06/25/2012 – It’s hard to imagine that fans and media were worried about the Yankees as little as a few weeks ago. Questions were being asked about their starting rotation, Mariano Rivera was lost for the season, and the offense was inept at driving in runs when needed most. Would they have enough to win the division, would they even be good enough to win the wild card spot in a very deep league?
Apparently all it took for the Yankees to snap out of it was to switch leagues for a couple of weeks, as they plowed through the National League East, to the tune of a 12-3 record, on the way to taking over first place in the American League East and putting most of past doubts behind them.
The revival has been led by a resurgence in pitching, Andy Pettitte seems to have found the fountain of youth, Ivan Nova continues to win, Hiroki Kuroda is starting to show why the Yankees targeted him in the off-season, and CC Sabathia while not quite as dominant as he once was continues to be the winning workhorse that has always been the foundation of any rotation that he is a part of.
On the other end of the spectrum the Yankees offense still isn’t clicking on all cylinders when runners are on scoring position, but it doesn’t seem to matter as they can hit a 3 run home run at any point time. This was proven beyond any doubt in their two recent series with their cross-town rival New York Mets. The Yankees were impressive enough in round 1 of the Subway Series at Yankee Stadium, but that was to be expected. What really opened the eyes of New York Sports fan was the display of power the Yankees showed at Citi Field. Bombs by Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano, Nick Swisher, and Raul Ibanez proved to be to much for the Mets as the Yankees won 5 out of 6 games in total.
Now the Yankees are set to face the Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox, Tampa Bay Rays, and Boston Red Sox before the All Star Break. If they continue to perform as they have in recent weeks, it is quite possible that the Yankees can begin yet another march to October.
New Jersey Sports Press 