Yankees keep grinding out wins while waiting on Judge

The Yankees needed a doubleheader nightcap to feel good about anything this week, and even that came with plenty of stress. New York split the twin bill with the Dodgers, and the second game turned into exactly the kind of white-knuckle affair this roster has been living in for weeks: a 1-0 lead, a blown save, and a late-inning hero bailing everyone out.

Eric Hubbs

@BarstoolHubbs

Was unaware early leads were allowed here

Bellinger's blast made it 1-0 early, and for a while that looked like it might hold up. It didn't. Tommy Edman turned around a pitch in the top of the 8th and sent it 387 feet to tie the game 1-1, the kind of gut-punch that's become a theme for a Yankees pitching staff that keeps getting stretched thin late.

Barstool Baseball

@StoolBaseball

Of course the Dodgers tie the game

Down went the lead, and up came Jazz Chisholm Jr., who has had a season he himself called disappointing. In that same eighth inning, Chisholm turned on a 1-0 fastball and drove it 401 feet for a go-ahead homer, sending Yankee Stadium into a frenzy and giving New York a 2-1 edge it wouldn't relinquish. David Bednar then had to survive a shaky bottom half to close it out, and Barstool's baseball crew didn't let that go unnoticed.

David Bednar getting through the eighth without giving it back was its own small miracle. The Yankees bullpen has been asked to be perfect for weeks now because the lineup keeps leaving runners on base, and Eric Hubbs summed up the vibe pretty bluntly watching Bednar wriggle free.

Eric Hubbs

@BarstoolHubbs

We may not have many good hitters, but David Bednar can pitch. Big time balls to escape the 8th

The bigger issue hanging over all of it is Aaron Judge, who has been out since early June with a fractured rib and was recently moved to the 60-day injured list after his recovery fell behind schedule. The Yankees have gone a mediocre 18-20 without their captain in the lineup, and they now sit 2.5 games back of the Rays in the AL East. That's the context behind Steven Cheah's clip of a warning that survival is possible, but catching Tampa Bay without Judge isn't happening.

Steven Cheah

@StevenCheah

“Can they survive? Yes. Can they win and catch the Rays without Aaron Judge? Absolutely not. No chance.” - @TheRealHoz35

Best-case scenario has Judge back sometime in August, which means the Yankees have to keep scratching out one-run wins like this one for at least a few more weeks. Nights like the Chisholm walk-off homer buy time, but as Hubbs put it after the final out, the pitching staff is the whole story right now and that's not sustainable long-term. New York can survive on Yarbrough, Blackburn, and Bednar for a stretch. Catching Tampa Bay is a different problem entirely, and it doesn't get solved until No. 99 is back in the lineup.