After last weekend's games, the Yankees had 7 games left in this shortened regular season, and I said that if they could win 4 out of the 7, it wouldn't matter what any other team did, because they would make the Playoffs anyway.
Then they went to Buffalo to play 4 against the Toronto Blue Jays, and now, I'm not so sure they'll make it.
The Monday night game was bad. Mike King was the starting pitcher for the Yankees, and he had nothing, allowing 5 runs in less than 3 innings. Jonathan Loaisiga was worse, allowing 4 runs in just 1 inning. The Yankees got nothing going. Gary Sanchez went 0-for-4, dropping his batting average to just .147. A comeback in the 9th was far from enough, and the Jays won 11-5. (UPDATE: Since the 2021 season, Mike King has usually been referred to as "Michael King.")
The Tuesday night game was a huge improvement. It was a little weird, in that the Jays hit one home run, while the Yankees hit none. But they got 4 hits from Gio Urshela, 3 each from Aaron Judge and Gleyber Torres, and 2 each from Aaron Hicks and Kyle Higashioka -- who now seems to be Gerrit Cole's personal catcher.
Which is ridiculous. You gotta be as good as Steve Carlton to get a personal catcher. (He demanded, and got, Tim McCarver as such.) And Cole is no Steve Carlton. Nevertheless, he went 7 innings, allowing just 1 run, and the Yankees won, 12-1.
That result was more than reversed on Wednesday night. Masahiro Tanaka did not pitch well, and the Pinstripe defense didn't help, either, making 4 errors. Manager Aaron Boone once again trusted Luis Cessa, which is a stupid thing to do, and he made things much worse, as he tends to do. It got so bad that, for the 2nd time in the month, 3rd-string catcher Erik Kratz pitched, allowing a run in the 8th.
DJ LeMahieu had 2 singles, and Urshela and Luke Voit had 1 each. Those were the only hits the Yanks got. The Jays crushed the Yankees, 14-1.
And then there was last night's defeat. Jordan Montgomery didn't pitch badly, but couldn't finish the 6th. Adam Ottavino managed to only add 1 run to the deficit, which, by his standards, is a good performance. Voit and Urshela each got 2 hits, but the Yankees stranded Urshela on 2nd base in the 2nd inning, LeMahiu on 1st in the 3rd, Torres on 1st in the 4th, Brett Gardner on 1st in the 5th, Voit on 2nd and Aaron Hicks on 1st in the 6th (when they'd led off the inning that way), Clint Frazier on 1st in the 7th (he'd led off with a single), the bases loaded (albeit with 2 out and a run already in) in the 8th, and Voit on 1st in the 9th. (Sanchez is now batting .142.)
In other words, the Yankees had their chances, and didn't take them. Blue Jays 4, Yankees 1. This clinched a Playoff berth for the Jays -- the 1st postseason berth ever for a Major League Baseball team based in Buffalo.
*
So, as we go into the final weekend of the regular season, here's how things stand:
* The Tampa Rays, the dirty bastards, have clinched the American League Eastern Division.
* The Yankees are currently 2nd in the Division, at 32-25. The Blue Jays are 30-27. The Houston Astros are 29-28. The Los Angeles Angels are 26-31. The Seattle Mariners are 25-31.
* The Mariners are playing the Oakland Athletics, who have clinched the AL Western Division. It is unlikely that the M's will sweep the A's 3 straight. So let's take them out of the equation.
* The Angels are playing the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have the best record in baseball. It is unlilely that the Halos will sweep the Bums 3 straight. So let's take them out of the equation.
* The Yankees still have not officially clinched. It is still mathematically possible, with "help," for them to choke this away. But 1 win in their last series, or 1 loss each by the Mariners and Angels, would do it. So, they're in.
* So it becomes a question, not of if the Yankees will play in the Wild Card round of the AL Playoffs, but of against whom. That is still very much up in the air.
The last series will be at home, against the Miami Marlins. Here are the projected pitching matchups:
* Tonight, 7:05: J.A. Happ vs. Sandy Alcantara.
* Tomorrow, 1:05: Deivi Garcia vs. Trevor Rogers.
* Sunday, 3:05: Clarke Schmidt vs. Jose Urena.
So, barring a collapse that makes the 1964 Phillies and the 2007 Mets look like the 2007 Phillies and the 1986 Mets, the Yankee Playoff rotation appears to be set for the Wild Card Series, which will be best-2-out-of-3: Cole in Game 1, Tanaka in Game 2, and, if Game 3 is necessary, either Montgomery or Happ. Each of these 4 pitchers would be on full rest.
The remaining series would be their usual: The AL Division Series, best-3-out-of-5; the AL Championship Series and the World Series, best-4-out-of-7.
It should be noted that Sunday could be the last game of the season at Yankee Stadium, regardless of how the Playoffs go. Due to COVID-19-related travel restrictions, the entire Wild Card Series will be at the home field of the higher seed.
So, unless the Yankees can get the 4th seed (the top 3 going to the Division Champions: Tampa Bay, Oakland, and the winner of the AL Central, either the Chicago White Sox or the Minnesota Twins), they will be playing all 3 games away.
And each League's DS and CS will be held at neutral sites, ballparks of the other leagues, to avoid home-field advantage: In the AL's case, Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and Petco Park in San Diego. And the entire World Series will be played at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas, the new home of the Texas Rangers, which will be a neutral site, guaranteed, since the Rangers were so bad this season.
So it currently seems likely that, after this Sunday, the next game that counts at Yankee Stadium will be on April 1, 2021, against the (presumably) restored-to-Toronto Blue Jays.
Still, the Yankees will be in the Playoffs. But they're not running into them, they're trudging in. I'm not sure I want to be in that number, when the Yanks go trudging in.
Or, as Jim Mora Sr. would say, "Playoffs? Don't talk to me about Playoffs! You kidding me? Playoffs? I just hope we can win a game! Another game!"
No comments:
Post a Comment