should breeze through this series.  They've managed to make it to first place in the A.L. East foll...

For the second straight weekend the Yankees and Rays are set to face off, this time in the Bronx. Since the last time they saw each other both teams are 2-0 with the Rays taking two from the Marlins and the Yanks winning a doubleheader against the Orioles. This means Tampa Bay will open this series leading the AL East by just half a game, so whoever wins this series will be on top of the division.   Photo Credit: SI.com

After a quick trip down to Tampa which saw the Yankees take a three-game series from the Rays 2-1, they return to the Bronx for three games against the Baltimore Orioles. After struggling against Seattle and righting the ship a bit in Tampa, the Bombers find themselves at  24-16  on the year and only a half game out of first place.   This will be a six-game homestand for New York with three against Baltimore and three against Tampa. Baltimore is 3-7 in their last 10 and, as predicted, find themselves at or near the bottom of most major offensive and pitching categories. Oriole pitching has given up the most runs and homers in the majors and has the second least number of strikeouts. On the other side of the ball, they are well below average in runs per game, walks, and team on-base percentage.   Game One-Monday, May 13, 6:35pm EST   David Hess (1.4, 5.50 ERA) vs Jonathan  Loaisiga  (1-1, 4.50 ERA)   With James Paxton’s k...