The Yankees paid Tribute to the 1998 World Series Champion Yankees over the weekend (August 18-19). As soon as the game ended on Saturday, I tweeted out the headline. Afterwards the Post and Newsday had the same headline.
*PARTY LIKE IT'S 1998*
KUDOS TO '98 TEAM !!
'18 YANKS CAN LEARN
FROM THEMCHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN:
SEVY THROWS CHANGE-UP EARLY
& OFTEN .
BETTER PERFORMANCE
5 INN, 2 ER , 2BB/ 8KBATS COME ALIVE:
ANDU CAN DU: HR , 3H, 3 RBI
DIDI & STANTON HR— Mike Pinto (@MikePintoNYY) August 18, 2018
The Yankees belted 4 Homers (Didi, Stanton, Andujar and Bird) and Luis Severino went 5+ innings allowing 2 Runs, K’d 8 to earn his 16th win (16-6) of the season in an 11-6 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium.
From a strategy standpoint the headline could be .. PLAY LIKE IT’S 1998
What do I mean by that ? The 2018 Yankees are fixated on hitting home runs. The 1998 Yankees hit home runs but they were more focused on hitting for average. The ’98 Yanks had a team .288 BA , the current team has a .252 BA. In the last series against the Rays they went 1-20 with RISP in the last two games (both losses). The 1998 team had 3 players that hit for high average… Bernie .339 , Jeter .324 , O’Neill .317. In a season when other teams had sluggers hitting 40,50,60, even 70 home runs, the 1998 Yankees didn’t have one player that hit 30 homers. They looked to hit line drives and play situational baseball, and yet still had 8 players hit 17 or more HRs.
Most importantly the 1998 Yankees were built on solid pitching .. from their starters, to their entire bullpen. Yesterday’s game was so important for the Yankees because it was not only a win that they needed but it was a much needed win for their ace Luis Severino, who had not won a game in his previous 7 starts pitching to a 7.5+ ERA during the stretch. Severino is probably going through a tired arm stage, causing his fastball to lack late-life (although the velocity is still good) and his slider doesn’t have that wipe-out downward tilt. The thing that Yankees coaching staff continues to overlook is the critical need for Sevy to throw his change-up as a third pitch .. consistently. In this game Sevy not only threw the c/u but he introduced it early in the game. In fact he had 2 K’s in the 1st inning (McKinney & Smoak) and both K’s came on change-ups !!
It was a good game all around as the Yankees look to sweep the Jays today (Sunday 8/19). The rallying cry for the rest of the season could be .. PLAY LIKE IT’S 1998 , when they won 114 games during the regular season, and more importantly 11 postseason games on route to a WS Championship.
As always,
Go NYY !!
