ST. LOUIS – Three takeaways from the Yankees’ three-game sweep in St. Louis, their first sweep since taking three straight from the Mariners July 8-10:
1. The Yankees took care of business against a going-nowhere team. That’s progress.
But is it, at long last, a signal that the Yankees are in the early stages of a long-promised stretch of quality baseball? That cannot yet be said. But Saturday night’s 12-8 victory allowed the Yankees to win a second straight series for the first time since May 23-28 when they took back-to-back road series against the Rockies and Angels, and they took advantage of multiple mistakes by the Cardinals in Sunday’s 8-4 victory. After reaching a season-high 17 games over .500 (42-25) on June 12, the Yankees are 25-32 since but have won five of their last six and six of their last eight. Yes, five of those victories came against the Twins and Cardinals, but you can only play the schedule in front of you and the Yankees did what they had to do.
2. It doesn’t sound like Giancarlo Stanton will be back in the outfield anytime soon.
Before starting in rightfield Aug. 9, Stanton had not played the outfield in two years. He ended up playing in right four of five games, including three straight games Monday through Wednesday against the Twins. But he hasn’t started there since because of what Boone described over the weekend as Stanton having difficulty with his “lower body” recovery. “That’s accurate,” Stanton said Sunday, declining to elaborate. Boone left open the possibility of Stanton, who has been red hot at the plate but has been blocked from his usual DH role because Aaron Judge is not yet ready to play right because of the right flexor strain that cost him 10 games on the IL, playing one of the two games in Tampa in the outfield but it seems as if that is currently on hold. “I’m available to pinch hit so I’m not really going to get into all that at the moment,” Stanton said.
3. Aaron Boone said Ben Rice hasn’t taken over starting catcher duties from Austin Wells, but the proof is in the playing time.
And, counting Sunday, Rice had started behind the plate in five of the last eight games (Rice started the other three games at first base). The reason is simple: Rice has, in Boone’s words, been hitting the ball hard “since February,” while it’s been a struggle all season at the plate for Wells, who entered Sunday hitting .206 with 15 homers and a .668 OPS and in a recent 8-for-65 skid. “Wellsy’s still going to play a lot,” Boone said. “We just have to work it out. Again, it’s fluid and day to day, but I think you can definitely say Ben has thrown himself much more in the mix.” Much, much more.
Erik Boland started in Newsday’s sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.