People around baseball love to call the 162-game season a marathon, paying tribute to the daily grind that can often be exacerbated during the dog days of summer.
But when the Yankees return for the second half on Friday in Denver, they know what they are in for: It’s time to go.
With 71 games left in the season, eight games out of first place in the AL East and one game out of the final playoff spot, the Yankees have no time to waste.
They still don’t know for sure when Aaron Judge might return from the injured list — or how effective he might be — and they will be breaking in a new hitting coach on the fly in Sean Casey, but they still believe they can make a run to get to October.
“There’s a sprint here and an opportunity here,” general manager Brian Cashman said this week after firing hitting coach Dillon Lawson as the first half of the season came to an end. “I believe that we do have more than capable players to find higher ground than we’ve found in the first half.”
Cashman referred to the “sprint” on multiple occasions Sunday and Casey echoed it during his introductory news conference on Wednesday.
It begins with a three-game series against the Rockies, who own the third-worst record in the majors, then visiting the reeling Angels before returning home to face the Royals, who own the second-worst record in baseball.
That race to the finish line will also include the Aug. 1 trade deadline, which could help give the Yankees a boost, especially if they are able to address their glaring hole in left field.
But for the most part, if the Yankees are going to get hot and give the teams in front of them — the Rays, Orioles and Blue Jays in the East, plus the Astros in the wild-card standings — a run for their money, they’re going to need the underperforming veterans already on the roster to get going.
A big reason why the Yankees finished the first half outside of a playoff spot was their offense that ranked 12th-worst in runs per game (4.40), 10th-worst in OPS (.710), fifth-worst in on-base percentage (.300) and third-worst in batting average (.231), all of which factored into Lawson’s dismissal.
Not having Judge for the last 31 games did them no favors, but neither did the bats of DJ LeMahieu, Giancarlo Stanton and Anthony Rizzo going largely silent at the same time — plus the all-or-nothing Josh Donaldson (10 home runs, 15 hits in 112 plate appearances).
It remains to be seen how much, or how quickly, the arrival of Casey can help rejuvenate those veteran hitters, but the Yankees’ second-half hopes may well depend on it.
“I would expect myself to come in and make an impact,” Casey said. “I love the [high] expectations. I love the chance to get these guys right and to be with them every day and to give them as much confidence as possible and get their swings going and be one of the best offenses in baseball. I welcome the challenge, I really do.
“I don’t feel intimidated at all. I don’t feel like there’s going to be a learning curve. I feel like I’m going to be ready to connect with big-league hitters.”
Last year, the Yankees were on fire in the first half — 36 games above .500 and a 13-game lead in the AL East heading into the All-Star break — before playing exactly .500 baseball during the second half.
This season, they are banking on reversing the trend.
“Heading into the second half, it’s all right there for us,” manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s on us to get it done. And we’re in position to do that. So it’s I think everyone would say as much of a grind as it’s been, we’re there with an opportunity and we’re looking forward to that.”
