From Bryan Hoch:
Each at-bat seems to carry the weight of October at this stage of the season, and that’s how it felt as Giancarlo Stanton came to bat in the fifth inning on Thursday, the bases full of Yankees and his teammates’ eyes half-fixed on the out-of-town scoreboard.
Stanton scorched a three-run double down the third-base line that put the Yankees ahead in their 5-3 victory over the White Sox at Yankee Stadium, helping complete a three-game sweep of Chicago in the penultimate series of the regular season.
New York (91-68) has won five straight in improving to a season-high 23 games above .500, keeping pace with the Blue Jays atop the American League East, with Toronto defeating the Red Sox at Rogers Centre.
The clubs are even with three games remaining; the Blue Jays retain a tiebreaker. And the AL East champ is now assured of a first-round bye and home-field advantage in the ALDS. The Yankees benefited from that bye last year on their path to the World Series; they’d love to have it again.
“The bye is always good,” Stanton said. “You’ve got guys that are beat up, that need a rest, a little mental break before how heavy those games can get. It’s ideal.”
I think we all know that the Yankees are just going to tease us to the end, and just end up as the Wild Card, but hey, at least they’ll be the #1 Wild Card. It’s SOMEthing.
Carlos Rodon wasn’t awful (he technically had a quality start), but he wasn’t great, either.
Giancarlo Stanton came through with a huge bases loaded double.
Featured image is Stanton’s double. See how strong Stanton is that he just hit that shit into the ground and it STILL just bounced right past the third baseman into the outfield. Crazy strength.
Will Warren versus Trevor Rogers tonight, because the universe doesn’t want us to have nice things.
By the way, Schlittler pitches on Saturday, meaning that the Yankees have effectively said that he WILL be the Game 3 starter in the Wild Card round.
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The Yanks will end up with the second best record in the AL. Who had that back in early August?
I bet a ton of people had at least that in June.
But not us who at this point have seen this dance before
I don’t know. Warren’s had some struggles, but he’s not just a terrible pitcher, he’s pretty good. So long as he doesn’t collapse, they should be able to work on Rogers’ pitch count and have a chance in this game.
He’s not terrible, he’s just kind of mediocre, era+ 94. Per Savant pitching run value 25th percentile, plus fastball 94, horrible breaking and offspeed stuff 1/6, xERA 4.55. Sure we can win if Warren avoids one of his disastrous innings and we can eke out a couple of runs against Rogers.
However the Yankees are -165 somehow.
Sucker bet.
From here on in I bet against the yanks. If they win great. If they lose at least I make some mimryb
Or money instead of mimryb
As I look at the numbers… Warren’s really slipped. His talent level seems better than where he is now, we’ll have to hope he at least normalizes upwards.
All in his head. Seen it with dozens of pitchers over the decades; million dollar arms, 10¢ heads.
Yes, surely. But not infrequently a player grows out of that. Or finds something additional and has a breakout season.
Or becomes a relief pitcher.
I figured out why I’m not mad about Cal Raleigh. It’s because he looks kind of like John Hodgman, and I can picture him on a Depression era barnstorming tour, catching spitballs from Hobo Joe Junkpan.
Cabby, Rosie, and Slattery in lineup explains betting line.
Can’t blame Boone for stacking the line-up with those heavy hitters, he’s going all in for the pennant!
Asshat.
…although I have nothing against Cabellero playing, actually.
McMahon had to sit. Not so sure about Jazz (734 vs LHPs). Trent has been awful against LHPs this year so I’d do Cabby in the OF and Amen at 3b.
warren was only good against bad teams all year. i hope he doesn’t start.