The New York Yankees finally got some news to smile about on Thursday morning, hours before facing the Los Angeles Angels in an attempt not only to avoid a four-game series sweep against the sub .500 American League West team, but to stop their current losing streak at six games.
The Yankees’ losing six in a row makes it their longest skid since August of 2023 when they dropped nine in a row. The Bronx Bombers were a bomb that season, finishing at just 82-80, missing the playoffs for the first time since the 2016 campaign.
The 2023 drought was the Yankees’ longest since 1995 when they lost eight in a row, also in August. To find a Yankee losing streak longer than nine games means going back in time all the way to 1913, the first year the team called itself the “Yankees” after starting life in 1903 as the New York Highlanders. The club dropped 11 in a row way back then.
Good News About Injured Rookie of the Year Righty
The Yankees and their manager, Aaron Boone, will be looking to turn their current hard times around as quickly as possible, and that is why it must have brought a smile to Boone’s face to hear that his injured righty pitcher Luis Gil, last season’s AL Rookie of the Year with a 15-7 record and 3.50 ERA, is now ready to face hitters off a mound for the first time all season.
The 27-year-old Gil suffered a lat muscle strain during spring training and has not thrown to a hitter since. He was initially scheduled to begin a throwing program in April, but had to be shut down again when medical imaging revealed that the tears to his muscle were not healing at the pace doctors anticipated.
In fact, Gil did not even step onto a pitching mound to throw until May 30, so his anticipated ability to throw to live hitters just three weeks later has to be an encouraging sign for the Yankees. Gil’s throwing session is reportedly set to take place on Saturday.
If the Azua, Dominican Republic, native is able to get through the session without setbacks, he could be headed for a rehab assignment before the All Star Break, with an anticipated return to the New York rotation sometime soon after the hiatus.
The not-as-good news for the Yankees is that during the current losing streak, pitching hasn’t really been the problem. Yankee hurlers allowed only 16 runs in the three losses to the Boston Red Sox and three to the Angels. That’s a mere 2.67 runs per game which under normal circumstances should be enough to win about 72 percent of all games, or at least four of the six.
Bats (and Gloves) Are Real Reason For Losing Skid
Instead, it has been the bats that have gone silent, and the Yankees’ gloves haven’t always been great either. An Anthony Volpe error on a routine double play ball led to the difference-making run in Wednesday’s 3-2 loss to the Angels.
But even worse, starting with Sunday’s shutout loss to the Red Sox, and back-to-back shutouts to the Angels, the first of which took 11 innings to end in a 1-0 defeat, the Yankees went 29 straight innings without plating a single sun.
That was New York’s longest scoring drought since September of 2016, when the Yankees suffered through a 33-inning succession of goose eggs.
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