Yankees Are Back in Hunt for October

The Major League Baseball season is a long one, and fortunes can change quickly. That wheel spun in the Bronx this week, as the reeling Yankees notched two victories against the surging Mets. By drawing blood, the Bronx Bombers set up a stretch run that could double as a runway to a World Series rematch. In recalling their own excellence from a few months ago, the Bombers reminded their crosstown rivals, and all of baseball, that when right they are a club that can beat anyone. With this year’s version of the Mets poised to take over the city, the Yankees refused to go gently into the summer night. For the pinstripers, moments of promise abounded. Their main slugger, Aaron Judge, swatted a home run off one of the Mets aces, Max Scherzer, in a showdown that belonged on Mt. Olympus. For good measure, he added another in the second game, off Taijuan Walker, pushing his league-leading total to 48. The newest Yankees also distinguished themselves, and raised hopes that they could serve as a tonic to the team’s recent malaise. One import, Frank Montas, who has struggled, looked every bit the bulldog stalking the mound the Yankees expected when they forked over a passel of prospects to the Oakland A’s for his services.Another midseason reinforcement, Andrew Benintendi, showed himself an adept batsman, lining hits all over the diamond with an easy, left-handed stroke and giving the somnolent lineup a needed jolt alongside the persistent excellence of Mr. Judge. His manager, Aaron Boone, noted: “His bat to ball is what we loved about him and it is starting to happen.”A less happy transaction appears to be the decision to deal away pitcher Jordan “Gumby” Montgomery, who played college ball at the University of South Carolina and had spent his entire professional career with the Yankees. Since donning the white and red threads of the St. Louis Cardinals, Mr. Montgomery, who throws left-handed and stands 6 foot, 6 inches, has been stellar. Any hubris from the Bombers should be tempered by their dodging a confrontation with Jacob deGrom, the Mets’ best player – a pitcher whose ability to retire batters is reminiscent of the man who is immortalized in bronze outside of Citi Field: Tom “Terrific” Seaver. He was held out of action to preserve his golden, albeit recently fragile, right arm.The greatest threat to the Yankees and Mets winning the Fall Classic could be not one another, but rather the team that used to reign between Coney Island and Williamsburg before decamping for the sun-splashed coast, breaking Brooklyn’s heart in the process: the Dodgers. Sporting nine more wins than the Yankees and six more than the Mets, the Dodgers have surged to the tune of an 85-37 record. Their dominance has extended over several seasons, and this year’s edition seems set to join its illustrious forebears. For the New York teams, that could mean another wait ’til next year kind of year.

Yankees Are Back in Hunt for October

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