With even more games postponed because of rain this past week, the New York Yankees have some positives and negatives to take away from this last stretch of baseball. We look at some of those now. Don’t forget to take a look at some previous 3 Up and 3 Downs: New York Yankees Editions.
1 Up- Gleyber Torres
Gleyber Torres has been red hot since being call-up by the Yankees. He currently has ten home runs and 28 rbi’s. Torres is also the first Yankee in the history of the organization to hit ten home runs hitting out of the number nine spot in the Yankees batting order. If Gleyber continues he will make a serious run at the Rookie of the Year competition with the LA Angels superstar Shohei Ohtani.
1 Down- Sonny Gray
Sonny Gray has found himself on this list again. Gray pitched only one and a half good starts this season for the Yankees. He has been inconsistent. Those struggles have manifested in an ERA of 5.50 in just 55.2 innings of work over 11 games. Gray was traded for to be the third ace on this squad behind Luis Severino and Mashiro Tanaka. Yet, Gray has not been able to give the Yankees those expected results.
2 Up- Austin Romine
Romine has transformed himself from his past as an automatic out, to someone who is quite dangerous at the plate, especially with runners in scoring position. Austin currently has a batting average of .373 with 4 home runs and 19 rbi’s in just 59 at-bats. An aggressive change in Romine’s batting stance to be closed off has helped Austin with these new results. If he can continue to contribute with runners in scoring position. The Yankees can keep starting catcher Gary Sanchez more rested and healthy for the stretch run and into the playoffs.
2 Down- Tyler Austin
Austin has thus far played a significant role for the Yankees this season. However, as of late he has been mired in a slump. Over his last seven games, Austin has hit just .172 with 15 strikeouts. And looking further out over his last 15 games Tyler is hitting only .132 with 27 strikeouts. Austin has had good numbers this season against left-handed pitching. But his numbers have been anemic against right-handers. Austin will need to change this pattern if he intends to remain on the Major League roster.
3 Up- Brett Gardner
Gardy has been on fire as of late. In his last 7 games, Gardner is hitting .406 with 5 home runs. After starting out very slowly Gardner is turning around his season. Yet, even throughout the early struggles, Brett was able to work good at-bats as the Yankees leadoff man.
3 Down- Aaron Judge
While Judge started the season atop the Yankees’ leaderboards in many categories he has struggled mightily as of late. Over his last 7 games, Judge is hitting just .194 with 17 strikeouts and just 2 walks. Judge has still been working counts but it has not translated to the success he had early in the season. In the Yankees doubleheader against the Detroit Tigers, Judge went 0-9 with 8 strikeouts.
B.O.L.O- Luis Severino
Now I know what you’re thinking Sevvy is incredible why is he someone to Be On the Look Out for? In the first game of yesterday’s doubt header against the Detroit Tigers Severino notched his 100th strikeout of the season. With it being just June Severino has a chance continuing this pace to pass the Yankees Single Season mark set by Ron Guidry in 1978 with 248 strikeouts. It will interesting to watch if Sevvy can continue and challenge Gator for the record.
