Yankees didn't come up with enough clutch hits in end – New York Post, Nypost.com

HOUSTON – This 2019 Yankees’ season turned from special to sour in a week’s time for one very obvious, analytical reason:

They lost their mojo.

To be more technical, they just stopped hitting with runners in scoring position.

They made it exciting at the end Saturday night, courtesy of everyone’s favorite bat man, DJ LeMahieu. Yet baseball’s most accomplished and celebrated franchise has clocked a full decade, from 2010 through now, without so much as reaching a World Series.

Yes, the Yankees are done, courtesy of a6-4 loss to the Astrosin American League Championship Series Game 6 at Minute Maid Park – Jose Altuve crushed a walk-off, two-run homer off Aroldis Chapman in the bottom of the ninth – that eliminated them by a 4-2 count as Houston reached its second Fall Classic in three years.

After LeMahieu slugged a game-tying, one-out, two-run homer off Astros closer Roberto Osuna in the top of the ninth inning, the Yankees gained some hope, only to fail to build on that momentum, fittingly, and then see Chapman falter.

If you lead your 2019 Yankees obituary by lamenting all the high-end starting pitchers Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman failed to obtain these past few years, including the Astros’ Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole, you wouldn’t necessarily be wrong, but you wouldn’t tell the whole story. For what differentiated Aaron Boone’s second season as Yankees manager from his first, what provided the most hope they could slay some ghosts despite their starting rotation being an obvious Achilles’ heel, was just how well their hitters performed in the clutch from the end of March through the first week of October.

No major league team produced at a higher level with runners in scoring position during the regular season than the Yankees, who hit a terrific. 294 /. 372 /. 518. In sweeping past the Twins in the AL Division Series, moreover, they tallied 11 hits in 34 such at-bats, continuing to ride this path to success.

In the second week of October, however, they reverted to their 2018 form, going 6-for – 35 (. ). How much credit and blame should be distributed between the Astros ’pitchers (and fielders, who played some fine defense) and Yankees’ hitters, respectively, can be dissected for the next five and a half months or so.

Game 6 proved a fitting coda, the Yankees threatening in this battle of the bullpens and falling short again and again, going just 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position. To break it down further, Gary Sanchez delivered in the team’s first opportunity of the night, drilling an RBI single in the second inning, and the Yankees failed forever after, stranding men on first and second in the second, the bases loaded in the third and first and second in the sixth. For good measure, they ended the seventh and eighth innings by hitting into double plays. Interestingly, many of these threats ended with first-pitch swings on breaking balls, like Didi Gregorius in the third (a groundout to pitcher Ryan Pressley) and DJ LeMahieu in the sixth (a bouncer to shortstop Carlos Correa).

When the Yankees fell to the Red Sox in last year AL Division Series, they went just 4-for – 26 154) in their clutch at-bats. That felt less surprising, though, as their. 253 /.342/.442 regular-season showing ranked them fifth in the AL.

This one stings more because of the Yankees ’inspiring“ Next Man Up ”and“ Savages ”narratives. Now they must live, fairly or unfairly, that they relied too much on the home run. That they didn’t have enough starting pitching. That, as per the late George Steinbrenner’s “Championship or bust” mentality, silly as it might be in reality, they have struck out like they haven’t since the 1910 – 1919 stretch.

Imagine if the Yankees had found a way to get four more hits with runners in scoring position in this series, which would compute to a. 286 batting average in these situations, still lower than their regular-season percentage? If they were the right four hits, they might be getting ready to take on the Nationals for all the marbles right now.

Alas, they didn’t and they aren’t. Another cold winter awaits them as they try to put together the proper combination of pitching, hitting, defense – and mojo.