Top Yankees Moment At The Break

So far this season is going better than the last one for the New York Yankees. The Yankees on July 14th last year were at 50-45 after going 8-2 in their last 10 games. Still, this only put them 5.5 games back of the Wild Card-leading Tampa Bay Rays and 6 games back of the division-leading Boston Red Sox. This year? They're at 51-37 and despite being 3 games back in the division, lead the Wild Card by 2.5 games over Texas and 3.5 over Tampa Bay. How did they get here? What do I remember the most? Here are my most memorable moments from the first half:

1. Jun 12th vs New York Mets and June 28th @ New York Mets - The former will probably just be remembered for the ending: the dropped Luis Castillo pop-up on the potential final out off the bat of Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira chugging around the bases for the winning run. But it was an exciting game throughout, with lead changes and great battles. For the latter, I was there so it made it extra special, but it was a fun night. Rivera's first RBI and his 500th save. A big Yankee sweep of their cross-town rivals. A win (the only one) for Chien-Ming Wang. And just a great, hard-fought, nail-biting win.
2. May 1st vs. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim - I was there as well, but this one would have been special wherever I was. The Yankees got out to a 4-0 lead in the first but the Angels got 6 in the 6th and 3 in the 7th to go ahead 9-4. When the Yankees (winners of 3 straight) didn't score in the bottom of the 7th, many fans headed for the exits. I stayed, because, well, I always stay. And with 5 outs to go, the rally started. Cano double, Posada walk, Gardner single, Melky single, Pena single, Jeter RBI groundout, followed by a painful Johnny Damon strikeout. The Yankees were still down 9-8 heading into the 9th. In came Angels' closer Brian Fuentes. Here's how the 9th went: Teixeira walk, Matsui single, Cano single, and Jorge Posada walked off with a game-winning, two-run single. The Yankees didn't hit a home run in that rally and found a way to win against one of their biggest nemeses of the past decade, guaranteeing them a series win.
3. May 13th - May 21st @ Toronto, vs. Minnesota, vs. Baltimore. The Yankees had just lost to Roy Halladay dropping their record to 15-17, 6.5 games back of the division. Whispers were that Joe Girardi was going to be fired as it looked like another repeat of the lackluster 2008 campaign. But then the magic began. The Yankees reeled off 9 straight wins including a series of walk offs against Minnesota. In the end, the Yankees were 24-17 and 1.5 games back of the division. Almost more importantly than the streak, this is where the seem started to gel together. A.J. Burnett started the pie-in-the-face for the person who hit the walk off, the WWF-style championship belt was passed around the clubhouse, and the Yankees finally looked like they were having fun as a team for the first time in a long time. Alfredo Aceves also emerged in their bullpen over this time with 4 wins over the stretch and A-Rod's return was felt, especially to Mark Teixeira. 
4. April 13th @ Tampa Bay Rays. Chien-Ming Wang lasted one inning and gave up 8 runs. The Yankees were down 15-3 going into the 8th. So they decided that they would have a special pitcher for the 9th: Nick Swisher. The man who was tearing up April for the Yankees took the mound in one of the funnier on-field moments of the season. The best moment occurred when he struck out Gabe Kapler and asked for the ball as a souvenir. It was a loss and a blowout loss at that. But it was certainly one of the most memorable moments of the season so far.
5. April 3rd vs. Chicago Cubs. I know it was an exhibition. But finally the New Yankee Stadium was open and baseball was being played. I loved walking around, taking pictures and checking out the new place. I loved the new sightlines, especially being able to see the field from the new concourses. I liked how wide the concourses were and enjoyed standing in the batter's eye in dead centerfield to get a great view of the whole place. I got to sneak into the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar and saw the game from there for an inning. And I started at that scoreboard for a few innings. I was really sad to see the old stadium go in so many ways, but this was my first taste of the new one and I like what I saw.

Now I know that's leaving out a lot. It leaves out Brett Gardner hitting a home run for a girl who received a heart transplant the same day (an amazing story). It leaves out A-Rod returning and hitting a home run in his first at-bat. It leaves out beating up on Johan Santana and Brad Lidge. It leaves up David Cone's slip up.

It leaves out the bad as well: the 0-8 record to the Red Sox, the 22-4 loss to the Indians, the series loss against the MLB-worst Nationals, and this past weekend sweep to close out the first half to those pesky Angels.

Overall, it's been an eventful first half, but I'm excited for what the second half has in store. I had the Yankees as the Wild Card winners before the season and I'm sticking to that now. I think 94-96 wins is a possibility.

 

The "experts": Ken Davidoff gives the Yankees a B for the first half. FanGraphs has the Yankees at 95 wins for the season. Mark Feinsand points out all the bad things that have happened which makes it amazing that the Yankees have done so well at the break. Peter Abraham says that the Yankees have been good, but not yet good enough when you consider their 5-15 record against first place teams. Joel Sherman continues this by pointing out that they are bullies, going 46-22 against everyone else, and that the Yanks need to go 7-7 against the Red Sox and Angels in the second half. PECOTA has the Yankees at 28% at division champs and 48% as the wild card winner (with over a 75% chance of making the playoffs). Tyler Kepner writes about the Yankees at midseason and points out that they have played .633 (38-22) ball since A-Rod returned on May 8th, the best mark in baseball since then. Steven Goldman hands out midterm grades here and here. Sweeny Murti says that the Yankees are playoff bound.