Joe Torre loathed any mention of numbers in regards to what the Yankees needed to do to win the AL East or catch the team in first place.
Now, with his team six games behind the AL East-leading Red Sox, manager Joe Girardi is only focused on what his very inconsistent team has to do across the final 67 games.
Still, there is no ignoring the math. And the numbers send a very dire message to the Yankees and their fans: The Red Sox need to stumble and the Yankees must play their best ball of the season to keep the Red Sox from winning their second consecutive AL East title.
“We are in a decent position to make a run,” Girardi said of his underachieving 50-45 team that plays host to the A’s tomorrow, one of the clubs the Yankees are involved with in the wild-card race, starting tomorrow night at Yankee Stadium. “We could be buried and we are not.”
Six games out with 67 remaining certainly should not be considered toe-tag dead. Nevertheless, when you look at the numbers, it could tell a different story. Know what you saw before the break. Understand that Hideki Matsui is likely lost for the season. Realize ace Chien-Ming Wang will not be back until September at the earliest and general manager Brian Cashman likely will not make a high-profile deal before the July 31 trading deadline. Put this together and the picture is dreary.
If the 57-40 Red Sox go 33-32 the rest of the way, they will finish 90-72. In order to tie the Red Sox, the third-place Yankees would have to post a 40-27 record the rest of the way. That’s 13 games above .500, a neighborhood they haven’t been to all season. Don’t forget, the Rays are one-half game behind the Red Sox in second.
Though Girardi’s team is 5½ games behind the wild card-leading Rays, he doesn’t want to hear about an October entrance through the back door.
“You concentrate on the division,” said Girardi, who nevertheless will embrace a wild-card invite.
Mike Mussina, the biggest surprise of the first half with an 11-6 record, said the deficit isn’t one that can’t be cut into. But he also knows the Yankees can’t keep taking two steps forward and one back.
“Everyone realizes that 5½ or six games isn’t insurmountable or unheard of,” Mussina said. “There are 11 weeks left and you can make up one game every other week. You have to look at it in chunks of 10 games. You are going to get hot and the opponents are going to get cold.”
Are the Yankees capable of riding an extended hot streak with Darrell Rasner and Sidney Ponson in the back of the rotation? What about a lineup which pitchers aren’t afraid to challenge with first- and second-pitch strikes?
“Our offense is better than it has displayed, and we have 67 games to fix it,” Girardi said. “It’s something I expect to turn around and have a big second half. I believe in our guys and have confidence they will get it done.”
That faith is based on track records. But Matsui likely is done for the season. Johnny Damon probably will be the designated hitter when he returns from a shoulder injury, forcing Brett Gardner to play a lot. And Jorge Posada is 66 points off last year’s .338, and Robinson Cano is down 60 points from his .306 average last season.
In other words, Girardi’s faith could be blind.