| Published: N/A |
| Date: July 2007 |
| Section: Sports |
| Comments: |
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By: Ian Essling
Alex Rodriguez (.317, 30 HR, 86 RBI) continues to clobber the baseball, but his 30 homers are more than double (in fact, nearly triple) of what the next best on the team is producing (Hideki Matsui at 11). Derek Jeter has only five long balls, and Johnny Damon and Bobby Abreu are in similar power slumps (five each as well). The lack of home runs hasn't particularly hurt the run production, however, as the Yanks are third in the Majors for runs scored (464) and fourth for team average (.280). They are still not winning games, however, and with there being 10 games between them and Boston right now, they probably won't catch the Sox unless the latter really fall down in the second half of the season. For New York, a team that hasn't seen the World Series since 2003 and hasn't won since 2000, it may be time to rebuild.
New York plays Tampa Bay six times in their first nine games back from the All Star break, then they have four games against Kansas City and three against Baltimore, so they should be able to pick up a lot of momentum very quickly, but Boston's schedule isn't that much more difficult, however, with games against the Jays, KC and the White Sox, so the Yankees can't rely on Boston to trip and fall, and they probably will not be able to muster enough of a blitz to take the top spot from the Sox.
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