Overall, the Yankees are now 37-23 this season and have a four-game lead in the AL East. Their plus-115 run differential is the best in baseball. Even better than the Astros (plus-98). That's not surprisingly considering New York has scored the most runs (353) and allowed the second fewest (238) this season.
That second number is a surprising. The runs allowed. Only the Dodgers (219) have allowed fewer runs than the Yankees this season. Here are the top run prevention teams on a per game basis:
1. Dodgers: 3.42 runs allowed per game
2. Diamondbacks: 3.91
3. Astros: 3.94
4. Yankees: 3.97
5. Rockies: 4.18
... it wasn't until Sunday, their 60th game of the season, that the Yankees used a sixth starter. The Yankees, Cardinals, and Braves were the only teams in baseball that had used only five starters this season heading into the weekend. The Braves used a sixth starter for the first time Saturday, during a doubleheader, which means the Cardinals are now the only team in baseball to use just five starters in 2017.The Dodgers being at the top isn't a shocker given their pitching depth and pitcher friendly home ballpark. The other four teams all play in hitter's parks though, especially the Rockies, and both the Astros and Yankees play in the American League, so their pitchers don't get to face the other team's pitcher. They have to face a DH.
The AL rookie WAR leaderboard, per FanGraphs:
Aaron Judge, Yankees: +3.9 WAR
Jordan Montgomery, Yankees: +1.4 WAR
Ben Gamel, Mariners: +1.3 WAR
Mitch Haniger, Mariners: +1.3 WAR
Guillermo Heredia, Mariners: +0.7 WAR
(Aside: How about that Mariners rookie class? Also, the Yankees drafted Gamel and traded him to Seattle in a minor deal last summer. So the top three AL rookies in WAR right now were originally drafted by New York.)
rotation numbers for the Yankees' five main starting pitchers (Chad Green got the one-time spot start Sunday):
Pitcher GS IP ERA ERA+ WHIP K/BB WAR
Montgomery 11 63 1/3 3.55 125 1.23 2.65 +1.4
Pineda 12 71 2/3 3.39 131 1.13 4.41 +1.0
Sabathia 12 71 1/3 3.66 121 1.26 2.52 +1.0
Severino 12 75 1/3 2.75 161 1.02 4.67 +1.9
Tanaka 12 66 6.55 68 1.50 3.22 +0.1