Yankees Win AL Wildcard Game For Second Consecutive Season
Looking past the challenge that stood in front of them wasn’t an option for Aaron Boone’s Yankees.
Leaning on what got them here, they’ll be playing on in October in pursuit of a 28th world title.
The New York Yankees defeated the Oakland Athletics 7-2 on Wednesday at Yankee Stadium to advance to the ALDS.
The New York Yankees finished the regular-season 100-62, but a 100 win season would’ve been all for naught had the pinstripers allowed the underdog Athletics to take over New York tonight.
Behind their high-scoring power hitting offense and power pitching out of the bullpen, the New York Yankees for a second consecutive season won an AL Wildcard game in the Bronx.
Aaron Judge would hit a two-run home run off reliever Liam Hendricks to give the New York Yankees a 2-0 lead in the first inning.
Judge’s no doubter would shake an already electric atmosphere at Yankee Stadium to its core and give starter Luis Severino breathing room to begin.
Severino — who has a disastrous AL Wildcard game start last season vs the Minnesota Twins — bounced back in a second go in the Yankees do-or-die affair to begin the postseason.
Severino would allow only two base runners over the first three innings, striking out six in that span.
He would escape a bases loaded jam in the fourth inning after striking out shortstop Marcus Seiman to end the inning, causing Yankee Stadium to explode as New York preserved a 2-0 lead.
The Yankees 24 year-old starter would be relieved in the fifth inning by right-hander Dellin Betances after giving up a pair of singles to begin the inning.
The Yankees big right-hander would come in and do the job for the Yankees, retiring the Athletics next three batters which included a strikeout of MLB home run king Khris Davis to end the inning.
Bob Melvin, who went with a unconventional approach of starting a reliever in Liam Hendricks, would see his team run into trouble in the sixth inning.
The Yankees would breakthrough with four runs in the sixth inning as rookie first baseman Luke Voit, playing in his first career playoff game, highlighted the inning with a two-run RBI triple off closer Blake Treinen that scored Aaron Hicks and Giancarlo Stanton to make it a 6-0 game.
Giancarlo Stanton, also playing in his first career playoff game, would continue to bring thunder to Yankee Stadium with a homer off Blake Treinen in the eighth inning to make it a 7-2 game.
New York Yankees’ reliever Zach Britton would cough up two runs on a two-run homer to designated hitter Khris Davis to put the Athletics on the board, but that would be all for Oakland on the night.
Little offensive production could be found for an Athletics team that throughout the second half of the season continuously found a way to win.
Aroldis Chapman would come in and get the final three outs of the ninth inning, giving up a hit while striking out two as the Yankees clinched a ALDS birth.
The Yankees bullpen sans Zach Britton would allow only one base runner over four innings while striking out five.
The Oakland Athletics finished the game 0-for-6 with RISP while leaving nine men on base as they saw their season come to an end.
The Oakland Athletics season was a Cinderella that saw them rise from the bottom of the division to at one point in mid-August tie the defending champion Houston Astros for first in the AL West.
A team that was 34-36 on June 15th would finish the season 63-29, the best mark in the MLB. That’s an even better mark than the Boston Red Sox, who finished the season with a franchise record and MLB-leading 108 wins.
While a disappointing finish, 2019 offers yet another opportunity for a team that fell on hard times over the previous three seasons to continue a winning foundation built in 2018.
For the New York Yankees, a matchup with their hated rival Boston Red Sox in the ALDS needs little explanation when discussing the magnitude of the series.
If the ‘We Want Boston’ chants from the Yankees faithful tonight throughout the later part of the game doesn’t illustrate the significance this rivalry has taken on once again, little will.
These are two franchises with new faces but the same dislike for each other that’s existed for well over 100 years.
This will be the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox first playoff matchup since the 2004 ALCS where the Boston Red Sox improbably erased a 0-3 series deficit vs New York to stun the baseball world by winning the series in seven games.
The New York Yankees are steaming about losing the AL East to the Boston Red Sox and will look to play giant killer by eliminating Red Sox who finished with the MLB’s best mark at 108-54.
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