New York Post, Monday, August 19, 2019nypost.com51T
HE LUXURY of nestling
within the friendly confines
of The Bronx are all but over
following the Yankees’ 8-4 defeat
to the Indians on Sunday.
For not only does the team with the AL’s
best record face a daunting nine-game trip
to the West Coast that features three in
Oakland, a headline weekend series at
Dodger Stadium and then three in Seattle,
there are only 12 home games remaining
of the 36 still to be
played.
And sadly, none in
Baltimore.
The Yankees left
New York one game
ahead of the Dodgers
in the overall MLB
standings and 3 ¹/₂ on the
Astros (three in the loss column) for the
best record in the AL. If they are going to
advance to the World Series for the first
time since annexing championship No. 27
in 2009, they are advised to maintain their
standing as the 2019 king of the hill, top of
the list, a number one team.
For while a quite creditable 34-23 on the
road, the Yankees are a beastly 49-20 at The
Bronx Bandbox.
“That’s the biggest thing,” Aaron Judge
said when asked about the importance of
securing home-field advantage. “Even
though we’re going down the stretch and
we’ve got a [9 ¹/₂- game] lead in our division,
we’re not going to stop. We’re not going to
stop until the last game, 162.
“We want to keep winning. That’s big, es-
pecially now. We know how rowdy this
place gets in the postseason and how crazy
these fans are, and we love it. We feed off
that energy. So we’ve got to keep winning
and make sure we keep that home-
field advantage for the postseason.”
Judge crushed a ninth-inning line
drive one hop off the left-field wall
to complete a 2-for-5 afternoon
that included a pair of strikeouts
after a day off Saturday that followed
Friday night’s 2-for-3. So maybe, as
No. 99 has confidently in-
sisted, it is just a matter of
time before he becomes
his whole self in the
box again.
Still, the feared
slugger who hit
one home run for
every 10.4 at-bats
in 2017, when he
smacked a
league-leading
52, and one ev-
ery 15.3 last year
while hitting 27
in an injury-trun-
cated season, has not
hit one out in 51 at-batssince July 19 and has hit exactly one out in
108 ups since July 19. He has hit 12 homers in
253 at-bats this year, one every 21.1.
Maybe the power surge will return on this
trip, one that Aaron Boone seems to relish.
“Every major league season is filled with
different challenges,” the manager said fol-
lowing the split of the four-game series
against a potential playoff opponent. “We
just [finished] a stretch of 19 games in 17
days where until today we had four healthy
starting pitchers. That’s a
challenge. Travel at times
— going to London — can
be a challenge.
“Going on the road, these
are different challenges
that are inevitable during
the major league season.
But you kind of look for-
ward to them. We go out on the West Coast,
and play a couple of really good teams, ob-
viously, but we’re looking forward to going
out there.”
CC Sabathia became the fifth healthy
starter, returning to extremely mixed re-
sults from the injured list for his first outing
since July 27 when the lefty went on the IL
with right knee issues. He allowed four runs
in three innings, but pitched a scoreless first
and third sandwiched around a second in
which he surrendered a three-run homer
and walked three consecutive batters while
throwing 12 straight balls after an initial
strike.
It could have been worse, much worse,
and indeed Sabathia struck out the side in
the third, but the fact is that he has allowed
21 earned runs on 30 hits while allowing 10
home runs over 24 ¹/₃ innings covering his
last five starts dating to July 6. There may
not be a spot for Sabathia on the postseason
roster.
That decision is, of course, for later.
Just as the determination of whether
the Yanks will open every series at
home. You remember, of course, 2017,
when the Yanks won all three at home
in the ALCS against the Astros but
went home when Houston took all
four in its park.
“We’re great in this
building, we feel like we
have a tremendous
home-field advantage”
Boone said. “So we
want to rack up as
many wins as we
can with that
hope.
“But we also
know that we’re
capable of beating
anyone when we
put our best foot for-
ward no matter where we
play.’
[email protected]Yankees need to
bring some Bronx
magic on the road
Larry Brooks
KID YOU NOT: Aaron Judge was unable to make
the catch to rob Francisco Lindor of a fourth-inning
home run, but a young Yankees fan was able to reach
over the wall and make the play (inset). Paul J. Bereswill (2)
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