Yankees set themselves up for a playoff berth with strong final six weeks
The Yankees’ Austin Wells reacts on second base after his RBI double against the White Sox during the second inning at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Maybe it’s one of those unwritten rules in baseball. Or maybe it was superstition. But none of the Yankees really wanted to admit that coming to the ballpark to face the White Sox on Tuesday felt a little different because the club was one win away from clinching a postseason berth.
Cody Bellinger came about as close as anyone might when he was asked if things felt differently.
“Anytime you have an opportunity to play in the postseason, it's special," he said. "It's a long journey to get here, [with] ups and downs. Obviously just getting to the postseason feels good.”
When manager Aaron Boone was asked a similar question he said, “As far as different today? No.”
“Look, I think we understand where we are on the calendar,” Boone added. “As a fan of the game, I understand the kind of chaos that's going on in both leagues and the different dramatic things that are potentially playing out and I think that's awesome and great for the game. But in our little world, it's like, let's go win a ball game and keep it about as simple and as small as that.”
One win – anywhere among the last six games of the season – would put the Yankees in the playoffs for the eighth time in nine years and 26th time in 31 seasons, the most of any franchise over that span. Additionally, Boone would be just the second person to make the playoffs in seven of his first eight seasons as a major-league manager, joining the Dodgers’ Dave Roberts.
A moment like the one the Yankees were experiencing – whether they’d be clinching a postseason berth on Tuesday or one of the following days – certainly looked awfully far off six weeks earlier.
Issues with fundamentals – fielding and running into outs on the bases – had been a theme. Then, the team lost 31 of 51 games to land at 62-56 and held the third and final American League wild card position by one-half game. During that 51-game stretch Aaron Judge spent time on the injured list with a flexor strain in his right elbow and had returned, restricted from playing the outfield.
Equally troubling was the way they consistently lost series to AL playoff contenders.
But over six weeks they picked up the beat and now are playing arguably the best they have this season.
The Yankees had won 26 of 38 games entering play Tuesday. Judge is again playing in the outfield and after a brief lull following his return on Aug. 5, is hitting like a two-time AL MVP. He was slashing .354/.518/.722 with nine home runs and 28 runs in the past 24 games, entering Tuesday.
Equally encouraging was the way they’d begun to perform against the other AL postseason contenders, winning series from the Blue Jays, Astros and Red Sox during that time. Bellinger called winning those three series “big.”
“Everybody's starting to feel a little bit more comfortable with their at-bats,” Jazz Chisholm Jr. said. “And the pitchers are feeling a little bit more comfortable . . . That's what you want as a team, right? [You] want to go into October hot.”
“There was no doubt,” Bellinger said of the players’ expectations to ultimately play this well. “Obviously, we weren't playing our best baseball. But in this locker room, we never doubted each other. We all understood how talented we are and we all understood we had to play better,”
The Yankees led all AL teams in home runs (80), on-base percentage (.488) and runs (220), and were second in stolen bases (48), since Aug. 11.
Boone described the team’s approach during the span as “win-mode.”
“We've been in that mode for a while, understanding what's at stake and that we're playing for a lot,” Boone said. “So it's felt like that for the last few weeks. . . . It’s felt like we've needed to play well to secure our position [and] . . . we've had that going for a while.”
Rodon's start moved up
The Yankees tweaked their starting rotation and moved Carlos Rodon from Friday’s start to Thursday for the last game of the three-game series with the White Sox. It sets the lefthander up to pitch Game 2 of a potential Wild Card Series on one extra day of rest if the Yankees end up playing in one.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
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