We’re going to start this Yankeemetrics off with the good news first …
They’re baaaaack!
The Yankees pretty much couldn’t have written a better script for their playoff-clinching victory:
Milestone win, No. 10,000? Check.
Against your long-standing rival? Check.
With your veteran (former?) ace on the mound? Check.
And in your final home game of the season? Check.
Oh, and this (h/t to Brendan Kuty):
The Yankees are headed back to the playoffs for the first time since 2012, snapping a two-season drought that felt like an eternity for most Yankee fans. It’s the 52nd time they’ve made the postseason — a pretty impressive number considering that no other franchise even has made 30 postseason appearances. This is also the fifth time they’ve made it as a wild card — in the previous four trips, they’ve advanced to the ALCS just once and have never won the World Series.
The win also, of course, was the 10,000th in franchise history (which dates back to 1903), as the Yankees became the first American League team to reach that milestone. This is the second time that the Red Sox were the victim of a nice round number franchise win — on June 30, 1949 they beat Boston for their 4,000th win in franchise history.
CC Sabathia capped off his remarkable late-season resurgence with another strong outing, allowing just one run on six hits in five innings. Although he struggled at times this season (to put it mildly), he was at his best pitching against the Red Sox. He finished with a 2.12 ERA in three starts vs. Boston, his lowest ERA in a single season against them since joining the Yankees.
And now onto the not-so-good news …
Score early and … not often
The champagne wasn’t the only thing put on ice at Yankee Stadium on Monday night. The Yankees’ bats were chilled in their 5-1 loss to the Red Sox — and were frozen solid in the clutch, as they went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
Red Sox starter Eduardo Rodriguez threw six innings of one-run ball, earning his third win in four starts against the Yankees this year. Rodriguez is first Red Sox pitcher to beat Yankees three times in a season before turning 23 years old since Mike Nagy in 1969, and the first left-hander to do it since Babe Ruth in 1917.
For the Yankees, Ivan Nova held the Red Sox scoreless through five innings. But things unraveled in the sixth and seventh innings when he allowed two-run homers to Travis Shaw and Jackie Bradley Jr., resulting in his 10th loss of the season, matching CC Sabathia for the team “lead.”
Nova and Sabathia are just the second set of Yankee teammates with at least 10 losses, a losing record and an ERA of 4.70 or worse in the same season. The only other season this happened was 1991, when the Yankees had three (!) guys — Jeff Johnson, Tim Leary, Wade Taylor — reach each of those thresholds.
Deja vu all over again
For the second straight night, the Yankees failed to move closer to clinching a playoff spot, losing to the Red Sox 10-4 on Tuesday. And, for the second straight night, the Yankees scored early and then not again, putting up four runs in the first inning and zero runs in the next eight frames.
The game couldn’t have started any worse for the Yankees and Michael Pineda. Small Mike allowed six of the first seven batters to score and the Yankees were down 6-0 even before they stepped to the plate.
The final three runs in that first inning came off the bat of Blake Swihart, who clubbed a three-run homer into the right field seats. The catcher later added a two-run homer in the eighth inning, cementing his place in the record books of this historic rivalry. The 23-year-old Swihart is the youngest Red Sox player ever with at least two homers and five RBIs in a game versus the Yankees.
Round number alert! Brett Gardner stole his 20th base of the season, the sixth time he’s reached that mark in his career. Only three other players have compiled at least six 20-steal seasons with the Yankees: Wid Conroy (six), Hal Chase (eight) and Derek Jeter (eight).
Deja vu all over again, Part II
Another night, another game of wasted opportunities for this Yankees team that is doing its best to keep the beer and champagne on ice for as long as possible.
They certainly had their chances against the Red Sox in Wednesday’s extra-inning loss, putting 23 guys on base — their most baserunners in a loss to the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium since June 17, 1986. The end result was a crushing 9-5 defeat, their largest (in terms of runs) extra-inning loss ever at Yankee Stadium in a game against the Red Sox.
It was also their third straight loss to Boston by at least four runs, the first time in the history of the rivalry that the Yankees have dropped three games in a row to the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, each by four or more runs.
The Yankees were eliminated from AL East contention on Wednesday, sealing their inevitable fate in a race the Yankees once led by seven games in late July. This is first time ever that the Yankees have not won division/league title after having a lead of more than six games at any point in the season.
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