The Yankees went into Thursday nine games back of the Red Sox. The wild card is staring them right in the face.
That could bring Doomsday.
It’s bad enough having the misfortune of being in the Red Sox’s division, the Yankees could face an old nemesis in that one-game playoff game.
Going into Thursday night, the Astros held a five-game lead over the A’s in the AL West. If the Astros continue to slip and if the A’s continue to over-perform, Oakland could win the division, and that could set up another postseason showdown with the Astros.
It was the Astros who beat the Yankees in seven games last October to win the AL pennant. In that Game 7 they shut out the Yankees, 4-0.
In 2016 the Yankees did not make the playoffs.
In 2015 they were a wild-card team. The young and improving Astros came to Yankee Stadium and shut out the Yankees 3-0 in that game.
The last two times the Yankees were facing an elimination game in October, the Astros shut them out. The World Series champions, despite their issues, have the Yankees’ number, and that number is zero, the amount of runs the Yankees scored against the Astros in those two games.
The Yankees could avoid Doomsday by winning the division, but the Red Sox sweep of the Yankees up in Fenway Park appears to have taken care of that. For the Yankees to win the AL East, the Red Sox would have to collapse, and there are just too many bad teams in baseball now for that to happen to the Red Sox.
They are too good to fall apart.
These Yankees are different than those last two elimination defeats in a big way. Giancarlo Stanton is here now and he is on a roll.
Stanton hit his sixth career grand slam on Wednesday night in the 7-3 win over the putrid White Sox.
“We just have to play our game, we can’t worry about what Boston is doing day-to-day,’’ Stanton said.
That day-to-day will never be more important than the inevitable wild-card game the Yankees will play to start the postseason. And maybe end it.
For now, the Yankees have to beat up the bad teams and hope for the best.
The latest pitiful team to show up against the Yankees is Texas. The Rangers went into Thursday night’s game at Yankee Stadium with a 51-65 record.
Luis Severino has been the Yankees top starter this season but has been struggling, and the Yankees may have to make the jump to Masahiro Tanaka for the wild-card start and set up their rotation for that to happen.
Over his last five starts, Severino’s numbers are frightening. His ERA is 7.67. Opposing hitters are batting .356 against him over that span with a 1.014 OPS.
Unless Severino gets his act together, Tanaka should start the wild-card game. Tanaka is undefeated over his last 14 starts, going 7-0 with a 3.12 ERA. Since returning from his hamstring injuries, Tanaka appears to be in much better shape, and that could be the reason for his resurgence.
But first things first — the Yankees have to keep beating up on the bad teams. The Rangers had won nine of 12 but still owned that 51-65 record.
The Red Sox series wore out the Yankees, but Aaron Boone thinks his team bounced back nicely against the White Sox.
“I think our guys did a great job of turning the page right away,’’ Boone said of the sweep of Chicago’s Other Team. “There’s no question there are games, there are series that take a little more out of you, and that’s part of the challenge of navigating a major league season, in the grind of it, in the everyday throes if it, in the physical toll it takes on you, but also the emotional and mental toll it takes on you. You got to be able to turn the page every day and you gotta be able to deal with the highs and lows, successes and failures to have a strong season.’’
A season that can’t end in Doomsday fashion again.
