You peruse the batting order, one-through-nine, and even on a night such as Wednesday, when Brett Gardner and Greg Bird both sat strategically against Houston lefty Dallas Keuchel, the Yankees are made to outlast a pitching staff.
The concern, though, as the team continues its chase of the Red Sox and a division title that would thus avoid a wild-card knockout scenario, is that this offensive machine too often has to outlast — and outscore — its own pitching staff, particularly the starting rotation that has curled into a conglomerate unworthy of the trust connoted by its components.