Sunday, August 9, 2026 — seven weeks left in the regular season.
Aaron Judge hasn’t played since May 31. Cody Bellinger has been on the injured list since late July. Giancarlo Stanton hasn’t appeared in a game since April. By any reasonable projection, the New York Yankees should be fading.
Instead they’ve won 16 of their last 25 games, and they own the best staff ERA in Major League Baseball.
Saturday Was the Template
The Yankees beat Atlanta 5-4 on Saturday afternoon in front of an Old-Timers’ Day crowd, and the game was decided by exactly the things that have defined their summer: a veteran ace, a rookie shortstop, and a bullpen that made it interesting without giving it away.
Gerrit Cole outdueled Chris Sale over seven innings, allowing two runs on six hits with nine strikeouts. It was his third consecutive winning start — the first time he’s put together a run like that since returning from Tommy John surgery on May 22.
It also came with a milestone. When Cole struck out Matt Olson to end the fifth, he became the 13th pitcher in Yankees history to reach 1,000 strikeouts with the club — and the fastest to get there, needing 1,002 punchouts across 839 2/3 innings since arriving before the 2020 season.
Olson, for what it’s worth, is now 0-for-24 with 16 strikeouts against Cole in his career. Some matchups just don’t work.
The Kids Are Doing the Rest
George Lombard Jr. was called up Tuesday because the Yankees couldn’t trade for a shortstop. He homered in his major league debut. On Saturday he homered again — his second in four career games — a shot to the short porch that proved decisive when Ronald Acuña Jr. answered in the eighth.
There’s a nice piece of symmetry there: Lombard’s father broke into the majors with Atlanta in 1998.
Spencer Jones drove in two runs, including his first career triple, and scored the tiebreaking run on a Sale balk. Ben Rice added his team-leading 32nd home run, a 431-foot drive to center that put the game out of one-swing range. David Bednar made the ninth more dramatic than necessary before recording his 26th save.
The Cy Young Favorite Nobody Predicted
Sunday brings the most interesting arm on the staff. Cam Schlittler takes the mound against Atlanta’s Grant Holmes carrying a 10-6 record and a 2.26 ERA — and, at the moment, the shortest odds in the American League Cy Young race, ahead of Dylan Cease.
That was not on anyone’s preseason card. Schlittler surfaced in the industry conversation back in July when Stuff+ rankings had him fourth among all major league starters, behind only Tarik Skubal, Cristopher Sánchez and Logan Gilbert. He has spent the six weeks since turning that raw quality into results.
Why This Matters for October
Brian Cashman spent deadline week hunting bats and mostly came up short. He got Luis García Jr. and Heliot Ramos. He did not get the catcher he wanted. Critics called it a wasted deadline for a team with a championship-caliber payroll.
The counterargument is now visible on the field. Postseason baseball rewards pitching depth above almost everything else, and the Yankees have assembled the deepest staff in the sport: Schlittler pitching like an ace, Cole rounding into form at exactly the right time, and a bullpen that has held leads all summer.
Add a healthy Judge in September and this becomes a genuinely frightening October roster — which is precisely the bet the front office made when it declined to overpay in July.
The Risk
That bet still depends on medical timelines nobody controls. Judge has not been cleared for baseball activities. Bellinger’s hamstring timeline runs into September. Stanton’s return remains vague.
New York also sits behind Tampa Bay in the AL East, and the Rays have been the best team in the league by a wide margin all year. A Wild Card berth means a best-of-three round where a great rotation matters slightly less than it does in a Division Series.
But the team that looked finished six weeks ago is winning consistently with rookies in the lineup and the best pitching in baseball. That’s not a hot streak. That’s an identity.
Add a comment