What everyone figured out about 10 seconds after Andy Pettitte's retirement--or perhaps earlier, maybe 10 seconds after Cliff Lee announced he was returning to Philadelphia, is writ large: really, the only possible impediment to a long Yankee October is the back end of the rotation.
What McCarver said on Fox today is true: 18 home runs in eight games (with Jeter and Gardner still trying to get going) can paper over a lot of deficiencies. CC is rounding into form; AJ, who is at heart a number 3, is no better and no worse than the Yankees could expect or hope for. Beyond that . . . what? Hughes has lost his fastball, Nova didn't get out of the third today, Colon--in the space of a week--has used up all the hope he inspired in Spring Training, and Freddy Garcia has been waiting in the wings longer than Anne Baxter in All About Eve.
Two-point-two-five home runs per game is not going to last all year. From the 3, 4, 5 -hole, the Yanks will have to gut out their share of 3-2 and 4-3 victories. Even when the power is on, Hughes & Co. will have to at least keep them close enough so that, say, four home runs in one game don't get wasted.
Still, nothing better than beating the Red Sox on a Saturday afternoon, and seeing the score all night. And--I nearly fainted--Fox deigned to broadcast the game in Houston.
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