The stage is set.
Baltimore Orioles v New York Yankees / Evan Bernstein/GettyImages
The New York Yankees put another feather in their cap on Sunday. After making the playoffs and winning another division title over the past week and a half, the Bombers finished the regular season with an American League-best 94-68 record.
And though the NL Wild Card picture is yet to be determined (the Braves and Mets need to play a doubleheader on Monday to fix that), the AL path is set. The Yankees (and Cleveland Guardians) will get a bye until the ALDS (whew!).
Starting Tuesday, the Detroit Tigers will travel to face the Houston Astros and the Kansas City Royals will head east for a set with the Baltimore Orioles. New York will face the winner of the O’s-Royals series in the next round.
In all honesty, that might be the most favorable draw for New York. Though the O’s got the best of the Yanks in the regular season and the Royals can really make things difficult in a short series with their pitching, one could argue Houston and Detroit poise bigger problems in a five-game series.
Somehow, the Yankees have the Astros to thank for this. Houston’s series win over the Guardians helped New York clinch the No. 1 seed in the AL while Aaron Boone and Co. messed around against the Pittsburgh Pirates this weekend.
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The only issue is that the Yankees now don’t play again until Saturday. More times than not, that kind of rest should help, but recent years have shown the Wild Card teams benefitted from maintaining or establishing a rhythm during that three-game series.
Gerrit Cole will be well rested for Game 1 and the Yanks can plan for life without Anthony Rizzo (if that happens to be the case) in the meantime. Those are the other positives alongside the Kansas City-Baltimore draw. Other than that? The Yankees didn’t exactly finish the season strong.
They were essentially a .500 team (53-49) since the beginning of June, and their 14-11 mark in September was buoyed by a lucky 12-3 run where the offense averaged just 4.1 runs per game (and that was inflated due to three 10-run performances).
There’s no question the Yankees need to catch some fire. or at least a version of lightning in a bottle, to go on a run. Their fundamentals and consistency are still lacking in many ways. But they are the most talented roster on paper in the AL, and there’s no clear-cut No. 2 behind them.
But the regular season grind is over and it’s time to dial in. The Yankees will get a good look at their next opponent and can set themselves straight mentally as they await the outcome of the Wild Card series.
