The Yankees won the first game of their series against the Blue Jays
The Yankees beat the Blue Jays 2–0 in the first game of their series in Toronto. After this win, they have just five games left in the season.
At 80–77, the Yankees need just one win in their last five games to avoid their first losing season since 1992. If they win two of their five games they would extend their streak of consecutive winning records to 31, second-longest in franchise (and MLB) history.
The Yankees should not have any trouble winning at least two of their remaining five games since after playing the remaining two games in their series against the Blue Jays, who are 1.5 games ahead of the Astros for the second wild card spot, the Yankees will travel to Kansas City to play the Royals, who are 54–103 and 30 games behind the Twins for first place in the AL Central. The only team with fewer wins than the Royals in MLB is the Athletics, who have 48–109 record and have gone just 2–10 in their last 12 games.
The Royals have actually been playing well recently since they are 10–2 in their last 12 games with five of those wins coming against the Astros, who currently have the third wild card spot. Before this recent stretch of success for the Royals they had gone 4–17 since August 19. The Royals likely will not be able to continue that level of success that they had shown since September 12 for their last two series of the season. The Yankees should be able to win two out of the three games against the Royals.
There is a possibility that Frankie Montas will actually make his season debut in the series against the Royals. According to Bryan Hoch, Montas is “in play” to pitch in the final series of the season against the Royals. The Yankees would be looking for him to pitch about three innings. On September 23, in Montas’s second rehab start at Triple-A, he threw two scoreless innings while allowing one hit, zero walks and striking out two.
The Athletics traded Montas and Lou Trivino to the Yankees for JP Sears, Ken Waldichuk, Luis Medina and Cooper Bowman at the trade deadline last season (August 1, 2022). He made his first start with the Yankees on August 7, 2022, allowing six runs in three innings. That trade his not been good for the Yankees since in his eight starts Montas had a 6.35 ERA with a 63 ERA+ (league average is 100) and Trivino has not pitched this season due to having Tommy John surgery after having a 1.66 ERA in 25 games last season.
Montas had arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder before the season, which is why he was not able to pitch until this month. If he would have been healthy and pitching like he was capable he could have been what the Yankees needed since in 19 starts last season with the Athletics he had a 3.18 ERA in in 2021 he had a 3.37 ERA in 32 starts, which helped him finish sixth in the AL in Cy Young voting.
Montas has unfortunately not been available for the Yankees this season but one pitcher who has been available and has been pitching really well is Michael King. King did not allow a run and allowed just one hit in his 6.0 innings pitched on Tuesday. However, he did allow five walks after allowing just four walks in his previous six starts. He did do a good job not allowing any of those five walks to score.
King has a 1.05 ERA in seven starts since he was made a full time starting pitcher after being a reliable relief pitcher the last few seasons. He has not allowed more than one run in any of those seven starts and going back to his start on August 24, which was when he officially transitioned into being a full time starting pitcher, he has 47 strikeouts, 25 hits allowed and just nine walks in 34.1 innings.
King has a great sweeper that he developed in 2021. He has a great and dominate four pitch mix in his arsenal, which helps him have success as a starting pitcher and has helped his transition back to being a starting pitcher after being a starter throughout his time in the minors. He relies primarily on his sinker (94 mph average), slider (82 mph) and fourseam fastball (95 mph) while also mixing in a changeup to keep batters off balance.
King did not get the win since the score was tied at zero when he left the game after the sixth inning. Rookie catcher Austin Wells came through in the clutch with a two-run opposite field homer into the bullpen in the top of the ninth inning off of the Blue Jays closer Jordan Romano. Romano has now allowed two earned runs in consecutive games after allowing two runs combined in his previous 20 games.
Wells’s homer was the first time the Yankees hit a go-ahead homer in the 9th inning or later this season. They were the last team in the league to do that.
“Coming in here and getting to have a hit like that in the late innings is what you play the game for,” Wells said after the game.
Wells was known for his offense when he was coming up through the minor leagues and he has been showing that offensive prowess recently. In his first eight games with the Yankees after being called up from Triple-A (33 plate appearances) he had a .103 average /.156 OBP /.138 SLG, zero homers, one extra base hit and three RBI. In his last eight games, (30 plate appearances) he has a much improved .276 average /.300 OBP /.690 SLG, three homers, six extra base hits and six RBI.
In his last five games, Wells is 6–19 (.316) with four runs scored, one double, three homers and five RBI and has a homer in back-to-back games. It took him a few games to get acclimated on offense to facing MLB pitching but now he is comfortable and more resembling the success he had the season in Triple-A. He will be a good option at catcher next season and can combine with Jose Trevino behind the plate.
The Yankees are now 18–9 since August 28. That’s the best record in MLB in that span. Since August 28, the Yankees have had a five-game winning streak and three three-game winning streaks. The Yankees have not had a challenging schedule in September and have taken advantage of many below .500 teams. If the Yankees would have gone better than 10–18 in August and had won 15 or 16 games that month then they could have more realistically made a push for the playoffs in September.
The nine-game losing streak that the Yankees had from August 12–22 when they averaged just 2.3 runs a game really set the team back. It is a plus that the Yankees have gone 18–9 since August 28 and are on track to finish above .500 for a 31st consecutive season but the Yankees will need to improve the offense in the offseason. The Yankees are going to miss the playoffs for just the fifth time in the last 29 seasons.
They need to improve in the offseason so that another year of Aaron Judge and Gerrit Cole’s prime will not end without going to the playoffs. Judge is a top three player on offense in the league and Cole will likely win the Cy Young this season.
