Yankees Must Take Advantage of This Over Next Two Weeks

Yankees Must Take Advantage of This Over Next Two Weeks

By Derek McAdam

August 7, 2024

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In what seemed like the longest six or seven weeks due to the New York Yankees playing absolutely abysmal baseball, they’ve played much better over the past three series, winning all three and even sweeping the struggling Philadelphia Phillies. And sure, the Yankees may have caught the Phillies in a bad slump, but they also managed to take two of three games from both the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays, both series wins after dropping the opening game.

And sure, the Blue Jays are a struggling team that just traded away several big names. But that’s a series that the Yankees could not afford to lose, as they need as many wins against the AL East teams as possible. Also, how bizarre would it be for the Yankees, a team that picked up several players at the Trade Deadline, to lose a series to the Blue Jays, a team that traded away several big names?

Hopefully, the Yankees have turned the page and can now focus on the divisional race with the Baltimore Orioles, who also just went through a brutal stretch of baseball that lasted around a month. And what better way for the Yankees to try and gain some ground than with a relatively easier set of games that are coming up within the next two weeks.

First up are the Los Angeles Angels, a series that was scheduled to begin last night, but due to rain and heavy storms was postponed until today as part of a single admission doubleheader. The Angels are sitting in 4th place in the AL West and just lost Mike Trout for the remainder of the season due to a torn meniscus. As a team, the Angels don’t hit well and the pitching hasn’t been spectacular.

What comes as a negative for the Yankees is the doubleheader, as it has been a tedious task for the team to complete a sweep of doubleheaders over the past few seasons, as it is for many teams. Plus, there is still very good chances of rain over the next couple of days in the New York area, so it may be a challenge for any of these games to actually get in. Hopefully, the storms and heavy rain stay away, as light rain likely won’t result in any postponements.

On Friday, the Texas Rangers will come to the Bronx. While it will be interesting to see the defending World Series champions in action, the Rangers are a team that have struggled this season. They’re amongst the bottom half of the league in nearly all major hitting categories and have been decimated with injuries to their starting rotation. It is not the same team that many baseball fans saw play in the playoffs and World Series last year.

It seems, although it is still early, that former Yankee Nathan Eovaldi will face New York on Saturday. Since he departed New York, the Yankees have not had great success on Eovaldi, so I’ll be particularly curious in whichever game he starts in to see how they do.

After the long homestand ends, the Yankees will travel to the Southside of Chicago to take on the historically-bad White Sox for three games. This is a series that the Yankees cannot, and I mean CANNOT, lose. It almost seems that if they don’t sweep the White Sox, it would almost be disappointing. What would be even more disappointing is the Yankees not winning the series, as the White Sox are a team in the midst of a weeks-long losing streak.

Sure, the White Sox can break that streak before they face the Yankees, but I would not want to face this team if they hadn’t broken the streak yet. However, this is more of a fear that the Yankees would be the team that broke the ultimate streak. We will soon see if that will be the case.

The Yankees will then travel to Detroit to take on the Tigers for three games, although the Sunday game will take place in Williamsport, Pennsylvania at the site of the Little League World Series. Detroit doesn’t have a great offense and the pitching is average, at best, but they have one of the best starters in the entire league in Tarik Skubal. The Yankees may end up facing him during one of these games, but it is still too early to determine.

Following the Detroit series, the Yankees will play the Cleveland Guardians, a solid team that the Yankees took two games out of three earlier in the season. However, after the Cleveland series, the Yankees will play the Colorado Rockies, Washington Nationals, and St. Louis Cardinals to round out August. All three of those teams have either not played well all season or have not been performing to expectations (the Cardinals).

We are still in the beginning of August, and many things can change between now and the end of the month. But the Yankees have a relatively easy August schedule that they must take advantage of. Baltimore’s schedule, while it does have several easier series for the month, is not nearly as easy as the Yankees. However, it will soon be determined if they are able to take advantage of their schedule, as well as the Yankees’ ability.

I’m not expecting the Yankees to go out and sweep every series, as it is possible, but highly unlikely and unrealistic to expect. However, most of these series should end up as wins for the Yankees. It will not be an easy task, but I believe that they have shown some presence of life over the past week or so and have a little momentum in their favor. It’s time to capitalize on this momentum and string together even more series wins.