December 21, 2024

63 thoughts on “Yankees.com: Yanks avenge sting of ’23 with satisfying ALDS clinch in KC”

  1. Great win and it feels good to be back in the ALCS. Without Soto, I don’t think this team makes the playoffs or let alone win the LDS. Fantastic pickup. Make it count.

  3. I’d rather skubal twice than Ramirez inning after inning. Maybe against skubal you take enough pitches to get him out after 6. Then again maybe just walk JR a lot?

  4. If Skubal pitched Game 3 he’d be available for Game 7. This isn’t some kind of coup to have him going tomorrow. When was the last time you say a guy actually line up for 1/4/7 going short-short like that was the actual plan? CC in ’09, because CC was a beast. MadBum maybe in one of those NLCS?

    1. Bryce Harper likes baseball and does not in any way like having been eliminated in the LDS.

  7. I’m definitely in the camp of wanting to face the Tigers. I just go back to how much the Chicago White Sox season skewed the AL Central this year. Without them, the Royals and Tigers don’t even make it. I think this Yankees team is clearly superior to the Tigers and it would be easier to win 4/7 against them than against the Indians. Ideally you win in 6 and only have to face Skubal once.

  8. I don’t get it, the Yankees were eliminated on September 24 in 2023, the Royals had nothing to do with it. The season was done before they played the last series in KC.

  10. First, of course the pitcher has something to do with how far hitters hit the ball. Ever decent fly ball pitcher builds a career on that fact. And Melendez didn’t even reach the warning track, there’s no reason even to mention it. Cole really allowed one deep fly ball all game, and it didn’t go out. Happens all the time, we don’t count them as HRs. I think Cole pretty reasonably owns his line.

    What I *CAN* agree with is this:
    “Boone moronically used Boone in the 8th inning in a two-run game”
    Using Boone in ANY situation is moronic, and certainly in this one. Boone should know better, but we know he knows far, far worse.

  15. Mets are sending McNeil to play a couple of games in the Arizona Fall League so he is sharp for the playoffs. Could the Yankees do the same with The Martian?

    1. Isn’t that a rehab assignment for McNeil? So, no, I don’t think the Yankees can do that with Jasson, and they’d just sit him anyway.

      Maybe they won’t even have Jasson on the ALCS roster?

    2. They need a bat for when they run for Stanton, I assume that would be Martian’s role. And maybe if Verdugo goes 0/25 with 24 ground balls to the right side.

  18. They asked Kike what was special about this Dodger’s team. Kike goes “are we live?” Yes. “Because we don’t give a fuck.”

    Will he get fined?

  19. How much does tonight’s game help the Yankees if the Tigers win? The comments here argue the polar opposite positions.
    …
    I tend to think – a lot. The Indians have a lot of not-great starters, the Tigers have one great pitcher. Tonight’s game means they’ve cut down his maximum number of starts by a third. And if they don’t see a game 7, they now might see him only once in the whole series.
    (Also worth pointing out: Skubal had two starts vs. NYA this year and came out of it with two no-decisions; overall, he’s 1-3 against NYA with an ERA of 3.00. He never pitched on short rest and often with 6 day’s rest, pitching better on those days – meaning worse on the others.)

  20. Also, the Tigers’ use of openers instead of the traditional allocation of innings seems so rational (as opposed to “the way it’s done”). Is that going to catch on? What they did with that pitching staff in the second half is fascinating.

    1. It will be interesting to see if anyone (including the Tigers) goes into a season with the same approach. There’s a lot about it that makes sense. But it does rely on relievers, who are famously volatile, and a lot of them. As much as we like to talk about most teams having live arms sitting in AAA, they are in AAA still for a reason.

      But replacing a 5th or even 4th starter with 2-3 relievers? I could see that being pretty wide spread in the near future.

    2. They really are still using starters. But they begin the game with an opener – and then determine the best place to let the actual (effectively) starter come in. Their main idea is that it let’s them rationally, and far more actively, choose who faces who and when.

  21. It would be fitting if Cleveland won, though; then we’d have the 2 best records in the AL and the best in the NL in the championship series, which probably hasn’t happened in a while (too lazy to look it up).

    2. The mutts are stronger. Probably the Dodgers also, but they’re not going to advance.

  26. Aaron Boone said the Yankees haven’t decided on their Game 1 starter. He said they’ll decide tonight or tomorrow. It won’t be Luis Gil. He’ll start later in the series.

    1. That works for me.
      Really after Cole they have three pitchers who are pretty close to equivalent – all could be great, all could be pretty bad. If I thought Schmidt were all t he way back, I’d trust him the most. But given that I’m not sure that’s the case, any ordering of those three is as reasonable a guess as any other.

    2. I think they were waiting to see who won between the Tigers and Guardians. If the Tigers won, they are suspectable to lefties, so Rodon would the nod. The Guardians, meanwhile, have more trouble with righties, hence Schmidt getting the nod.

      I wish Nestor was a possibility.

    3. Especially given that Cole is the only one expected to give any length having Nestor as the long man or bumping Gil or Schmidt into that role would be awesome. As it is we’ll probably get a “bullpen game” early in the series if one of the starters has to come out early and it’s close, but we may end up with Stroman as the only option to soak up innings later in the series. Which would be (checks binder) not great.

    4. Pretty sure all of them have gone into the seventh, certainly at least into the 6th, a decent amount of the time. It’s not the case that they chronically fail to give length. It’s the fact that they could suck abysmally without warning that’s the problem.
      Of course, Skubal gave up a grand slam, too.

  39. Series prices at FD:

    NYY -205 (~65.2% after removing the vig)
    CLE +172

    NYY 4-0 +800
    NYY 4-1 +450
    NYY 4-2 +340
    NYY 4-3 +410
    CLE 4-0 +2000
    CLE 4-1 +900
    CLE 4-2 +750
    CLE 4-3 +600

    My fair prices (based on matchups of Cobb/Rodon, Bibee/Cole, Schmidt/Boyd and Gil/Lively)

    NYY -130 (56.4%)
    CLE 130

    NYY 4-0 +1221
    NYY 4-1 +649
    NYY 4-2 +452
    NYY 4-3 +475
    CLE 4-0: +1981
    CLE 4-1: +768
    CLE 4-2: +641
    CLE 4-3: +628

    “Alex Verdugo will “likely” continue to start in left field, Boone said, after being there for all four games of the ALDS.” … CLE -4000.

  40. Meredith Rodon start game 1.

    RAB: Don’t love it, but he has to start sometime in the series. The Guards hammer lefties and he’s a homer prone pitcher in Yankee Stadium. Need a quick hook, not matter how good he looks early (see: ALDS Game 2).

    1. I think he’d be fine through 4 if he pitches his ass off, then turn it over to the bullpen

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