The Yankees losing streak has finally dropped them to second place in the AL East. This skid is just after a dominant five-game winning streak against the division rival Baltimore Orioles and Boston Red Sox.
What caused this sudden stretch of losses?
In the Midst of a Losing Streak, Yankees Need a Stopper Badly
Injuries: Cause or Excuse?
Well, many have pinned the losing streak predominantly on the team’s battle with the grind that is a 162-game season.
It all began with another bout of inflammation in the prized left shoulder of their closer, Aroldis Chapman.
Before Chapman’s return to Wrigley Field, he was 7/7 on saves and had a 0.79 ERA. In his next two outings, the final two before he went on the disabled list, he allowed four runs and recorded just four outs.
Dellin Betances was thrust into the closer role in his absence, and didn’t miss a beat. He continued his dominant season, so production from the closer position wasn’t the problem.
Rather, many credit the Chapman injury with destabilizing the remainder of the bullpen. The prime example is Tyler Clippard, who has been struggling badly as of late.
Clippard, who at one point in his career was an All-Star closer, has been unable to get the job done in the eighth inning. Since June 4, he’s had a direct hand in four Yanks losses. Three of those losses came during this losing streak.
Clippard got a loss for his awful performance on Tuesday (which came in the seventh), as well as another for allowing a game-winning home run in Toronto on June 4. In between, he’s blown two saves (although the offense bailed him out of another loss) and allowed a run in what would end up an 8-7 loss to the Los Angeles Angels.
Adam Warren also felt the effect of Chapman’s injury since he was vaulted into the seventh inning role. While he was more than capable of handling the work for the most part, the increased workload likely played a direct role in his recent injury.
Warren’s currently on the DL with shoulder inflammation. It is unfortunate both because they could certainly use him right now and because he has been one of the more reliable arms in their pen.
During Chapman’s absence, the team was also forced to use a revolving door of youngsters who just weren’t ready for the big-time appearances they got. This hurt them just as bad, if not worse than, Clippard’s floundering.
The Rest of the Story
While injuries have certainly played a role in this losing streak, they don’t tell the whole story. This team, the same one that was projected to be just over .500 this season, just might not have the talent to win the division, let alone lead the AL East wire-to-wire.
Coming off an improbable six-game winning streak, in which they won their games by a combined score of 60-12, this skid has taken many by surprise. It appears as though many believed that either they had the hitting talent to blow everyone out, or had already turned the corner—neglecting how young this team truly is.
Prior to both streaks, this team was 32-23. Sounds pretty good for a rebuilding team, except this might be an instance in which the numbers are a tad misleading.
The Yanks rattled off an 8-1 homestand in early April against the Tampa Bay Rays, Chicago White Sox, and St. Louis Cardinals after a mediocre 2-4 start on the road.
A closer look at those games shines some light on why the Yanks have lost these games. Three of those eight were one-run victories, which give credence to the injury argument, but two of them were in quality starts by their ace.
The True Root of the Yankees Losing Streak
Masahiro Tanaka, during that early season surge, recorded two of his five quality starts on the season. As of late, or more accurately for the majority of this season, Tanaka has pitched poorly.
The lack of a true ace on this staff, has been a major weakness.
Luis Severino has ace quality stuff, but he’s young and still working out some of the kinks. Michael Pineda has been greatly improved this season, but is still not an ace per se.
While Jordan Montgomery is having a surprisingly good rookie campaign, he is still largely learning on the job. Finally, CC Sabathia—who was considered washed up by most—has been a revelation, but his age and diminished abilities leave him far from a true ace as well.
Tanaka pitched fairly well in the first game in Anaheim, which the team inevitably won to extend their winning streak, but he underperformed with a chance to stop the bleeding in Oakland.
Furthermore Sabathia, in the midst of a hot streak, had sustained a hamstring injury in Anaheim in the first loss of this losing streak. His injury-shortened outing, in an extra inning game no less, only further taxed a shorthanded bullpen.
The bullpen was forced to go more than six innings in that game, after already having to do the same just two days prior since the team decided to move Tanaka’s start back a day.
The Yanks turned to him, already having lost four in a row, against a team he previously dominated and Tanaka was unable to pitch five innings. Rather, he allowed five runs on eight hits in just four innings and he allowed another three homers.
Tanaka has only escaped the fifth inning in seven of his 14 starts this season. For reference, Tanaka threw six or more innings in 25 of his 31 starts last season.
Without an inning eating ace, Joe Girardi has been forced to work the team’s bullpen harder than usual. This, when combined with the loss of Chapman for over a month, explains why the team was able to rattle off six straight wins to only drop seven straight immediately after.
Five of the victories were no-doubters, while six of the seven losses were by two runs or less. A taxed bullpen can easily bring those games home, but when fatigue has set in and players are being forced to pitch in bigger moments than usual, leads get blown and losing streaks happen.
Which better describes this team, the team that stomped through an AL East homestand or the team that crashed and burned through an AL West basement road trip? Of course the answer is both.
When a team is rebuilding there will be ups and downs, even for the Yankees. They might make the playoffs and shock the world with a run, or they could just as easily disappoint the Bronx with an ice-cold stretch like this one.
The only thing that is certain is that if this team wants to get off the schneid, they need one of their starters to step up and carry them up out of the hole they’ve dug for their bullpen.
