"We're trying. That's the idea," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "You try to do that in September, and that's why you try to win every game. You worry about that day. You don't do anything crazy and you don't push people too hard, but you worry about that day."
..."It's too far to think about, but we definitely want [home-field advantage]," Johnny Damon said. "We're going to keep plugging away and keep playing hard. We feel like if we relax a little bit, it could definitely hurt us down the stretch.
"We're going to keep plugging, and we have depth right now that we can keep guys fresh. There's still a lot of games that we need to win."
"This is how the team was made," Damon said. "Everyone was questioning all the home runs we were hitting. Well, look at our team -- we hit home runs everywhere. Top to bottom and on our bench, we have depth that not too many other teams do have."
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"The first thing is to make the playoffs, the second thing is to win your division and the third thing is home-field advantage," Girardi said. "If you can get them all, it's really important."
Obviously the most important thing once the playoffs begin is getting good starting pitching. If you pitch it really doesn't matter where you're playing. But I also feel that homefield is very important, especially for a team that has gone a MLB-best 45-20 at home. My question to you is how important do you feel homefield advantage throughout the playoffs would be for the Yanks?
8 Comments:
Quite honestly AJ Burnette getting himself squared away is as important as homefield advantage. Lets face it Beckett, Verlander can easily be unhittable on a start and Sabathia pitch well, lose a very close game and # 2 starter becomes very big - in a short series especially. go Yanks - get that groin fixed up MO
I feel like AJ is issue number 1. Keeping Pettitte healthy is issue number 2 and praying that Mo's injury isn't serious is 3. Home field advantage would be nice, but I think we could still easily win it all if we didn't have it. A lot of our pitches pitch better on the road.
Hasn't this always been AJ Burnett? I don't get why everyone is surprised. He's always been the same way. Just imagine him on the Blue Jays doing the same thing because that's what we've seen for the last few years.
Burnett is a streaky pitcher but he should be back in his dominance by playoff time.
Burnett, like Beckett, will eventually pick it up. Hes got great stuff and this slump won't last for long.
Its not issue #1 but it is important because of the huge difference between their home record. The Yankees can use the homer happy tendencies of the park to their advantage and they look like they've learned how.
Getting Burnett straightened is issue #1 though. If he's not pitching well, then I don't know how they're getting out of the first round.
Its not issue #1 but it is important because of the huge difference between their home record. The Yankees can use the homer happy tendencies of the park to their advantage and they look like they've learned how.
Getting Burnett straightened is issue #1 though. If he's not pitching well, then I don't know how they're getting out of the first round.
Hope you're right Bryan, but I'd like to see some hard evidence to backup that optimism. AJ has had some pretty horrendous starts this season and even though he pitched pretty well against the White Sox, there was too much crap talked about him making "only one mistake." Surely, walks are mistakes too? Is it just coincidence that both Burnett and Beckett have struggled since their duel at Yankee Stadium? Going to be interesting to see how we fare without AJ and CC pitching against Toronto over the next four days. Yes, the Jays suck almost as much as the Orioles, but with Gaudin going in game one and Mo probably unavailable for the next few days, we're go to have maintain the unbelievably high professional approach we have shown for most of the season.
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