Normal Like the Yankees in October

The Yankees in the playoffs over the last 20 years has been the most reliable indicators of Fall for me, right up there with the changing of the leaves and the introduction of pumpkin spice everything. In a world where everything is upside-down, that bit of normalcy is welcome. The 2020 regular season was a mad sprint that saw the Bronx Bombers limp into the playoffs, playing sub-.500 ball over their last 10 games to finish with a 33-27 record. Their pitching looked a mess, their defense looked full of holes, and their offense couldn’t string runs together.

Yankees limping into playoffs

I was worried, honestly. I was so terrified that I wrote an article longhand called “Whatever Happened to the Yankee Juggernaut?” that opined whether or not a Yankee team that was designed to win 100 games in a full season would be able to grind out wins in a short span. In that writing, I mentioned that the Yankees struggled at the end of the season against teams they should have beaten soundly, like the Red Sox and the Marlins. I also said that in a full 162-game season, a 33-27 start would be nothing to sneeze at, and a good team would shake off the early season rust. Talent tends to perform, I said, and the Yankees are loaded with it.

I wondered if our depleted starting rotation would be able to get it done, as James Paxton, Luis Severino, and Domingo German were all unavailable for a variety of reasons. I wondered if Gerrit Cole, Masahiro Tanaka, Deivi Garcia, and J.A. Happ would be enough. Well, we didn’t see a third starter in the Wild Card Series. We swept Cleveland in short order (well, maybe not that short, as Game 2 was the longest game in postseason history). The bats woke up, and guys who spent most of the season on the shelf woke up and kicked ass. Homers from Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, and more paced us to a series win. Even though rain delays made Tanaka’s work uneven in Game 2, the Yankees still pulled out a thrilling 10-9 victory to advance to the next round against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Last night in Game 1, the Yankees decisively throttled the Rays, 9-3, behind a strong outing from Gerrit Cole and home runs from Judge, Stanton, Clint Frazier and Kyle Higashioka. Blake Snell, Tampa’s ace, lasted barely five innings, and the grand slam by Stanton broke the camel’s back. I’m not anticipating a sweep this time around. The Rays are too good, and there is genuine heat between the two teams. Also worth mentioning is that the Yankees are a team built for Yankee Stadium and not the bubble site at Petco Park. That said, best-of-five is still a short series, and the Yankees seem to be the hot team right now.

This series is sure to be a nail-biter, and I’ll be on my couch, wearing my number 99 jersey for good luck. This is exactly the dose of familiarity I needed this year.

Let’s go Yankees!

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