The anatomy of a Yankees winning streak

After last night’s amazing win over the Angels in extra innings, the Yankees have now won seven games in a row. The last week has pushed the team to a 16-9 record and put them just three games behind the Red Sox in the division following Boston’s loss. Things are finally clicking into place for this team after an ugly start to the season. Whether they keep the winning streak alive tonight or not, they should be proud of what they have accomplished. In order to make it all happen, though, several things needed to take place. This is how the Yankees managed to win seven in a row.

The Home Run Barrage

Over the last seven days, the Yankees have enjoyed an offensive explosion when it comes to the team’s power output. After last night’s heroics, Didi Gregorius now has five home runs and 13 RBI in that time period. He’s not alone, though, because Gary Sanchez has hit three dingers, one of which was a walk off of his own, and has collected eight RBI. Tyler Austin has really turn things up recently and has hit three homers with nine RBI. Aaron Judge is hitting well and hit two shots of his own, while knocking in five RBI.

The Yankees offense was always expected to be the strength of this team, but it’s good to see a good portion of the lineup firing on all cylinders. Austin, Judge, and Didi all have OPS over 1.000 over the last seven games. Leading the ways is Gregorius, who has 13 hits in that span and doesn’t seem interested in slowing down any time soon. Last night’s dinger was also his first home run on the road this year, which is nice to see him get out of the way. The more he hits, the less pressure goes on Giancarlo Stanton, who has certainly improved but still isn’t hitting the ball like he’s expected to.

Solid Starting Pitching

The rotation hasn’t been perfect—whose is—but in the last seven days, the Yankees are getting exactly what they need from their starting pitching. It isn’t enough time for everyone in the rotation to get more than one start, but they have still done their jobs. Luis Severino has pitched like an ace, allowing just four run over 14 innings while striking out 14 batters. He kept the Angels to just three runs in seven innings, giving the offense time to strike.

Jordan Montgomery has also done a solid job in the two starts he’s had by limiting the opposition to just three runs in 11 innings of work. It would be nice to see him pitch a little further into his games, but you can’t argue with the end results when he’s the fifth starter. Masahiro Tanaka and CC Sabathia have both pitched at least six innings while allowing just one earned run between the two of them. The only weak link so far is Sonny Gray, who continued to struggle in his start against Minnesota on the 25th. Hopefully they can get him turned around before too long, but it’s clearly not too much of a problem when the bullpen can fill in until the offense saves the day.

The Unstoppable Bullpen

Everyone expected the bullpen to be a strength, but it took some time for them to get going. Over the span of these seven days, the Yankees have gotten a fully functional bullpen. That has helped them avoid any embarrassing loses, especially at the hands of the Twins. The back of the bullpen has restored order with Dellin Betances providing 1.1 shutout innings with four strikeouts, giving the Yankees a solid inning of work before their walk off win against the Twins on Thursday.

David Robertson, on the other hand, has thrown a total of 3.2 innings of shutout baseball over the last week. It’s performances like this that will keep the Yankees on their role. Aroldis Chapman has recovered from early season jitters to be the closer this team needs him to be. Three innings without giving up a run has given him two saves this week alone. Hopefully he will be racking them up from here on out.

It’s hard to tell whether the Yankees are good again or still just riding high after a four-game sweep of the Twins. Whatever the case may be, the team has benefitted from a great week. Let’s hope they can keep it going, one day at a time.