By GEORGE A. KING III
June 24, 2008
They have done what was required against the dregs of Bud Selig's world, taking seven of nine from the awful Astros, putrid Padres and rancid Reds.
And while the pitiful Pirates are on the docket for the next three games beginning tonight in Pittsburgh, there is a stretch of games lurking behind the Pirates that will tell us much more about the Yankees than the Astros, Padres, Reds and Pirates can.
Beginning Friday afternoon at Yankee Stadium the Yankees have four (three at Shea Stadium) games with the resurgent Mets, three against the muscular Rangers (tops in the majors in runs scored and slugging percentage; second in team batting average), a colossal four-game series versus the Red Sox and two with the Rays.
By July 9 we will know if the recent stretch of winning was a result of a schedule as soft as tissues or proof that April and May were a 60-day aberration.
"Your goal is to win every day," GM Brian Cashman said before traveling last night to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to watch the Triple-A club play Columbus. "When we were going bad we were losing to teams that were either bad or playing badly. Now, we are doing better."
While welcoming Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada back from the disabled list certainly filled out the lineup, the resurgence was the product of the rotation clicking for the first extended period of time.
Can a starting five that includes Darrell Rasner and Dan Giese, welcomes retread Sidney Ponson for one of two games against the Mets Friday and has three-fifths of the Opening Day rotation on the DL survive - and more importantly thrive - against the Mets, Rangers, Red Sox and Rays?
"It's something to smile about. You win series and put long streaks together when your starting pitching every day goes out and shuts the opponents down," Joe Girardi said. "You look at the last three weeks, they have been very, very good. That's why we've been able to get to six games over .500, (41-35) because they've been so good."
In the previous 10 games the starters were 5-2 with a 1.71 ERA. In 631/3 innings they allowed 53 hits, walked 18 and fanned 50.
"They've all thrown the ball well, so my comfort level is good. Giese was outstanding (Saturday)," Girardi said. "(Ras) is throwing the ball well, Joba (Chamberlain) is throwing the ball well, so for us to continue to stay on a roll we need those things." What the recent run of good starts has done is keep the Yankees from having to overpay for a major league starter via a trade. Ponson is a low-risk move since he isn't being inserted into the fifth spot. And he was pitching well when his personality got him bounced out of Texas.
Rasner and Giese have developed into feel-good stories with effective pitching. But remember they weren't on the 40-man roster at the start of spring training for a reason.
Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy were ineffective before getting hurt and Chien-Ming Wang is gone at least until Sept. 1.
Eventually, the Yankees will look to bolster their rotation from the outside or from within. Which way they decide to go will likely be determined by where they are on July 9 and how they arrived there.
