It's been a long time since a Yankee lineup tilted so far to the right

Quick now, if you were an MLB manager - one of these modern, like-me-on-Facebook types, not a chaw-chompin' Stump Merrill - would you send a twitchy, oh-so-sensitive lefty starter on a suicide mission against the 2018 Yankees? I'm not talking about starting Chris Sale or Madison Bumgarner, or that $31 million-a-year tax write-off known as David Price. I'm thinking of a Kei Igawa or a Vidal Nuno, a lefty on your roster simply because he's a lefty. A "quirky southpaw," as the Gammonites might say, who is struggling like - well - like Danny Duffy, whose ERA after last night now stands at 6.88, even though lefty batters are hitting .200 against him. 

Last night, Duffy never got to see a lefty batter, and if you root for the Royals, it was like a game devised by Gina Haspel. (YEOW! TURN IT OFF!) The Yanks went full Kim Jong Un and launched five missiles against Duffy and the bullpen, and if not for the cavernous park, they'd have hit at least three more. Manager Aaron Boone played a RH lineup built for Fenway. He replaced Brett Gardner with Clint Frazier, Neil Walker with Tyler Austin, Didi Gregorius with Ronald Torreyes, and Giancarlo Tartabull with Giancarlo Stanton. Everyone hit, it was like a beer softball tournament, and guess what? Today, KC will start Eric Skoglund - yep, a lefty! - while we're countering with, gulp, Sonny Gray. Who's bringing the keg? 

Until Greg Bird returns, and Gardy heats up, and Sir Didi reverts back from Dr. Bruce Banner, Boonie's Bombers should expect to see righties in much the way that teams historically used lefties to counter the short porch in Yankee Stadium.  Right now, we see a huge LH-RH disparity with Austin and Stanton, who crush lefties. Unfortunately, because they bat RH, Frazier and Brandon Drury may spend most of 2018 in Scranton. If Billy McKinney hits, or Jacoby Ellsbury heals - (ha! that's a joke!) - either could vault into the MLB mix, as a starter or platoon. In fact, despite his wonderful appropriation as a punch line, Ellsbury could play a formidable role in the Yankee second half. I am not kidding. It could happen, simply because he's a lefty.

To be sure, this is a First World problem - and it's far less of one if Bird comes back blazing. But in a seven-game series, Houston can show us three tough righties and Dallas Keuchel, and you know what? These games right now may just be merely a prelude to that eventual ALCS. The Yanks and Redsocks are dueling for the October home field advantage and the chance to avoid that hideous one game wild card. They are playing the season for the opportunity to set their rotation for that inevitable confrontation.

It's a long way to October, and the best LH bats still look to be from within. (Can Walker keep it going?) But come July 31, Cooperstown Cashman might be looking for a lefty bopper who can play 3B or even catch, now and then. And don't expect to see more Vidal Nunos start against us.