The Last Chance to Dance Past the Wild Card Round
It’s coming down to the wire, and the wire could not be any shorter. With seven straight wins, including a series win over Baltimore, the Yankees remain tied with the Toronto Blue Jays for the lead in the American League East. And there’s only one game left to play this season.
“It’s kind of crazy,” manager Aaron Boone remarked. “162 games, and it’s going to come down to the last day. That’s the beauty of our sport.”
Here’s the rundown: The winner of the AL East gets a bye to the ALDS, while the loser has to host Boston or Detroit in a Wild Card series. If any of the following scenarios occur tomorrow, the Blue Jays will win the division:
Toronto and New York both win.
Toronto and New York both lose.
Toronto wins and New York loses.
But if the Yankees win and Toronto loses today, then the Yankees will win the division. That is the only possible scenario that grants the Yankees a bye to the division series. Otherwise, they’ll begin a best-of-three Wild Card series in the Bronx on Tuesday.
On Friday, the Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles 8-4 thanks to a couple of home runs from Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge’s 52nd of the year. This marked the 58th time that Stanton and Judge have both homered in the same game for the Yankees.
“We talked about it before tonight, we take care of business, and go get these three games,” said Will Warren, who is the most likely candidate on this Yankees team to be moved to the bullpen this postseason. He allowed four runs over five innings on Friday. “Then, we’ve done all we can do. Everything else is out of our control.”
Stanton’s first home run came with two strikes, two outs, and a runner at first base in the opening frame. He drove Trevor Rogers’s high fastball 397 feet to right-center field. Rogers shut down the Yankees last weekend with six scoreless innings. This time, the lefty allowed his season total of home runs – three – to the October-ready Yankees offense.
“I think [we] probably benefited from seeing him last week a little bit,” Boone stated. “The two big boys really leaned on a couple.”
In the third inning, Aaron Judge hit his 52nd home run of the season on a center-cut sinker from Rogers, and the ball barely hung in the air before landing just over the center-field wall and into Monument Park. It only hung in the air for 4.6 seconds, so Giancarlo Stanton had to ensure that his next home run would be a no-doubter. Two batters later, he did just that, crushing the first pitch he saw 451 feet into the distant left-center field terrace. The Terrace Squad was happy about that.
“As long as it goes over the fence, that’s what matters,” Stanton said. About his recent performance, he added, “I think it’s been effective, efficient – and not over. I’ve still got to do more.”
Meanwhile, the Yankees’ bullpen was excellent again as five relievers combined for four scoreless innings. Mark Leiter Jr. got into some trouble in the fifth by loading the bases, but with two outs, Tim Hill forced Jackson Holliday to ground out, stranding everyone. In the eighth inning, Camilo Doval used 14 pitches to strike out the side, and if the Yankees can get him into a rhythm, it will pay dividends for their bullpen in October.
“We’re like brothers back there [in the bullpen],” Doval said through an interpreter. “There’s a lot of support for one another. You have the guys telling you, ‘Great job there.’ To hear words like that from your teammates, it gives you confidence to come back the next day and be effective.”
With Warren being the Yankees’ starting pitcher most likely to serve a bullpen role this October, Cam Schlittler is currently positioned to start the potential third game of a Wild Card series. With seven scoreless innings of one-hit ball yesterday, he gave his team something to rely on if their season is on the line next week.
It took Schlittler 97 pitches to strike out nine batters in seven innings, and he ended his partial rookie season with a 2.96 ERA. Schlittler has thrown the hardest of any Yankees’ starter this season, which doesn’t just give the Yankees confidence in his future potential but also in what he can offer this postseason.
“It’s obviously high stakes right now,” said Schlittler, “And I don’t have experience in the playoffs. I take it day-to-day. I’m aware of the situation, but that’s over with. Now, I’ve got to focus on next week.”
Schlittler’s performance wasn’t the most impressive feat of the day, though, as Stanton and Judge each homered again. Stanton’s home run came on the first pitch he saw in the second inning, and it was the 453rd of his career, passing Carl Yastrzemski for 40th place all-time.
Judge’s home run was a first-inning solo shot off Tomoyuki Sugano, marking his 53rd tater of the season and his 20th in the first inning. It was also the Yankees’ 48th first-inning home run of the season, setting a single-season major league record.
With two hits yesterday, including a two-run game-breaking single in the fifth inning, Judge currently holds a .331 batting average and a 1.149 OPS. As the competition heats up between Judge and Cal Raleigh (who has 60 home runs) for the American League MVP, Judge continues to soar. He’s almost guaranteed to win the batting title, but that is not the most important thing to him, nor is winning his third MVP; it’s helping his team win in October.
“Nothing Aaron Judge does surprises me,” said Boone. “To me, he’s the clear-cut MVP.”
Now, it’s time for the MVP to help his team win another game today, and hopefully bypass Toronto if they lose to Tampa Bay. That would be amazing. “I wish we had a nice little cushion, a nice little lead in the division, but we’ll take it either way,” said Judge.
The Yankees are doing all they can to avoid playing in a Wild Card series. Do they have one more regular-season win left in the tank?
