Yankees' Aaron Boone can now focus on what's next with postseason spot secure
Yankees manager Aaron Boone during his club's game versus the Athletics at Yankee Stadium on June 29. Credit: Ed Murray
It’s not his style, but Aaron Boone would’ve been justified late Tuesday night, sitting at his usual postgame podium, with the partying Yankees spraying champagne down the hall, to utter a simple, “Told you so.”
Because Boone was the guy we mocked during the ugliest moments of the previous six months, after he’d tell us, time and time again, not to believe our lying eyes. Regardless of who it might be, Boone always insisted (insert Yankee here) was fine, looking better, or his performance wasn’t as bad as the numbers suggested.
With Tuesday’s clincher, Boone was right for the eighth time in his nine seasons at the Yankees’ helm, joining the Dodgers’ Dave Roberts as the only two managers to make the playoffs with such regularity during their first decade. And now, as the Yankees regrouped Wednesday to continue their energized pursuit of the AL East title, Boone’s rose-colored glasses have never appeared more in focus.
In recent weeks, the Yankees have found solutions to their most pressing problems as the defending AL champs have rolled to a 27-12 record since Aug. 11, the best in the majors over that stretch. That leaves much less to be decided when the playoffs begin next week, either Tuesday hosting the Wild Card Series or Saturday for the Division Series.
“I never want to get to the point where we’ve figured it out,” Boone said, smiling. “This game will humble your butt in a hurry. But I do feel like those question marks that we had, it felt like we had the answers in there. You can see it building in every area.
“There’s a handful of guys that have personally got through some tough moments in the season. Collectively, as a team, we certainly have. And we’re going to walk into the playoffs with a really good team, capable of beating you in a lot of different ways. We can at least feel good about that. We gotta go do it, obviously.”
As for how they’ll do it, here are a few of those things the Yankees seemingly have figured out, just in time for October.
Volpe off the short leash. Remember when Anthony Volpe was not only a washout at shortstop, but supposedly Exhibit A for the failings of the Yankees’ entire player development staff? Well, in a New York minute, it seems like everyone has now moved past the Volpe crisis — or at least enough for the Yankees to be comfortable giving him his old position back. Apparently, that second cortisone shot for his shoulder worked wonders, as Volpe went from being benched to making his sixth straight start at shortstop Wednesday night and was hitting .400 (8-for-20) with two doubles in his previous six games.
It was Volpe’s leadoff single that sparked Tuesday’s ninth-inning rally and he’s looked like his Gold Glove self defensively, allowing Boone to use the versatile Jose Caballero in the manager’s preferred role: sparkplug off the bench. Caballero entered Tuesday’s game in the eighth as a pinch-runner, moved to third base, then later hit the walk-off RBI single.
Judge resumes MVP chase. It’s not as if Aaron Judge is totally recovered from his flexor tendon issues. The “creative cutoffs” remain part of the Yankees’ defensive alignment, indicating that Judge can’t air out his throws like normal. At the plate, however, Judge’s MVP pursuit is back at full speed, as he’s hitting .333 (21-for-63) this month with six homers and a 1.146 OPS in 20 games. Conquering his October demons will be the big test, obviously, but the two-time MVP is fully aware of the task ahead after last year’s flop in the Fall Classic.
“All the guys in this room have a good mindset,” Judge said in Tuesday’s champagne-soaked clubhouse. “They’re hungry. We want to get back to where we can put the Yankees on top.”
Call to arms. Typically, one of the biggest concerns this time of year is the functionality of a tired pitching staff. But the Yankees seem to have caught their second wind in this department, from already setting up Max Fried and Carlos Rodon for the first two playoff games, to leaning toward rookie phenom Cam Schlittler for Game 3. Fried was 5-0 with a 1.60 ERA in his six starts before facing the White Sox on Wednesday and Rodon was 6-2 with a 2.30 ERA in his last nine starts. Schlittler seems like the obvious call over Luis Gil, as his triple-digit velo is a much different profile than Fried or Rodon, and he bounced back Sunday with a three-hit, six-strikeout performance over 5 1/3 innings.
On the bullpen front, the Yankees’ relievers had not allowed a run in the past 10 2/3 innings and also pitched to 0.48 ERA over their last six games (18 2/3 IP, 22 K) since Sept. 17. Deadline-pickup David Bednar has solidified the previously shaky closer’s role, but getting to him can still be a tightrope walk for Boone, who has to hope that Luke Weaver somehow reverts to his shutdown self from last October. It goes without saying that now also would be a good time for Devin Williams to consistently deploy his “airbender" changeup again and Camilo Doval to harness a 100-mph fastball that has been erratic since being traded to the Yankees.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
