Baseball: A Two-Way Player

Chapter 679 25: Number One in the World

"Haha, a straight flush—Lin, you've lost again!"

Didi Gregorius threw his hand on the table, flashing his gleaming white teeth, and shrugged at Lin Guanglai across from him; in response, Lin Guanglai covered his forehead with his hand, showing a look of unwilling frustration.

"Lin, luckily we're just playing casually—if this were in Las Vegas, you'd probably be the fat lamb waiting to be slaughtered in the dealer's eyes, losing everything including your underwear..."

"Honestly, Lin, I've been with the Yankees for 10 years now, and among everyone who's joined this card game over the years, you're not the worst, but not far from it—it's hard to imagine that a pitcher as wise and dominant as you on the field performs worse than my 7-year-old daughter at the card table..."

Players around Lin Guanglai, including Severino and Sabathia, seeing him like this, all flashed jeering smiles, mercilessly started mocking, and the cabin was filled with an air of merriment.

After finishing a series of fantastic home games, the Yankees players didn't even have a moment to rest; right after yesterday night's game, they got on a plane from New York to California this morning, beginning their long, grand expedition.

Over the next half month, the Yankees players will face the Los Angeles Angels and Oakland Athletics respectively, challenging these two teams in Anaheim and Oakland; together they'll play 10 games. Then they will head to the central United States, taking on the White Sox in Chicago, followed by a showdown in Texas with the Rangers and Astros.

There's no doubt that this consecutive road game schedule is quite a test for the players both mentally and physically, and could lead to significant fluctuations in the team's performance during this time—Joe Girardi and his coaching staff have made considerable preparations for this possibility.

But what happened next was beyond the expectations of everyone, including the coaches and players: even though the New York Yankees were winning one game after another before this expedition, looking unstoppable, upon arriving in the pleasant climate of Los Angeles, it seemed like they suddenly forgot how to play ball, experiencing a huge drop in form:

In the first game of the three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels, when Lin Guanglai exited the game after pitching 7 innings with no earned runs, and hitting 3 times out of 3, with a 5-run lead, everyone thought it was only a matter of time before he secured his 10th win of the season and the Yankees their 40th victory.

Who could've imagined that the Yankees' bullpen, luxurious enough to make other teams drool, would unexpectedly implode—

In the top of the seventh, reliever Tyler Clippard gave up 4 runs in just 0.1 innings, and other bullpen members who came in later couldn't suppress the surging Angels lineup. Lin Guanglai's imminent win and the Yankees' almost certain victory slipped away due to the bullpen's poor performance.

Yet this loss was merely the beginning:

In the second game of the series, Sabathia started, pitching 6 innings and allowing 1 run, yet the lineup failed and the bullpen couldn't hold the opposing batters, leading to the Yankees losing after an 11-inning battle, marking two consecutive losses;

In the third game of the series, after being shut down in the previous match, the Yankees' lineup scored four runs in the first inning, only to see this advantage squandered by poor defense from starter Pineda and the infielders; when the reliever was hit for a go-ahead solo home run by the Angels' hitters, the trend of three straight losses could no longer be reversed.

Temporarily leaving Anaheim, as the Yankees fans hoped their team would regain its competitive form against the struggling Oakland Athletics, the green-clad players of the Athletics instead showed their tenacity:

In the four-game series against the Athletics, the Yankees managed only one win, thanks to Lin Guanglai's complete-game one-run effort, while losing the other three games.

If it's just a matter of skill, it could be tolerated, but the problem is the Yankees lost those three games to the Athletics by scores of 7-8, 6-7, and 3-4, with the bullpen practically igniting in the latter innings of every game to send victories away, which is unacceptable for head coach Girardi. You can't rely on every starter to pitch complete-game shutouts, can you?

With a dismal run of 1 win and 6 losses in the last 7 games, the victory margin the New York Yankees built earlier is being continuously eaten away by the Boston Red Sox:

Before the start of this expedition, the Yankees had a record of 39 wins and 20 losses, securely holding the top spot in the East United States while being among the leaders in the American League; now, their record is 40 wins and 26 losses, and the lead over the Red Sox has shrunk to 1.5 games, with the advantage precariously at risk.

If they lose the top position in the East United States, the Yankees will have to compete with teams from other divisions for two wild card spots; Girardi really doesn't want to face that one-game "wild card sudden death game" unless it's absolutely necessary.

And as they return to Anaheim, ready to face the last series in their expedition to California, a piece of news released by the Los Angeles Angels again makes the Yankees coaching staff's mood less than great—