Looking back at the split with the Yankees: A Nuanced Reflection

Pulling this from my comment on the Post-Game Thread so we all can slow down.

Let’s get one thing straight about this series. It’s a split against the best team in baseball at the current moment and while there were a pair of rough losses, it’s still a win regardless.

Furthermore, I’m not even complaining about the Judge situation. That was a good pitch and he golfed it and Carpenter (Cardinal Magic) prior could have caused a major headache when paired with DJ as b2b as they have been hot prior to this series. On top of that there’s Rizzo who is also EXTREMELY dangerous with RISP. It would have been a Lose-Lose Situation regardless where you’re damned if you do or don’t.

Furthermore they were out for blood after we humiliated them in back to back days so I am not too surprised about them being hellbent for revenge. It’s a good series for improvement. And we weren’t petty or dirty when compared to the Angels today.

Now for the good and the bad for this series:

The good news:

• Our Pitching is still sturdy especially without LMJ or Odorizzi. As seen through our number 4/5 out dueling their aces this series.

• Our bats have finally woken up and show life. JJ is legit and so is Dubon which is great for the Playoffs. We also got Peña back so huzzah to that.

• Maton despite a hiccup today was sturdy as always, Neris worked out of a really iffy situation with suspect calls and Pressly got his confidence back after a rough start to the series.

Room for improvement:

• Dusty. We love ya to death but you gotta give some trust to the arms and don’t get too cute with managing the Pen. You didn’t do that in the ALCS last year and it saved us big time against how lethal the Red Sox bats were that series. Just improve on that and give some trust or allow some of our arms to handle high leverage situations so we won’t run our invaluable arms into the ground.

• Maybe allow for arms like Martinez and Abreu to handle more high leverage situations which can alleviate stress on the bullpen for arms such as Stanek or Maton like we did this game for the 9th and 10th before Judge golfed a good pitch.

• Improve on RISP, Royals Style which could torch pitching big time: Those situations in both the 9th and 10th we could have capitalized on big time.

An arm to eye:

• A Bullpen arm to potentially eye is Carl Edwards Jr (2.52 ERA). Has potential for a 6-7th inning guy for leverage situations to bolster depth to the pen.