St. Petersburg, Fla. — Crunch time already is here for the New York Yankees.
Coming off two late-inning losses to Tampa Bay marked by bullpen problems and a move that left manager Joe Torre open to second-guessing, the Yankees are in a strange position: trailing in both the AL East and wild-card races with only 43 games left.
"You don't have any soft spots when you get down to the last five, six weeks of the season," Torre said. "Every game is important. You can't take any opponent for granted. You just have to play every game like it's postseason stuff. You just need to get in that type of mind-set."
The Yankees, who have reached the playoffs in all nine seasons since Torre took over, were off Thursday. At 65-54, they open a three-game series at the AL Central-leading Chicago White Sox tonight.
New York began the day 41â2 games behind Boston in the division, and 11â2 games in back of idle Oakland for the wild card.
There are definitely challenges ahead for owner George Steinbrenner's $200 million team.
"It's not going to get any easier down the stretch," Torre said. "I know George spends a lot of money and gets the greatest players available, no question. But the reason we've been successful is because of pitching. Mariano Rivera, No. 1. Work your way forward. It's what makes you consistent, especially in the second half and in the postseason."
New York has won 26 of 41 since dropping to 39-39 on July 1. But the Yankees' inconsistent play returned this week when they dropped two of three games at Tampa Bay, which has the AL's second-worst record.
The Devil Rays have won nine of the 14 meetings so far this year. New York is also 0-3 against Kansas City, the team with the majors' worst record.
"I think every ballclub can sit back and say, 'We let those games get away,'" Torre said. "We can't look back like that because that doesn't get us anywhere. We have to go from today and win as many games as we can and hope by the time the smoke clears that we're in position to be where we need to be."
There were a couple of bright spots from the series at Tropicana Field in the injury-filled rotation, which has seen 14 different pitchers start games this season. Jaret Wright won in his return after being sidelined in late April by an injured right shoulder, and Randy Johnson's ailing back was OK after pitching Tuesday.
"I think the pieces are starting falling into place now which is good because you've got a month and a half left, so every game is important," Johnson said.
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