The New York Yankees hold the top spot in the American League East despite having some big names on the injured list, and it’s likely they’re only going to get better than they currently are.
New York will begin its series against the Boston Red Sox on Friday after Thursday’s contest was rained out. Boston has a chance to gain some ground on its Major League Baseball rival, but manager Alex Cora knows it will be no easy task.
“… They’ve got talent. They’ve got a good team. They’ve got a good bullpen,” Cora said, via WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford. “Obviously, the rotation is a little bit banged up, but they’ve done an outstanding job holding leads late in games, and the last two weeks, they’ve been amazing at coming back. But they’re good. they have a good team right now.
“They’re talented. They did a good job signing players. They’ve done an outstanding job adding players in their minor league system. Cam Maybin, (Gio) Urshela, I saw him in spring training, (D.J.) LeMahieu was a good sign by them,” the skipper added. “They’ve done it well. They’ve done a good job for the last four, five years. Everybody was talking about, I think I was in the media at that time, I was also talking about it, how long it was going to take them. They did an outstanding job when they traded (Andrew) Miller and (Aroldis) Chapman and (Carlos) Beltran. Right away, they brought up those kids – (Aaron) Judge and (Gary) Sanchez. There was a different vibe.
“They actually played well in the second half, or after July 31st that (2016) season. After that, they’ve been a force. I’ve said it all along when I was watching games at home, my mom used to say, ‘That’s a fun group to watch.’ The energy here is a lot different than earlier. In ’17, I was coaching against them and this place was alive. Last year was the same. I bet it’s the same right now.”
The Red Sox and Yankees really sparked their rivalry last season, and it ended with Boston knocking the Bronx Bombers out of the American League Division Series. But as it currently stands, the Yankees are in the driver’s seat in the AL East.
Don’t worry, there’s still plenty of baseball left to be played.
