Hughes And Yanks Try To Fight Off Elimination Against The Rays

Last night, the Baltimore Orioles were eliminated from playoff contention with a 3-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays in 10 innings last night. Tonight in the Bronx, the Yankees could be the next team to join them.

The Yankees are entering tonight's game against the Tampa Bay Rays five games back of the second Wild Card spot with five games left to play. As I discussed earlier today, their playoff probability is currently at zero percent. With a loss tonight, or even a win by the Cleveland Indians, the Yankees would officially be eliminated from postseason contention.

Should it happen tonight, according to ESPN's Jayson Stark, tomorrow would be the first time since October 3rd of 1993 that the Yankees played a meaningless game at Yankees Stadium.

The Yankees are coming off a terrible 7-0 loss to the Rays last night at Yankee Stadium in the series opener against Tampa. Hiroki Kuroda gave up three runs in the 1st inning, and the Yanks' offense couldn't do anything to capitalize on the six walks issued by Matt Moore over five shutout innings.

Tonight's Lineup vs Tampa Bay:

Nunez 3B
Rodriguez DH
Cano 2B
Soriano LF
Wells RF
Reynolds 1B
Granderson CF
Ryan SS
Stewart C
Hughes RHP

Pitching Preview:

With their season on the line, their backs against the wall, the Yankees will send Phil Hughes to the mound in place of the injured CC Sabathia, who was placed on the DL on Monday with a Grade 2 hamstring strain.

Hughes, the Yankees' former first-round pick, has been having possibly the worst season since he's been in the Bronx, and if all goes as it should this offseason, this will Hughes' last start as a member of the New York Yankees.

His 4-13 record and 5.07 ERA has been far below the Yankees have wanted to see out of Hughes, hoping that he would be able to show them that he deserves to be resigned this offseason, but things haven't  panned out that way, and Hughes is likely out the door for good this winter.

Hughes is very likely to have a very small leash from manger Joe Girardi tonight, as he has had on Hughes in his last few starts, and if he runs into trouble at any point early in the game, it's highly likely that we'll see David Huff called into action.

If you thought things could not be more against the Yankees tonight with Hughes in the mound in a possible elimination game, taking the mound for the Rays will be their first-overall pick in the 2007 draft, left-hander David Price. Price will making his last start of the season for Tampa, and he's looking for his first win since August 24th.

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Phil Hughes Might Not Be The Only One Saying Goodbye Today

When you woke up today, the Yankees were still in playoff contentions -- technically. Last night in the Bronx, the Yanks, like the Mariano Rivera bobbleheads, failed to show up when the fans were counting on them the most.

After putting up a fight in late-August to put themselves back into the playoff mix, the Yankees folded up under the pressure, and most of the all, the terrible mess that has been the 2013 season.

Last night, Hiroki Kuroda continued to play that same old song that we've been hearing the past few weeks -- bad in the first, good after that. He gave up three runs in the first inning, letting the Rays jump out to a 3-0 lead.

"His stuff has just not been as crisp," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "His sinker has been a little bit flatter. It hasn't had the same amount of bite to it. It is more across. His slider has been OK, at times, but not as consistent as earlier in the year."

Then to make matters worse, Matt Moore walked six and threw three wild pitches, but the Yankees' offense was too busy playing the same song we've been hearing all season, called "We just can't hit it," causing them to collect just four hits on the night, and strand 11 on base.

In the end, the Yankees dropped the game to the Rays, 7-0, suffering their 11th shutout this season. More important, the Yanks, with the Indians winning on a two-run, walk-off homerun by former-Yankee Jason Giambi, fell to five games back in the Wild Card standings with five games left to play.

According to most websites, depending on what you read, the Yankees' postseason probability is now down to exactly 0%. That means that Yankees now have no shot at playing baseball in October, and we can pretty much start planing on how we're going to deal with what could be a rough offseason ahead of us.

"Right now, we need a ton of help and we need to win every game or we are not going to get in," Girardi said. "That is the hard part because of what you go through."

The Yankees aren't eliminated just yet, but with a loss tonight or even a win by the Indians, who are playing the last-place White Sox by the way, would end their season altogether.

If you though it couldn't get any worse than hear that, that guess what. Phil Hughes is starting on the mound for the Bombers tonight in what is, in all likelihood, his final start as a member of the New York Yankees -- start the applause.

That's right, with the Yankees entire playoff hopes hanging on by a fingernail, it'll be Hughes taking the mound tonight with his 4-13 record and 5.07 ERA, trying to lead the way.

Last night, the Baltimore Orioles were officially eliminated for postseason contention, and tonight, the Yankees could be the next team down. On Phil Hughes Day in the Bronx, the Yanks could be saying goodbye to more than just another pitcher.

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Yanks And Rays Open Up Critical Wild Card Series In The Bronx

Could this be the series that finally ends the Yankees' season? Tonight in the Bronx, the Yankees open up a three-game series against the Wild Card leading Tampa Bay Rays. These three games will either keep the Yankees in the race and bring them closer to pulling off this miracle run, or it will end their playoff hopes all together.

