On April 19th, the 8-8 Yankees were staring at 21 straight games against teams ahead of them in the standings. They cruised to an 18-3 mark over the toughest part of their 2018 schedule, and ended up tied for the best record in baseball. Let’s take a look at how they got it done.
Stellar pitching
Through the first 16 games of the season, the Yankees pitching staff posted a rather pedestrian 4.62 ERA and 1.28 WHIP. Starting pitchers handed a lead to the bullpen 10 times, while producing six quality starts. The bullpen, though, turned two of those wins into losses, and allowed at least one earned run in 12 of those 16 games.