Since this probably will continue for years to come, let’s set something straight:
There’s a difference between money for nothing and just getting overpaid.
Kei Igawa and Carl Pavano were pinstriped thieves. But when you’re overpaid like Jacoby Ellsbury, sometimes you earn your keep.
Even when you start the game on the bench.
Ellsbury, the much-maligned $153 million man, delivered the biggest hit yet of this crazy Yankees season, going deep off Ross Stripling in the seventh inning Tuesday night to break a scoreless tie. Didi Gregorius followed immediately with a pinch-hit blast of his own and Gary Sanchez added an insurance homer in the eighth, and the Yankees (77-67) went on to blank the Dodgers, 3-0, to halt their two-game losing skid, stay two games behind the Orioles (79-65) and Blue Jays (79-65) in the American League wild-card hunt and, by virtue of the Twins’ thumping of the Tigers (77-67), regain full control of their October destiny.