The Yankees are coming off an emotional loss to the San Francisco Giants on Sunday at Yankee Stadium, on a day will with celebrating and remembrance of Mariano Rivera, baseball's greatest closer, as he prepares to ride off into the sunset after the final pitch of the 2013 season is thrown.

With just six games remaining this season, the Yankees need every win they can get in order to get to the postseason. On Monday, the Yanks announced that they would have to go through these final six games without their apparent ace CC Sabathia, who was shut down for the rest of the season because of a Grade 2 strain in his left hamstring.

Tonight's Lineup vs Tampa Bay:

Suzuki CF
Rodriguez DH
Cano 2B
Soriano LF
Reynolds 1B
Nunez 3B
Wells RF
Ryan SS
Stewart C
Kuroda RHP

Pitching Preview:

On Sunday, Andy Pettitte made his final home start at Yankee Stadium after announcing on Friday that he, too, would retire at the end of this season. Pettitte was great on the mound, taking a no-hitter into the 6th inning until it was taken away by a homerun from a September call-up.

Today against the Rays, Hiroki Kuroda will try one more time to turn his season around after going on a harsh losing streak since mid-August. Since going eight-innings against the Los Angeles Angels on August 12th, he's 0-6 with an ERA over six.

Although he dropped his last decision, Kuroda put together a quality start when he gave up three runs over six innings to the Toronto Blue Jays last Thursday.

"It was gutsy; he was in trouble every inning," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said of Kuroda's performance. "He did a really good job of minimizing the damage."

Taking the mound for the Rays tonight is one of their best young pitchers, left-hander Matt Moore, who is 15-4 with a 3.34 ERA, with two of his wins coming against the Yankees in four starts against them this season.

"Beating them is going to worsen their chances of getting in, so we can kill a couple birds with that one stone," Moore said of this critical series starting tonight.

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The Yanks' Playoff Hope Is Still Alive, But Not By Much

In sports, nothing compares to the last week of baseball. As some of the divisions have already been claimed, the divisions still wide open are always a joy to watch, as the pressure of winning in the crunch time of the season grows on all contending teams.

For the Yankees,crunch time started a long time ago, and as they head into the final week of the season with six games left against the Tampa Bay Rays and Houston Astros, they're four games back of the Cleveland Indians in the Wild Card race.

Every last game for the Yankees can be considered a must-win game, because if they fail to win even one of the remaining six, they can almost certainly say goodbye to their playoff hopes.

Starting tomorrow in the Bronx, the Yankees open up their most important series of the season -- and their best chance at clinching a Wild Card berth -- with a three-game against the Rays, who currently lead the Wild Card.

Enter play four games behind, the Yankees can't afford to lose any of the three games, as a loss on Tuesday could potentially set them five games back with five left to play -- not exactly good odds.

More so, the Yankees would also need to get some help from the teams currently ahead of them in the Wild Card race, but the strength of schedule for the Kansas City Royals, Texas Rangers and Indians are not in the Yankees' favor.

The Indians have two games home games left against the awful Chicago White Sox on Tuesday and Wednesday, then finish their season with four games against the Minnesota Twins. The Royals are in Seattle for three games against the no-so-competitive Mariners starting on tonight, then go to the White Sox for more more easy games to finish the season.

Then you have the Rangers, who had been playing very poorly lately, but still find them selves just 1.5 games out of the second Wild Card spot, with three games against the Astros and four games at the Angels -- two very easy opponents.

At this point, on a scale of 1-10, the Yankees chances of making the playoffs are probably at a two, but if you think about it, a two if still better than a zero. They still have life, but not much left. If they plan in making the playoffs, it's going to take a miracle of a six-game winning streak, along with some, I mean a lot, of help from the other teams involved.

The season ends Sunday in Houston, but the Yankees' playoffs hopes could end a few day before that if they don't start winning now.

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Just Be Happy That The Yankees Made It This Far

Stop me if you've heard this: It's not about the destination, it's about the journey. In the Yankees' case, it's the other way around, as in, it's all about getting to the World Series.

With only 12 game remaining for the Bombers this season, it's looking like a long shot that the Yanks actually make the playoffs even though they're just 2.5 games back of the second Wild Card spot as they enter play in Toronto tonight.

I say that because we all know what's wrong with this squad as they prepare for a 12-game stretch that includes playing against two last place teams -- the Houston Astros and Blue Jays -- with a three-game series against the fourth place San Francisco Giants, and then one important set against the Tampa Bay Rays next week in the Bronx.

The starting pitching is hurting the team more than anything else at the moment, and I guess you could also include the bullpen that hasn't been very good lately, either.

In the last seven days, the Yankees, as a team, have accumulated an ERA of 5.80 -- good for 13th in the American League, ahead of only the Seattle Mariners (5.98) and Minnesota Twins (6.85). For the entire month of September, their 6.27 ERA ranks them dead last in the majors -- Yeah, I know, that's behind everyone.

But that's just for the last few weeks, and, somehow, the Yankees are still in the Wild Card race. Yet, if the Yanks actually end up making the playoffs, none of that will matter, because all that will matter is that they made it to the playoffs regardless of how they got there.

