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Palladino: Yankees' Skid Only Means They've Come Back To Earth

By Ernie Palladino
» More Ernie Palladino Columns

The first 10 weeks of the Yankees' season had fairy tale written all over them.

They were riding high, comfortably leading the AL East, generating so much excitement that a downturn not only looked unlikely, but was almost unthinkable. The young, eager team in the Bronx was on its way to a miracle year, and it was good.

Unfortunately, they don't play baseball between the covers of a storybook. Reality always dictates, as it has for the Mets and their wrecked season.

Here's the Yanks' reality: they are still much the same team that left spring training, one with no expectations of success. Their current skid indicates only the frailties of youth and old age, and that they had battled them admirably. But the fact that they woke up Monday losers of 10 of 12 and just one thin percentage point ahead of the Red Sox should not have come as a shock.

Nor will the earth shake if they fall out of the lead completely in the next four road games against the White Sox.

Yankees P Michael Pineda
Yankees starter Michael Pineda pitches against the Texas Rangers during the first inning at Yankee Stadium on June 25, 2017. (Photo by Adam Hunger/Getty Images)

This team was never supposed to win big. They were never supposed to challenge for the division, or even a second wild card. So in jumping off to their hot start, they probably have played their best baseball already.

The issue is whether the mess they've made out of the last dozen games will be their worst. As the Mets have shown, a season can always deteriorate to an unrecoverable level. A situation can grow from bad to desperate under the right circumstances.

The task for the Yankees right now is to keep that from happening. If they can level themselves off and remain in contention for a wild card spot, they at least will have created a solid foundation for next season. In a tight league where seven games currently separate current wild card placeholders Boston and Cleveland from the worst of the rest, staying in the hunt until the end of the season will be reward enough.

A postseason spot would be great, of course. But it was always unrealistic to think a team as young as the Yanks would waltz into October. Aaron Judge's assault on the fences may well continue, as his majors-leading 26 homers indicate. But he may be the only one of the Baby Bombers to experience sustained success.

Even Gary Sanchez's effectiveness has tailed off. The average is still strong at .298, but he had only one RBI in the seven games before his three-run homer Sunday in a 7-6 Old Timers Day loss to Texas.

How much can one realistically expect out of Triple-A callup Tyler Austin, who took over at first after all-or-nothing Chris Carter and his strange glove were sent packing this weekend? Or Mason Williams, who started the last two games in right field while Judge was the DH?

Could veteran Tyler Clippard be the next to go after pitching to a 21.21 (no, that's not a typo) ERA over his last seven outings? The bullpen already had holes in front of Aroldis Chapman and Dellin Betances. But it is unlikely the Yanks will find outside help before the trade deadline, so they'll probably have to live with Clippard for a while longer.

The way they're going now, whatever aid general manager Brian Cashman does acquire may arrive too late.

Getting Adam Warren back from an arm injury might help the bullpen, as would CC Sabathia's eventual return from a hamstring pull help a starting rotation where Masahiro Tanaka and Michael Pineda have suffered breakdowns, like Pineda's four-inning, seven-run cannonading Sunday.

Aaron Hicks was notified he could miss up to a month due to the ribcage injury he suffered on Sunday. Jacoby Ellsbury has played just two games of a rehab assignment after clearing up from a concussion.

Greg Bird, the big hope at first base, still hasn't started baseball activity since aggravating a spring training ankle bruise on May 2. But he wasn't hitting well before then, anyway.

The Yanks indeed may have played their best baseball. The current tailspin may simply represent a market correction, so to speak. Eventually, with key players coming back from injury, they will probably level off, and that will allow them to stay in the postseason hunt.

And that will be sufficient for this year.

The storybook can wait.

Please follow Ernie on Twitter at @ErniePalladino

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