Full Steam Ahead For The New York Yankees In The A.L. East Standings

  The word to describe the Yankees as of late has to be "entertaining". No doubt, there is no denying the hype over the home run ball, which is practically in the Yankee organization's DNA, but lately the homers are not the only thing that the ball club has relied on to push them ahead the A.L. East. Behind Aaron Judge, who has been damaging the baseball into the seats to collect a total of a team leading 12 home runs in 41 games, the Yankee offense is starting to put the ball in play at a more consistent rate.

  The Yankees went on their second road trip of the year, and unlike the way they started the 2021 season, the team has found a groove to win baseball games and win series match-ups against the opposition. As a matter of fact, the team has compiled 6 straight series wins and managed to come back home to New York with a 7-3 road trip record and they are still looking for more. 

  By now all Yankee fans should be all updated with how the team came to grasp that 7-3 road record, so N.Y. Insights won't waste time repeating that information. Instead, what I will turn your attention to is, Aroldis Chapman's Friday night nail bitter 9th inning appearance. The phenom-like closer stepped onto the Yankee Stadium mound in the ninth inning,  and went into his pitcher's windup position. Coming into that outing, his early-season run of dominance was hanging in the balance. With that being put out there, the  Yankee closer has been nearly untouchable through 17 appearances, but the Yankees’ closer found himself searching to escape a self-created jam in Friday's outing..

  A five-pitch walk and Chapman’s miscue fielding a sacrifice-bunt attempt placed runners at first and second with no one out. Chapman found himself in a very sticky situation as Andrew Vaughn connected with a slider on the ground to third baseman Gio Urshela, then realized that he was watching a triple play develop in real time.

“That's just one of those plays that you don't see every day,” Chapman said through an interpreter, having earned the victory in the Yankees’ 2-1 win over the White Sox.

  Urshela took two steps to his right, tagging third base to force out pinch-runner Billy Hamilton, then fired a bullet to second baseman Rougned Odor. That retired Leury García, and Odor tossed on to first baseman Luke Voit to nab Vaughn and complete the Yankees’ first triple play since April 17, 2014, against the Rays.

  The triple play started by Urshela to close out the Friday night victory had to make everyone in the Yankee universe breathe a sight of relief, as the team has not looked back since finding themselves on a spree of winning series streak.  This is coming after Gerrit Cole racked up 61-strikeouts against Texas to take the number one spot on the Most Ks Without No Walks list and Corey Kluber threw the 6th no hitter of the season against Texas as well.

  All eyes will be set on tonight's clash at Yankees Stadium, as the White Sox and the Yankees will meet again to square off in game two of a three game set. Yankee ace Gerrit Cole will look to rebound after an uncharacteristic outing against the Rangers on Monday, which included that record extending  61 consecutive strikeouts before walking Gallo in the third inning. It was his first walk since April 12, his third start of the season. In that outing, the ace gave up five runs in five innings for what became just his second loss of the year in a Yankee uniform. It was also his shortest outing, considering his previous eight innings of phenom-like performance. He will look to dominant on the mound tonight to make up for those runs that were the most that he has given up this season.

  The Yankee perfectionist will make the start against White Sox RHP Dylan Cease. Cease is coming into the game as an underdog, as he has never pitched at Yankees Stadium or toed the mound against the Yankees' offense. The Chicago righty has only two career starts against the American League East, but he has accumulated 50 punch outs over 41 innings thus far in the 2021 season.  

  Along with Cole's rebounding efforts tonight, the Yankee offense will go for another series win, as they are currently in third place with a 26-19 record, which puts them three games ahead in the winning column against the Blue Jays 23-20 record. It also puts the Yanks one game behind the 27-19 second place Tampa Bay Rays.

  The question that will be answer tonight is, "Can the Yankees manage to continue their hot stretch of winning series?"