http://calltothepen.com/2016/09/09/new-york-yankees-gaining-ground-in-wild-card-race/<header class="article-header " style="box-sizing: border-box; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-left: -15px; margin-right: -15px; padding: 0px 20px; position: relative; z-index: 3; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Oswald, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 25.5px;">[h=1]New York Yankees Gaining Ground in Wild Card Race[/h]
by Jason Burke <time datetime="2016-09-09 7:00 am" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: rgb(129, 129, 129); margin-right: 4px;">9 hours ago</time> Follow @baseballmiamor
</header><section class="article-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-left: -15px; margin-right: -15px; font-family: "Titillium Web", Arial, sans-serif; padding: 20px 110px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 17px; line-height: 25.5px;">[h=2]With just a handful of playoff contenders in action on Thursday night, the New York Yankees made the most of their opportunity to gain some ground in an all too familiar fashion–late inning heroics from a rookie.[/h]The New York Yankees entered play on Thursday 2.5 games behind the Baltimore Orioles for the second wild card spot, and with nobody ahead of them holding games yesterday, they would either move up or down by a half a game. Thanks to the bat ofTyler Austin in the ninth (and Brian McCann‘s 3-for-4 night with two runs batted in via solo jacks), the Yankees remained hot, winning their fifth in a row and the first of a four game set with the Tampa Bay Rays.
The win moves the Yanks to within two games of Baltimore for that final playoff spot, and with Houston’s loss to Cleveland in their series finale, drops them to 2.5 games back, leaving just the Detroit Tigers between New York and Baltimore entering play on Friday.
In 40 at-bats in the cleanup spot, Didi Gregorius (yes, Didi is batting fourth in the Yankees lineup) is batting an even .300 and half of his 12 hits have gone for extra bases. Add this new development to the effectiveness of Luis Severino out of the bullpen (14 2/3 innings in six appearances, 0.00 ERA, two hits allowed, 10.5 strikeouts per nine) and it looks as though Joe Girardi is pushing all of the right buttons from the dugout.
With three more against the Rays this weekend and the four teams that New York is chasing all playing one another over that same stretch, this could be the weekend that the Yankees make their move towards the playoffs.
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by Jason Burke <time datetime="2016-09-09 7:00 am" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: rgb(129, 129, 129); margin-right: 4px;">9 hours ago</time> Follow @baseballmiamor
</header><section class="article-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-left: -15px; margin-right: -15px; font-family: "Titillium Web", Arial, sans-serif; padding: 20px 110px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 17px; line-height: 25.5px;">[h=2]With just a handful of playoff contenders in action on Thursday night, the New York Yankees made the most of their opportunity to gain some ground in an all too familiar fashion–late inning heroics from a rookie.[/h]The New York Yankees entered play on Thursday 2.5 games behind the Baltimore Orioles for the second wild card spot, and with nobody ahead of them holding games yesterday, they would either move up or down by a half a game. Thanks to the bat ofTyler Austin in the ninth (and Brian McCann‘s 3-for-4 night with two runs batted in via solo jacks), the Yankees remained hot, winning their fifth in a row and the first of a four game set with the Tampa Bay Rays.
The win moves the Yanks to within two games of Baltimore for that final playoff spot, and with Houston’s loss to Cleveland in their series finale, drops them to 2.5 games back, leaving just the Detroit Tigers between New York and Baltimore entering play on Friday.
In 40 at-bats in the cleanup spot, Didi Gregorius (yes, Didi is batting fourth in the Yankees lineup) is batting an even .300 and half of his 12 hits have gone for extra bases. Add this new development to the effectiveness of Luis Severino out of the bullpen (14 2/3 innings in six appearances, 0.00 ERA, two hits allowed, 10.5 strikeouts per nine) and it looks as though Joe Girardi is pushing all of the right buttons from the dugout.
With three more against the Rays this weekend and the four teams that New York is chasing all playing one another over that same stretch, this could be the weekend that the Yankees make their move towards the playoffs.
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