Yankees grinding down rivals with their relentlessness
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Now it is run-away-and-hide time.
How did this all happen with all the adversity the Yankees have faced this year? How do the Yankees put themselves in the right frame of mind every game?
How did they do it after Aroldis Chapman blew a two-run lead in the ninth on Thursday night.
Talent takes over, sure. But this is much more than talent. This is a professional mindset that refuses to fail.
That is what makes the Yankees the scariest team in the American League as their AL East lead over the Rays increased to 7¹/₂ games after Thursday night’s wild 10-inning, 8-4 victory over the Rays at the Trop, thanks to an absolute three-run bomb by Gary Sanchez.
Before that 10th-inning home run, of course, D.J. LeMahieu had a bases-loaded party, driving a tie-breaking, two-run single to left against a drawn-in Rays infield after Tampa Bay tied the game, 3-3.
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The Yankees just don’t beat you, they outlast you, no matter how long the game goes. This was a 4-hour, 14-minute marathon.
“You saw some big-time at-bats there at the end,’’ Aaron Boone said. “The Machine [LeMahieu] does his thing and Gary takes the air out of the building. That was a great job of not letting a ninth-inning comeback define the day. Those guys went out and took it back.
“It’s a credit to them, their makeup and it is something we talk about all the time. The major league season will take you down if you let it and you got to be able to roll with the good times and the adversity and deal with it all, not only from day to day but even sometimes within the course of the game. You’ve got to be able to continue to just play.
“I talk about it all the time, the next play is the most important and these guys do a really good job of focusing on that. We try and live it.
“When today is over, regardless of the result, ‘We played great, we didn’t play great, I had a good game, I didn’t have a good game,’ it’s over, and tomorrow becomes really important.’’
The philosophy works. It is the reason the 56-29 Yankees have won 10 straight games against the AL East and are a league-best 33-12 since May 12.
Sanchez was struggling, but he came up with the big home run. LeMahieu was hitless for the night, but he came up with the big bases-loaded single, making him 9-for-11 this season with the bases loaded. As a team, the Yankees are hitting .307 with runners in scoring position. Last year, they hit .253.
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The success goes on and on and it is because of the approach as a team the Yankees possess. Every game is a new game, past failures are quickly forgotten and past glory is used as a base for success in that moment in time.
As LeMahieu said, “We just have confidence we are going to win, no matter the circumstances.’’
And when he is up with runners in scoring position, when he is hitting .480, LeMahieu said this, and it is a wise approach for any young player to follow: “I just feel like it’s my turn to make a mark on the game and there is a certain level of focus there in situations like that.’’
The Yankees own 142 home runs and all this with Giancarlo Stanton having one and Aaron Judge, who came up with a huge pinch-hit walk in the 10th, with only seven.
Sanchez has crushed 24 home runs, the most by a catcher before the All-Star break since 2000, when future Hall of Famers Pudge Rodriguez bashed 26 and Mike Piazza hit 24.
“It’s not a secret the kind of team we have here, we never give up,’’ Sanchez said after driving his blast that was measured at 461 feet but, according to LeMahieu, had to be at least 500 feet. “No matter what happens, we are never going to give up.’’
That mindset makes them scary good.
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