The Yankees have once again been hit with an onslaught of injuries. And once again, it doesn't seem to be hurting their win-loss record much.
That was one of the topics WFAN's Boomer Esiason and Gregg Giannotti discussed at the start of Monday morning's "Boomer and Gio" show.
The Yanks on Sunday completed a four-game sweep of the Red Sox with a 7-4 win at Yankee Stadium. But New York placed two more players on the injured list over the weekend -- first baseman/designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion (right wrist fracture) and center fielder Aaron Hicks (flexor strain in right arm) -- bringing the total number of players on the IL to 16.
Making matters worse, infielder Gleyber Torres and Gio Urshela both left Sunday's game early with injuries -- Torres with a core issue and Urshela after fouling two balls off his legs. X-rays on Urshela were negative; Torres' status is unclear, although his father tweeted that the 22-year-old All-Star is fine and traveling with the team to Baltimore.
Nevertheless, after winning six of their last seven, the Yankees (72-39) are tied with the Dodgers for the best record in baseball and have an eight-game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays for first place in the American League East.
"Here we are in another wave of injuries that aren't affecting them," Giannotti said. "It is unbelievable."
It's not just the quantity of Yankees injuries; it's also the quality. In addition to Encarnacion and Hicks, the Yanks' IL includes sluggers Gary Sanchez, Giancarlo Stanton and Luke Voit and pitchers Dellin Betances, CC Sabathia and Luis Severino.
The Yankees dealt with a similar rash of injuries early in the season but surprisingly kept winning, as players such as Urshela, DJ LeMahieu, Cameron Maybin, Clint Frazier and Mike Tauchman stepped up.
The same thing seems to be happening again.
"When we left last Friday, I was basically (saying) ... 'I want to see the Yankees bounce back and deliver to the Red Sox what the Red Sox what gave to them the week before," Esiason said, referring to Boston winning three out of four the previous weekend at Fenway Park. "Well, not only did they do that, they did that in spades, and they did that with guys by the names of Mike Tauchman, Austin Romine, (Kyle) Higashioka, (Breyvic) Valera -- who? what? -- Mike Ford playing first base. ... It's a most memorable season because of the amount of guys that are getting involved and the amount of guys that come up with key hits in different parts of the season, different games.
"It's like they don't miss a beat," Boomer continued. "And I don't really know who to give credit to. I think you want to give credit certainly first and foremost to the players. Secondly, I would think (general manager) Brian Cashman, the guy who's bringing the players in. And then whatever chemistry (manager) Aaron Boone has created within the dugout and fighting for his savages in the batter's box and all that other stuff has created, right now at this moment that we're sitting here, a winning attitude, like 'I can do it, I want to be a part of it.' And it's very rare when things like this happen, where you have so many players, especially non-known players, give you the goods and deliver the goods. And this has been going on since maybe the 10th game of the season."
To listen to the open from Monday's show -- in which Boomer and Gio also discussed the Mets, who are hot themselves and now just one game below .500 -- click on the audio player above.
