PERSPECTIVE can be a dangerous tool.
“As poorly as everybody thinks we’ve played, we still have at least a 2½-game lead in the division, we have 86 wins,” Mike Mussina said Monday, hours before that lead grew to 3½ games with Baltimore’s 13-10 win over the Red Sox, four games if you go by what really matters, the loss column. “That’s not too bad for people thinking we haven’t played very well.”
There goes the Stanford kid again, making perfect sense. Only one team in baseball has won more games than the Yankees, the Braves.
And listen to what Joe Torre had to say last night, “Right now we are in a better position than anyone else in the division.”
One of those people thinking the Yankees haven’t played well is the only one who matters in the Yankee universe, George Steinbrenner. But these Yankees know they have been through a lot already this season and they are still standing – in first, ahead of Boston.
Noted Jason Giambi, “With the last couple games we’ve played, I think we are in a good spot. I think we’re going in the right direction. We were kind of scuffling for a while, but I feel good about the at-bats we are taking the last couple of games.
“Hopefully, we’re going to be peaking at the right time, where last year I was a little worried in the sense that we were barely beating Baltimore last year heading into the playoffs,” Giambi said. “This year, hopefully, we’ll be hot going into the playoffs.”
You get the sense that these Yankees have really had their fill of the Boss running around and threatening jobs. If anything, all of Steinbrenner’s rants merely have solidified Torre as the Yankees’ main man.
After all, what’s next for Steinbrenner, a credit card commercial with coaches he is threatening to behead? That’s what all this bad theater has come down to – George has cried the sky is falling so many times that even if it is coming down on the heads of his players and coaches, they don’t believe it. They believe in Torre’s calm ways.
In fact, the Yankees are right about where they want to be heading into the final 20 games of the season, starting with last night’s exhibition game against the expansion Tigers at the Stadium.
The Yankees have kept the wolf at the door by taking their 3½-game lead over the Red Sox and there are some positive vital signs.
Last night’s starter Jose Contreras appears to be coming out of his shell now that he has been guru-ized. Derek Jeter is second in the league in hitting with a .325 average. Mariano Rivera is back to being electric.
Giambi’s slump remains a major problem but he still has three weeks to get out of his funk. No, the biggest problem now appears to be the Yankees getting their wish.
Beating out the Red Sox is always wonderful, but what that really means is that instead of playing Oakland or struggling Seattle, the Yankees will square off in the first round with the most dangerous team in the AL, the greatly improved White Sox.
What makes the White Sox particularly dangerous is that they are the only opponent that can throw three terrific starters at the Yankees in a best-of-five series.
Oakland usually is in that position but with Mark Mulder out, that staff is much different. The White Sox’ Bartolo Colon just pitched his seventh complete game of the season and Esteban Loaiza leads the AL with 19 victories. The White Sox’ No. 3 starter Mark Buehrle is fifth in the AL in innings pitched while Colon is third and Loaiza is sixth.
Of course, all that perspective is getting well ahead of the story. The Twins could win the Central and then the Yankees would really be sitting pretty in the Division Series.
DON’T BE CHI
Here’s a look at how the White Sox, who could end up facing the Yankees in first round of playoffs, have fared in three games vs. Bombers this season:
Player AB R H HR RBI AVG
Brian Daubach 1 1 1 0 0 1.000
Paul Konerko 12 3 8 3 8 .667
Sandy Alomar, Jr. 4 0 2 0 0 .500
Carl Everett 11 4 5 1 4 .455
Magglio Ordonez 12 5 5 2 3 .417
Frank Thomas 13 2 5 2 6 .385
Miguel Olivo 8 3 3 0 1 .375
Joe Crede 13 4 4 1 1 .308
Roberto Alomar 12 3 2 1 4 .167
Carlos Lee 12 3 2 0 0 .167
Tony Graffinino 7 1 1 0 2 .143
Jose Valentin 7 0 0 0 0 .000
Aaron Rowland 2 0 0 0 0 .000
Willie Harris 2 0 0 0 0 .000
Totals 116 29 38 10 29 .328
