New York Yankees: Winners and losers from the first week of May
By Sean Dyer
Who are the winners and losers of the past week of New York Yankees baseball?
The New York Yankees are on an absolute tear right now, winning 15 of their 16 games. They’ve been unbeatable since the calendar turned to May, going 6-0 this month. The Bronx Bombers won the final three games of their four-game set with the Houston Astros before sweeping the Cleveland Indians. They’ve been getting contributions from everyone on the roster, from rookies to seasoned veterans. It’s truly something special to watch!
In what will be a weekly series throughout the 2018 season, we take a look at the winners and losers of the past week of New York Yankees baseball. Who’s trending up and who’s trending down after the Yanks’ red-hot start to May?
Winner: Starting Pitching
Entering the season, starting pitching was considered the weak point of the New York Yankees roster. Then as the season got underway, Luis Severino put up a clunker against the Boston Red Sox, Masahiro Tanaka had a couple of rough starts, CC Sabathia took a trip to the disabled list, and Sonny Gray couldn’t seem to find his way. Could New York’s biggest weakness take them down?
Thankfully, we were looking at a small sample size and the starting pitching has helped carry the Yankees through their dominant stretch of games.
Severino has made just one start in the month of May, but he certainly made it count as he tossed his first career complete game shutout. This was no ordinary shutout. Sevy completely shut down the Houston Astros, one of the best offenses in baseball. Severino allowed just five hits, one walk, and struck out 10.
Tanaka’s only start in May started off as dominant as Severino’s but ended up just being a decent start. Tanaka had a shutout going after allowing just three hits through six innings against the Astros. He then gave up a pair of singles and hit a batter to start the bottom of the seventh before being pulled for the usually reliable Chad Green. Unfortunately, Green gave up a couple of singles of his own and before the inning was over, all three of Tanaka’s runners came in to score. Tanaka’s final line was a solid six innings, five hits, three runs, no walks, and five strikeouts. Although he couldn’t pick up the win, Tanaka has now strung together three consecutive quality starts.
Sabathia continues to turn back the clock this season and was dominant in his lone May start. CC went six shutout innings, allowing just three hits, no walks, and striking out seven Indians. Sabathia wanted to go back out for the seventh inning, but Aaron Boone pulled him in favor of Dellin Betances. Betances pitched well, but unfortunately, the bullpen couldn’t hold Sabathia’s 5-0 lead and CC was unable to pick up the victory. The Yankees, of course, were still able to win on a walk-off single by Miguel Andujar. Sabathia has surrendered just one earned run in 23.1 innings since returning from the DL.
Gray just didn’t look himself out on the mound to start the season, working up a 6.67 ERA in the month of April. In May, however, everything was going right for the Yankees’ starting pitching. Gray went six innings against the Indians, allowing four hits, two runs, two walks, and seven strikeouts, all while picking up his second victory of the year. With back-to-back good starts, Gray has lowered his ERA from 7.71 to 6.00 and seems to be heading in the right direction.
Domingo German made his first MLB start on Sunday, filling in for the injured Jordan Montgomery. German’s starting debut was historic as he threw six no-hit innings, allowing just two walks and striking out nine! He couldn’t pick up the victory as the Yankees used another late rally to get the win against Cleveland, but German definitely earned himself a few more starts while New York waits for Montgomery’s return.
The New York Yankees’ starting pitching was fantastic this week, making them a fairly obvious winner!