The great Yogi Berra (sorry, I'm not yet ready to say late great) famously said, among numerous other quips, "It gets late early out there." It's only twenty games into the season, but many in Yankee-land hope Yogi wasn't looking into the future at the 2016 Bronx Bombers when he uttered his classic remark.
While an 8-12 record at the end of April is more than recoverable from, the brand of inconsistent ball these Yankees have played to this point doesn't look as if 8 wins in April will turn into ninety-plus come late September. The pitching has been as excepted. Going into the season it was thought the top four starters would be anywhere from two ones and two twos, to three threes and a four, with Mr. Carston Charles slotted into the fifth spot.
In his last outing, Nathan Eovaldi took a no-no into the seventh and came away with a 3-1 win, lowering his E.R.A. to 4.38. While April E.R.A.'s can look worse than they really are due to one bad outing, anything north of 4.00 is still nothing to e-mail home about. Especially after a seven inning, one–run performance. On the flip side, April E.R.A.s can be reduced pretty quickly in May.
Eovaldi's impressive outing was followed by Louis Severino giving up six runs in three innings, leaving the game after having pitched to a sparkling 18.00 E.R.A. for the evening. He happens to be the youngest starting pitcher in the major leagues, and showed a lot of promise last year, so Yankee fans shouldn't worry too much.
The previous two nights of pitching is a microcosm of what the rotation has been so far this year, and very well may be all year. A lot of talent trying to find its way. It's a good thing they still play 162 games.
Along with nobody approaching .300 in the batting order, despite a decent amount of talent sprinkled throughout, a low scoring, inconsistent offense has been the norm more than the exception to this point. The old baseball adage many swear by that the bats usually heat up along with the weather, is what many a Yankee fan is counting on. Hopefully it happens before America celebrates its 240th anniversary in the not too distant future.
On the bright side, at least Yogi wasn't sent packing by George after the 16th game this year. Here's hoping the once again old friends are having a laugh and a beer over that one, on a comfortable cloud with a cool breeze blowing their way as they watch their beloved Pinstripers.