There’s no better time for Yankees to clean up their imperfections

The Yankees are imperfect. Even on a day they actually won at home and against a lefty starter — areas of concern this year — they nearly blew two different five-run leads as their bullpen literally walked the club to the precipice of an unacceptable defeat.

So you know what that imperfection makes the Yankees? Just like every other club that might win it all in 2024. There are no great teams. The Dodgers, the Phillies, the Orioles, every expected superpower has gone through — or, in the case of the Phillies, is going through — funks that are White Sox-ian .

No team is on pace to win 100 games. The best trajectory is 95 wins. You know who that is? The Yankees and Orioles. Yep, with all those imperfections, the Yanks are tied with Baltimore for the AL East lead and the majors’ best record.

Thus, so much is about improving upon the imperfections. So that means continuing to work with Marcus Stroman, who was better over five-plus innings of one-run ball in what would be an 8-7 victory over the Rangers. And finding a bullpen formula that does not walk so many. And getting key pieces such as Clarke Schmidt and Jose Trevino healthy.

But more and more it looks like the Yankees are solving what had been a season-long issue — that their offense was a two-man show. Don’t misunderstand — the two remain phenomenal (Juan Soto) and whatever comes after phenomenal to describe Aaron Judge, who basically stopped making outs in May. Those two combined for three homers Sunday — two by Soto that allowed him to reach 30 (homers in a season and homers against every team in the majors) and one by Judge to reach 299 in his 952nd game (Ralph Kiner at 1,087 games is the fastest to 300).

Yankees’ Anthony Rizzo encouraged with rehab as he nears next step

But suddenly the band has expanded. The Yankees have produced at least eight hits in 15 straight games — the longest they have done that since 1997, raising their team batting average six points. The contributions have been wide. But there has been nothing more vital than the Yankees getting oomph directly behind Soto and especially Judge with the emergence of Austin Wells and the return of Giancarlo Stanton.

Wells versus righties and Stanton against lefties have become the cleanup duo to reverse one of the ugliest trends of this Yankees season. Through July 19, or through 99 games, no Yankee was doing much to protect No. 99 (Judge). Yankees cleanup hitters were last in the majors in batting average (.199), on-base percentage (.260) and OPS (.578).

Wells went into that slot regularly on July 20 and in the 20 games since then — with Stanton returning from the IL on July 29 — Yankees cleanup hitters are among the majors’ best in batting average (.350), on-base percentage (.400) and OPS (.966).

Wells and Stanton combined for 10 RBIs out of the cleanup spot in three games against the Rangers — or four fewer than Yankees No. 4 hitters had in June.

Yankees’ Marcus Stroman bounces back after break to fix mechanics

Stanton had four terrific turns behind Judge on Sunday with a sacrifice fly, a walk, a three-run homer and a 101.4-mph lineout. And the homer was the key blow, not only because it moved the Yankees ahead 5-0 in the fifth. But because it followed an intentional walk to Judge.

In the first 111 games, Judge was intentionally walked seven times. In the last eight games, it’s happened six times. The first five of those instances, the strategy paid off.

“You have to want that opportunity and be able to capitalize on it or otherwise it is going to keep happening,” Stanton said.

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Stanton was long the kind of menacing hitter who was intentionally walked — 86 times in his career, including an MLB-high 24 in 2014. But injury has made him more attackable and Judge is Judge. He already was 2-for-2 when the Rangers intentionally passed him with DJ LeMahieu on third and two outs in the fifth and the Yanks up 2-0. Lefty starter Andrew Heaney was replaced by Jose Leclerc, last year’s championship closer who came in holding righties to a .186 average. The righty got ahead of Stanton 0-2, then Stanton took two balls before still doing what he does better than anyone other than perhaps Judge — hit a ball as hard as anyone ever. In a game in which 16 balls were walloped at more than 100 mph, nothing came close to the 114.9 mph shot by Stanton.

“It’s always a little sweeter,” Judge said when someone homers after an intentional walk.

The reality is that even with Wells and Stanton hitting, Judge is going to add to his MLB-leading 98 walks and 13 intentionals because he also has an MLB-best 42 homers and 106 RBIs. And after a 3-for-3 effort, he jumped Cleveland’s Steven Kwan (.325) and with a .328 batting average trails only Kansas City’s Bobby Witt (.347) as he pursues a Triple Crown.

To overcome their imperfections, the Yankees must thwart the strategy regularly. They did so Sunday to close their longest homestand of the season 5-4 against three losing teams. They now play three against the historically awful White Sox to begin a stretch of 12 of 15 more against losing teams.

It is a moment for even the imperfect Yankees to, well, clean up; to put forth — or in this case fourth — the kind of run to build on the majors’ best record.

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