It’s going to take a miracle.
Not like the Miracle Mets I’d say, who were more miraculous for how far and how quickly they’d come from their hapless, often comical early days.
And not like the Miracle on Ice either, the Olympic hockey gold medal run of 1980 that married college kid enthusiasm with Cold War patriotism.
I’m thinking more like Danny Manning perhaps. Or what the Yankees almost pulled off in 2001.
Manning was the Aaron Judge of college basketball in 1988 – Naismith Award Winner, Wooden Award Winner, All America, soon to be 1st pick in the NBA draft – and led Kansas to an NCAA championship no one thought possible. But with Manning averaging 27 points per game, the sixth-seeded Jayhawks pulled off one of the all-time stunners, a run that still inspires every March.
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The 2001 Yankees were hardly an underdog, having won three straight World Series prior. But that ‘01 team, despite plenty of October prowess and hardware, hit just .183 in seven games against Arizona and had been outscored 35-14…yet they stood just two outs away from actually winning that World Series, before Luis Gonzalez and the Diamondbacks created their own miracle with a two-run ninth inning rally against Mariano Rivera.
That one is still painful for many Yankees fans, who sometimes forget that they had been dominated the entire series and needed heart-stopping, down-to-their-last-out comebacks in Games 4 and 5 to even make it a series.
This is where the 2022 Yankees have landed.
Of course they are the Yankees, and obstacles are not meant to be treated as insurmountable no matter what. But the injuries to DJ LeMahieu, Anthony Rizzo, and Giancarlo Stanton are real.
LeMahieu just isn’t the same since a right big toe injury, and might need to be shut down again soon. Rizzo’s back and the ensuing headaches have now landed him on the IL. Stanton is simply day-to-day after fouling a ball off his foot, but he hasn’t looked 100 percent since coming off the IL with an Achilles injury. For crying out loud, Stanton’s last extra base hit was the home run he hit in the All-Star Game.
A long season affords you time to wait for healthy returns, but we are now at a part in the calendar that it just doesn’t feel realistic.
The massive underperformances of Gleyber Torres and Josh Donaldson are also real. And there is little evidence it will turn enough to make a massive impact on an offense that just has little to offer right now besides Judge.
All of the above has left these Yankees in a place that would leave most teams booking tee times in October.
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But this team has Aaron Judge. And it has Gerrit Cole, who is supposed to earn the big bucks with big game performances that lead to ticker tape parades.
Baseball isn’t like the other sports. You’re supposed to need all 25 men, not just one or two. And that will still be true to a degree, because at least one other pitcher will have to show up. And the bullpen will not be allowed to blow any games unless they want to be remembered like Byung-Hyun Kim, Mitch Williams, or Aroldis Chapman. And yes, someone besides Judge will have to get a big hit.
But Judge and Cole will not be allowed to limp to the finish or pass the baton. Cole got big money for things like this. Judge wants big money for things like this. Yankees fans don’t really care who’s hurt and who isn’t – they just want the team to put up wins in October, enough to win a trophy.
It has become an uphill battle for this team. It will take Judge and Cole playing at peak level.
And even then it just might take a miracle.
Follow Sweeny Murti on Twitter: @YankeesWFAN
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