Look at it this way: In spring training, no body picked the Yankees to make the playoffs. Joe Girardi probably thought that it would take a miracle to get this team to October.

The Yankees let go of Russell Martin, who's now walking into October with the Pittsburgh Pirates, one of the best teams in the National League, Nick Swisher, who's now in this postseason race with the Cleveland Indians, and not to mention Raul Ibaniez, who nearly has 30 homeruns for the Seattle Mariners.

On the opposite side of the subtractions, the Yankees brought in almost no one, apart from Kevin Youkilis, who the Yanks singed for 1-year $13 million to only play 28 games because of back surgery.

Along with bringing back aging veterans such as Andy Pettitte and Ichiro Suzuki, the Yankees rushed around in the spring to bring in Travis Hafner, Vernon Wells and Lyle Ovebay. Those three played big roles early, but the production value has dropped of dramatically lately, and, of course, Hafner is basically out for the year because of shoulder problems.

If you don't remember this, the Yankees' Opening Day DH was Ben Francisco -- who was also terrible. In a yea when the Yankees have used a franchise-record of 56 players, mostly due to the new injury suffered every day, they have managed to stay in this race.

In a season where Derek Jeter has played in only 17 games, they've managed to stay in the race. In a season where CC Sabathia is pitching like a No. 4 starter at best, they've managed to stay in this race. And in a season where Mark Teixeria has playing in 12 games, and Curtis Granderson was on the DL twice for broken bones, and I still haven't even mentioned what's been happening around Alex Rodriguez and his looming 211-game suspension.

The point is that the Yankees have been through so much this season, and yet they find themselves with still a great chance to make the playoffs with only 12 games remaining, even when every expert on the planet expected them to miss the playoffs -- even I expected them to miss out for the second time since
1994.

Now matter what happens in this final stretch run, just remember that no other team in the Wild Card race has been through half of what the New York Yankees have had to deal with this season.

The Yankees might not reach their destination this season -- a World Series championship -- but I'll be damned if it wasn't one hell of a journey.

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The Yankees Aren't Out Of This Playoff Race Just Yet

As they say, it's not over until it's over. Many of you might be able to argue that this season might actually already by over for the New York Yankees, but it you look at the facts in front of you, you might be able to ask, is it really over?

Well, the Yankees left Boston this weekend after and atrocious showing against the Red Sox, losing all three-games in the series, and being outscored by the Sox 22-7.

Yet, somehow, the Yankees "only" managed to lose one game to the Tampa Bay Rays, whom the Yankees now trail by three-games in the Wild Card. Even better, the Rays are actually tied with the Texas Rangers for the top spot in the Wild Card race, meaning the Yanks are just three games back of both of those teams.

Tonight in Tampa, the Rays and Rangers begin a critical four-game series at the Trop, with the first Wild Card spot, and possibly a playoff berth on the line.

With as well as the Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Indians are playing right now, you can almost write one of those teams into the playoffs if either the Rays or Rangers have their way this week.

Both Tampa and Texas has been playing sloppy baseball of late, but the only team playing worse than the Yankees did in Boston this past weekend is the Rangers, losers of six straight, and nine of their last 10 games.

Just as the Rangers did last season when they let the Oakland Athletics come all the way back to win the AL West last season, Texas is currently running themselves out of the playoff race again this season.

If the Yankees were to really make a run at this Wild Card, this would be their best chance to do so, as the Bombers are in Toronto for three-games starting on Tuesday, to face a Blue Jays team that the Yanks have owned this season.

Of their last 12 remaining games, the Yankees play nine of them against current last place teams -- three against Toronto, three against the San Francisco Giants, and three against the worst team in baseball, the Houston Astros to finish the regular season, with the other the three against the Rays next week in the Bronx.

"We've got 12 games to go, there’s no time to be concerned, we've got to go," Said Alex Rodriguez after Sunday's 9-2 loss. “You got to play as hard as you can and you never know, crazier things have happened, we just have to worry about getting back on a good winning streak on Tuesday.

"I know we are right in the mix, nothing that a two- or three-game winning streak can’t fix," A-Rod said. “If we go out and win four of the next five starting on Tuesday I think we are right back into this thing. If you take Boston away over the last two to three weeks, we've played really good baseball. Boston has done a number on us, they basically whipped our ass."

Right now, the Yanks would need to leapfrog over the Baltimore Orioles and Indians in order to grab a Wild Card spot. Cleveland's last 13 games are against Kansas City, Houston, the Minnesota Twins and the Chicago White Sox. They have the easiest schedule of all the contending teams.

The Orioles finish up with a tough 13 game fix against the Red Sox, Rays, Blue Jays and one more series against the Red Sox to end the season.

I'm not saying that it will be done, but it certainly can be done. The Yankees obviously have a ton of issues to sort through if they actually plan on making the playoffs -- with everything from injuries to terrible pitching, but I'll get into that later.

All I'm saying is that you shouldn't write off the New York Yankees just yet, because as we've seen in the past, anything can happen in these last few weeks.

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