Hitting .208 with runners in scoring position; needing home runs to win games. This doesn't necessarily sound like the recipe for a long winning streak in baseball but that is indeed what the New York Yankees did over the past 9 games--win them all.
Stats can be misleading and incomplete. Despite not taking advantage of scoring opportunities, the Yanks still rampaged through the NL East due to outstanding starting pitching and opportune power hitting.
With an ERA of 1.82 during the winning streak and 15 home runs, the 16-77 stat with RISP is much more meaningless.
In years past, a sweep of 3 teams in the NL East might have been thought of as something a bit less impressive. This year however, the NL East is one of the strongest divisions in baseball and the Yanks beat the Mets, Braves, and Nationals, all teams with winning records. According to Elias Sports Bureau, it is the first time in franchise history that Yanks had a winning streak of this length against teams with winning records.
The Yanks are definitely on fire and now head back to New York looking to make it a clear 12 and 0 against the NL East when they face the Braves tonight. And who better to take the mound than ace CC Sabathia.
The scary thing about how the Yanks are playing is that if they actually hit with runners in scoring position they would be many times better and absolutely crushing opponents. New York is playing extremely well and you can't argue with 9 in a row but if they can fire on all cylinders, they could run away with the division.
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