Yankees Humiliating Second Half Collapse: A Multitude of Failures

Story by Yinzer Crazy Contributor Roger l. McNamara

Beginning.  As the Sun set on this fair land on the evening of Sunday July 17 the New York Yankees seemed masters of all they surveyed.  Owners of a Major League leading 64-28 record, a .696 winning percentage projected to 112 Wins over the full season, they held a 15 game Al East Division lead over the closest challenger.  The team was at the time widely accorded in numerous media as among the best ever. Lost in the impressive numbers was the fact that 28 of the 64 Wins were of the come-from-behind variety, which some of us suspected (feared?) could not persist indefinitely.

The Middle.    While that same Sun was making its descent into the Pacific horizon on Sunday August 21 --- five weeks later --- the record stood at 74-48.  Losers of 15 of their last 20 outings and five consecutive series of three games or more, their .333 percentage since the Break is cited by some observers as among the worst all time for any team holding a 10 or more game lead at mid-season.  Now second overall in the American League and 4th in the Majors, the Yankees have seen their once seemingly comfortable 15 game Division lead shrivel to 8 over the rapidly closing Toronto and Tampa Bay rivals, with Baltimore not far behind.  There is no single aspect of deteriorating play contributing to the malaise.  Rather it has resulted from:

• inconsistent to poor starting pitching.  The deadline acquisition of Frankie Montas has been an absolute brick in the face;
• inconsistent to poor relief pitching.  A season ending loss of Michael King has left the relief corps in tatters, with only marginal help from newly acquired Scott Effross and Lou Trivino;
• hitting, especially when and where it counts, late innings with runners aboard.  Not long ago Aaron Judge was roundly conceded league MVP honors with a .310 or so batting average.  A few --- mostly meaningless --- home runs in recent games are not enough to obscure a dive to .292 average.  Andrew Benintendi’s arrival from Kansas City came with a .320 average.  Despite heroics on Sunday’s win over Toronto, his average has skidded to below the .300 mark.  And so on it has gone, for most of the lineup most of the time.     

The End.   Will the Yankees recover enough to salvage the 2022 Season?  With 40 games remaining much will depend upon:  1) Gerrit Cole’s reversion to top-of-rotation form, avoiding middle inning meltdowns which have plagued several of his recent starts;  2) Giancarlo Stanton’s return to a consistent run producing force in the middle of the lineup; 3) reliable late inning showings from both Clay Holmes and Aroldis Chapman.  All possible, nothing certain.   Nine games remain with the combination Toronto and Tampa Bay, six of which are slated for the road.

It calls to mind other fold ups by other teams in other years.  In chronological order:

• 1964 Philadelphia Phillies.   A dozen games remained on the season schedule when the Phils held a seemingly insurmountable 7 game lead, only to lose the next ten and overtaken by eventual World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals.  Manager Gene Mauch went with only a pair of starters down this slide, and working on only 2 days rest they were soundly beaten each time;
• 1969 Chicago Cubs.  A 9.5 game advantage on August 14 induced odds-makers of the day to accord the North Siders a 98% probability of gaining the playoffs.  Whereupon the Cubs dropped 14 of their final 20 starts, bad enough to be overtaken in the NL East by the New York Mets.  Posting their first winning season since the 1962 franchise debut, the Metropolitans would go on to a shocking 4 Games to 1 upset triumph over Baltimore in the World Series;         

1978 Boston Red Sox.  This time it was the Yankees who trailed by 14 lengths in mid-July, when Boston discovered new and inventive ways to lose.  A four game early September weekend sweep by NY shrank the margin to four, the teams finishing in a dead heat.  A single game Fenway Park playoff saw the Sox move to a 2-0 lead after six, but consecutive two out bases empty singles parked Yankee runners on second and first.  The starter was left in to face light hitting slick fielding shortstop Bucky Dent.  A moment that to this day sticks in the New England craw ensued.  Dent cracked his bat on a foul ball, borrowed another from on deck hitter Mickey Rivers, then used it to crank a three run shot over the Green Monster wall.  An eventual 5-4 Yankee final score propelled them into mid-October, World Series winners in six games over the Los Angeles Dodgers.