Nobody knew how the Yankees were going to turn out this season, and we still don’t.  With the loss of team captain Derek Jeter, the return of Alex Rodriguez after his year long suspension, and a host of offseason moves, there were and still are a lot of question marks surrounding their upcoming season.  To my surprise, they played well for the majority of the first quarter of the season.  I say, “the majority” because of their recent slump.  In eleven games they were only able to pull out one victory, which came against the Kansas City Royals.  They weren’t hitting the ball like they did earlier  in the season and the pitching rotation just let up too many hits.  Although the team as a whole wasn’t able to get the job done, A-Rod did more than his fair share.  In the last fifteen games that the Yankees played, he hit four home runs, seven RBIs (giving him the third most RBIs in MLB history), and had a .346% batting average.  He has taken over as the leader of the team both on and off the field.  Along with A-Rod, Mark Teixeira and Jacoby Ellsbury have been stellar at the plate.  Tex has been a slugger at the plate this year with team highs of fourteen home runs and thirty-five RBIs.  The issue with Tex in the past is that he has a history of injuries.  If he can stay healthy and keep performing the way he is, he will be a huge part of their success.  Ellsbury has done a great job of getting on base.  His batting average is a stellar .324% and his on base percentage is at an even more impressive .412%.  He is creating opportunities for the team to score by getting himself on base.  With the hot bats of A-rod and Tex behind him, it’s no surprise they’re scoring so many runs.

The Bronx Bombers are getting their mojo back after a three game sweep of the Royals.  Their offense has not been the issue this year.  They rank third in the MLB with 217 runs and sixth in slugging percentage with .418%.  Their pitching rotation was deeply affected by the injury of Masahiro Tanaka.  Tanaka was brought in from Japan in 2014 and signed a 155 million dollar contract with the Yankees.  He has been injury prone and has missed an excessive amount of time ever since. He has a small tear in his UCL along with wrist and forearm issues.  He has been playing in rehab games at the minor league level, however has not been been pitching well.  His return date is still unknown and can either mean he will return soon or take more time off to heal.  They need him to play his ‘A’ game when he returns.  Their starting pitchers are struggling.  Michael Pineda, well known for his pine tar incident last year, has a 6-2 record with a respectable 3.36 ERA.  He isn’t getting much help from his teammates.  CC Sabathia has played poorly all year as his record is just the opposite of Pineda’s at 2-6 with a 5.47 ERA.
The Yankees are lucky that the rest of the teams in the AL East are all playing poorly as well.  The Red Sox and Blue Jays haven’t been able to get any sort of momentum going in their favor.  The Rays are right there with the Yankees and it will most likely be those two battling it out for their playoff spot.  They remain in first place and will compete to keep that spot until the end of the season.  If they can continue to put the bat on the ball they will be able to compete.  However, if they want a real shot at a playoff run, the pitching needs to step their game up.