The Yankees extended their winning streak to five games on Sunday

The Yankees are now on a 5-game winning streak after beating the Baltimore Orioles 3–1 in a pitcher’s duel between J.A. Happ and John Means on Sunday. The win finished off a 4-game sweep over the Orioles and extended the dominance by the Yankees pitching staff.

The Yankees have allowed a total of five runs during their impressive winning streak, which is a stellar average of one per game. On the other hand, this winning steak is coming on the heels of a 5-game losing streak that saw the Yankees allow a total of 31 runs, which is an average of 6.2 runs a game.

During that 5-game losing streak in which they hit rock bottom, they scored a total of 13 runs (including seven runs in one game), which is an average of 2.6 a game. They could only go up from that losing streak, which is exactly what they have figured out how to do. In their previous five games, the Yankees have scored a total of 28 runs, which is an average of 5.6 a game. This is a great improvement from the losing streak and it makes it much easier for the starting pitchers to perform well when they have a lead.

The Yankees only scored a combined five runs in their last two games, but they won both after a two stellar pitching performances. One was by Jordan Montgomery in the team’s 2–1 win on Saturday and the next one was by Happ on Sunday.

Happ only allowed one earned run and five hits in 5.0 innings pitched and was somewhat surprisingly taken out of the game after only 73 pitches after throwing 52 of those for strikes. The veteran lefty now has a solid 3.96 ERA after pitching well in four of his last five starts. He has an excellent 2.57 ERA at Yankee Stadium this season in four starts and a subpar 5.87 ERA in three starts in away games this season.

The bullpen was excellent once again in Sunday’s contest as in 4.0 innings five different pitchers combined to allow just one hit and zero runs. Zack Britton got the win after not allowing a hit in the 8th inning to lower his ERA to 2.25, and Aroldis Chapman got the save after striking out two and not allowing a hit in the ninth inning. Nine of Chapman’s 15 pitches were strikes.

Chapman struggled in his first few games after his delayed return to the team due to COVID, allowing three runs combined in his first two games, but he has now held the opposition scoreless in six of his last seven games (6.0 innings scoreless out of 7.0) and has 12 strikeouts, just two hits allowed and two walks in those seven games. He has been pitching like the dominant closer he has been for most of his career.

The Yankees had eight hits in the game and were 1–4 with runners in scoring position. However, a very unusual stat from the offense is that Tyler Wade hit a solo home run in the third inning, which is noteworthy since he is very much not known for his power since this was his second homer of his season and his fifth homer in 149 games since he made his MLB debut with the Yankees in 2017 at the age of 22. The most amount of games that Wade has played in a season has been 43, which he did last season as a result of the record breaking amount of injuries that the team had.

The score was 1–1 going into the bottom of the 8th when Gleyber Torres came off the bench to save the day for the Yankees. He hit a double to deep right center pinch hitting for Brett Gardner, and that clutch double scored Clint Frazier and Aaron Hicks. The 23-year-old shortstop has been on fire at the plate since deciding to wear his glasses, in addition to his contacts, again.

After going 2–11 in his first four games after coming off of the injured list on September 5, Torres is 7–14 in his last five games with three runs scored, three doubles, one homer and seven RBI. He has seven RBI in his last five games but had only six RBI in his first 28 games of this season.

This hot streak has raised his average to .262, which is the highest it has been since the third game of the season when he had a .300 average (3–10). After the third game of the season, Torres went on a surprising 2–32 slump over nine games. However, it is not surprising that the 23-year-old is hitting very well over the last few games since he was an All-Star in 2018 and 2019, which were his first two MLB seasons.

Clint Frazier and Miguel Andujar each had two hit games for the Yankees. Aaron Boone said today on MLB Network radio that Frazier has earned regular at-bats even after Judge returns from the injured list in the next few games. Frazier is very much improved in the outfield since last season, making the routine plays and even making some highlight plays, and his two hits raised his average to a very solid .280 with five homers and 19 RBI. His 19 RBI this season are fourth on the team behind Judge, Gio Urshela and Luke Voit.

He was 8–15 after his first four games of the season before tailing off a little but Frazier has remained consistent overall with eight multi-hit games and only 12 games without a hit out of the 28 games he has played in this season.

Andujar is showing his ability at the plate that earned him second place in Rookie of the Year voting in 2018. The native of Dominican Republic is 9–25 (.360) with two doubles, a triple, a homer and four RBI in his last six games. He had a .162 average before the last six games and now his average is all the way up to .242, which is much more respectable. He struggled like Torres to begin the season as in his first 15 games this season he only had six hits.

It is a very positive sign that Andujar and Torres have been hitting very well at the plate recently. They are two key pieces of the offense and it will be very hard to take them out of the lineup while they are hitting the way they are.

The Yankees (26–21) will start a 3-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees are half a game behind the Blue Jays for second place in the American League East and are currently tied with the Cleveland Indians for sixth place in the AL standings.