In exactly two weeks, the first wildcard game of this year’s playoffs – in the National League, by the way – will take place and on Tuesday the penultimate series of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox will already start in this regular season.
The Yankees face a worst case these days: The arch-rival celebrates the title of the American League East at Yankee Stadium. This scenario occurs if the Red Sox win even one of the three games (all games of the series live on DAZN). The Yankees gave up two series against better Triple-A teams in a row, so it’s not so far off the mark that this is exactly the case.
But the Yankees actually don’t have time to think too much about this horror scenario, as they are already facing the next worst case – an even worse case, so to speak: A wildcard game that doesn’t take place in Yankee Stadium!
The Yankees still have a 1.5 game lead over the Oakland A’s and both will fight the wildcard duel at their own discretion. The date is October 3rd. But the question about the location remains exciting. For the Yankees, an away game in the Bay Area would have one more drawback: travel hardships.
After their last game of the season on September 30th in Boston (from 9.05 pm at LIVESTREAM FOR FREE on SPOX) they would have to fly from the East to the West Coast, where they traditionally look bad at the Coliseum, and then fly back promptly and, if successful, fly again in Boston (November 5th). If the wildcard game were in the Bronx, on the other hand, the trip to Boston would only be a stone’s throw and would certainly save energy.
Problems the Red Sox have long since got rid of. All they want to do is to go into the postseason as rested and relaxed as possible. In addition, the luxury of carefully reintegrating the battered left-hander Chris Sale into the game is granted. After only one inning against Toronto on September 11th, three frames followed against the Mets on Sunday. First he threw 26 pitches, then 42.
Basically, you build up your Ace like in jumping training. If all goes well, he will make two more starts in the season to be top fit for Game 1 of the ALDS. In view of Boston’s astronomical lead in the East and the battle for home field advantage in the AL playoffs, a luxury you can simply afford.
This, in turn, seems to be the only personality that worries the team at the moment.
For the upcoming series in the Bronx, this means that ultimately all the pressure is on New York. The Yankees must win at least one home game in the wildcard. And this after Manager Aaron Boone’s troupe was on a par with Boston at the head of the division on July 1.
At that time, they had just won a series against Boston and were on top, so to speak. Since then, the Yankees have only been six games over .500 (37-31), while the Red Sox have really turned up the heat and scored 47-18, resulting in a lead of 11.5 games.
The Sox got hot at the right time, the Yankees, on the other hand, weakened tremendously. And this cannot only be explained by injury worries! The Yankees have been without Aaron Judge for quite some time and lost all-star catcher Gary Sanchez for several weeks, as did rookie Gleyber Torres, who was temporarily outstanding.
But Boston also suffered numerous injuries. Second Baseman Dustin Pedroia missed the entire season except for a short appearance in between, the Leftys David Price and Sale were on the Disabled List for several weeks each and even MVP candidate Mookie Betts missed almost two weeks.
Rather, the Yankees were and are inconsistent performances of actual high performers. Especially the weak season of Sanchez (93 OPS+) still weighs heavily, as does the disappointing performance of First Baseman Greg Bird (78 OPS+), who has now been completely overshadowed by Luke Voit (145 OPS+).
In addition, lead-off hitter Brett Gardner is playing his worst season (85 OPS+) since his rookie year 2008 and should almost certainly lose his place in the lineup as soon as Judge is back completely. Newcomer Andrew McCutchen then moves to the left side of the outfield and completely displaces Gardner.
To make matters worse, pitching also causes enormous problems and especially the once so reliable CC Sabathia doesn’t come into action anymore. He completed only five innings in September and the Yankees lost their last four starts.
The Red Sox, on the other hand, are looking at a (playoff) rotation that cannot be surpassed in consistency these days. Every starter is pitching over the league average this year and this also applies to the bullpen. Finding weaknesses is currently not an easy task for this team.
One aspect to be taken into account for the upcoming series, however, is that the two may meet again at the beginning of November. That is, no one will want to show too much, although the Yankees are not allowed to hold back anything.
But the Sox could do this to have some advantage in the playoffs. For example, there is no reason to overuse the starter – or to use all the weapons in the bullpen.
In the end, however, both teams will do a lot to fight each other, that simply demands the label of this legendary rivalry.
This article was published without previous view by the Major League Baseball.