The All-Star break giving us a four-day reprieve before kicking off the unofficial second half of the season is always a good time for reflection, as many front offices are surely doing with their rosters in the weeks remaining before the trade deadline. A lot can still happen to change up what the Yankees are working with, but until a move is made the team that they’ve got on paper needs to be the one showing up on the field. They finally pulled out of their tailspin in the week before the break, splitting a series with the Rays and sweeping the Nationals to give themselves a platform to hopefully spring off of once they’re back starting on Friday, but they’ve got a tough schedule in front of them.
The Yankees are in the tougher half of the toughest remaining schedules leaguewide with the 12th hardest foes left to face from the rest of July through September, and a few of the biggest ones are right on the horizon. Right out of the gate they’ve got the two-time defending champion Dodgers visiting the Bronx, and following them is a Pirates team that has surprisingly been rather competent surfacing over .500 this season. A road trip to Philadelphia is next up, and the Phillies have completely turned their season around since firing Rob Thomson and installing Yankee legend Don Mattingly as the interim manager putting them just two games behind Atlanta for first place in the NL East. A week in Chicago rounds out the month with both the White Sox and Cubs coming up back-to-back, and the ChiSox are another surprise as they narrowly lead the AL Central with the Cubs remaining a solid postseason threat in the middle of the NL Wild Card.
That’s a lot of contending teams to face in a row, and while the Yankees may have had a good week finally they’ll need to be on their A-game to not continue sliding down the standings with that many strong opponents on the docket. The schedule doesn’t let up from there, but let’s zoom in on this stretch to close out July for a moment. With the expectation that the big clump in the standings is going to force teams to wait around until the last minute before committing to being buyers or sellers, it’s reasonable to assume that the roster as it stands is going to be the ones handling this stretch, and it’s a crucial one. So how can we expect the Yankees to handle it, and how many series can they convert into wins?
Their immediate challenge with Los Angeles would certainly set the tone if they can win it, and they’ll be rolling out the top of their rotation rested and fresh with Cam Schlittler going in the first game to give themselves a chance, but I don’t think anyone would be surprised if they only came away with a win at most from the three-game set. Pittsburgh is a different discussion though, and for all the good they’ve done this year they have to be viewed as a team for the Yankees to beat. The Phillies are the pivotal point in this run, as the second-best team of the bunch and the first stop in a lengthy road trip — winning two out of three here would be a statement that the Yankees are back.
The White Sox got smashed the last time they faced New York, giving up 10+ runs in back-to-back games, and will be looking for vengeance on their home turf, but even though they’re a division leader they’re one of the weaker ones in all of baseball. With a four-game set the even split is the most common outcome, but tilting it in the Bombers’ favor is the kind of result they’ll need to catch the Rays. The Cubs will be a tough task to round things out with, and the prospect of facing them to end a 10-game road trip is daunting — I don’t know if they’ll be able to manage that, but expecting to win every series is impossible and I wouldn’t fault them for stumbling here if they play up to their lofty standards in the thick of this stretch. All in all, I see an 11-6 or 10-7 run to open the second half as a realistic goal if the Yankees are done stumbling all over themselves. Do you think it could be better? Is hoping for .500 with all of these contenders in the way the best they could hope for? Let us know what you think down below.
We’ve got a chill day ahead as we take our last day of rest before starting the dog days of summer. Nick leads off with a look at one of the few names that has been directly linked to the Yankees in trade rumors so far with Ryan Jeffers, and Matt follows with a birthday post for Tom Metcalf and the charming run he had in his lone year in the majors. Peter and Andrés both take Paul Blackburn under the microscope, with the former giving him the Sequence of the Week treatment while the latter looks at his breakout season at large. Then, Josh will preview the pitching matchups we’ll see when the Dodgers arrive tomorrow to kick off the post-break push.
Today’s Matchup
Off-day (Yankees will resume tomorrow at home against the Dodgers at 7:05 p.m. EST)
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