This series was great. Rice’s grand slam on Tuesday and Bellinger’s last night were so much fun. Beating Boston is sweet, but beating them back-to-back years feels so good. 9-0 and then 9-2 blowouts to start off the postseason are about as good as you can get. I predicted a 4-2 Yankees win last night and I was right with Boston’s score but was happily wrong with the Yankees flying past my score prediction. Obviously it is only the wild card and still a lot left to go, but these next few days before the ALDS start are going to be enjoyed and focusing on the good from this series. With that being said, it is still clear that Cam Schlittler is Boston’s father and so is Ben Rice.
I’ve watched a lot of Yankees baseball over the years and it has been a long time since the last World Series win so I have been quite pessimistic going into the years and going into October in the past, but this year I am planning on cherishing the wins and enjoying it as it goes. I know I say this now but I also know for a fact I will be extremely stressed and frustrated watching anything go wrong against Tampa next series.
Tampa has good pitching and Drew Rasmussen has dominated the Yankees in each start he makes so managing to win one of the games that he starts will be huge for the Yankees chances. The Yankees pitching should be elite again, Cam Schlittler will pitch game 2 and a potential game 5. Max Fried likely gets game 3 and either Gerrit Cole or Carlos Rodon will pitch in game 1 and game 4. The rotation is elite and should be able to win the series for New York. The defense will need to play cleanly which they did against Boston, but have been inconsistent throughout the year.
Tampa Bay has some good hitters such as Victor Mesa Jr., Liam Hicks, Chandler Simpson hits for a high average, and Junior Caminero is an MVP candidate. Yandy Diaz and Jonathan Aranda have had good seasons but a poor second halves, but Yandy Diaz has been extremely good against New York this year. They have a good offense and will definitely be more competitive than Boston was. There is a reason they finished with the best record in the American League and have the season tiebreaker over the Yankees. It won’t be an easy series and I think is the true ALCS. I think whoever wins this makes the World Series; no disrespect to the White Sox or Guardians, both are good teams, I just think Tampa Bay and New York are better.
The offense for the Yankees was clicking against Boston which was quite surprising. If this continues against Tampa Bay, winning the series is all but guaranteed. Yesterday, every single starter had at least one hit off of Boston’s elite pitching staff and I do not expect that level of production again against the Rays but if it does carry over, having a hot streak in October can propel us to the World Series.
Rice was 1 for 4 yesterday with a walk, Bellinger had the biggest moment of the game with a 3 run homer, ending 2 for 5 with 4 RBIs. Luis Garcia Jr. set the tone, homering off Sonny Gray in the 4th to give the Yankees the lead and ending 3 for 5. Spencer Jones was 1 for 5 and just looking at the box score you see 4 strikeouts and think it was awful; however, Boston dropped a strike three and he beat out the throw to first before stealing second and then taking third on an error. His hustle in the inning started a Yankees rally and ended up ending with 6 runs in the 6th. Lombard Jr. was 1 for 4 and had a big RBI off of Garrett Crochet. Jazz Chisholm Jr. did pretty well, he was 2 for 3 with 2 stolen bases and had a nice catch over his shoulder. Trent Grisham disappointed me with how slow he was in center field but he redeemed himself at the plate by going 2 for 3 with a perfect bunt to load the bases in the 6th. Wells has been clutch in this postseason, going 1 for 3 and also having a sac fly. His one hit of the day was an RBI single so he has been showing up when there are guys on base. McMahon was 1 for 3 and had an RBI single to put us up 5-1. The entire offense showed up and every single batter during the two games did quite well besides Heliot Ramos. Even the players that struggled for the most part showed up in key moments which is much more important. I am so happy with the results these past two games and hope it carries over.
I am curious to see how the roster changes. The Yankees will carry more pitchers and I expect probably 2 of Tim Hill, Ryan Weathers, and Michael Fulmer to make the ALDS roster. But then the question is who is off the roster? I don’t think Amed Rosario will be on the ALDS roster but then I wonder who else would come off. Then there is the Aaron Judge question. Do you add him? Is he healthy enough? I love Judge and I think if he is healthy enough as a pinch hitter option then you add him over Giancarlo Stanton. But if he isn’t healthy enough, don’t drive to force him onto the roster because you don’t want to mess up what is working. We just scored 9 runs in back-to-back postseason games without Judge on the roster, so do you add him and potentially mess with their current mojo? But it is also Aaron Judge, the 3 time MVP, how do you not want him on the roster? So I am extremely curious to see if Judge is on there and I’m curious to see who comes off to add more pitchers. Rosario I think is the first one to come off but then the next player off will be a tough decision for Boone to make. Stanton, Caballero, and Sanchez did not have an at bat in the wild card but you cannot take your backup catcher off and Caballero is the best pinch running option on the team. So Stanton might be off anyway no matter the situation with Judge. But if Boone chooses to keep both Judge and Stanton then I have no idea what the roster will look like. Volpe might be off the roster if that is the case but he also might be off anyway. We’ll find out Saturday.
I think the Yankees win this series. I think it’ll go to five games but I think Cam Schlittler will be the difference. Winning a game in Tampa Bay the first time down would be massive for the chances to win the series. I think we will lose game 1, win game 2, win game 3, lose game 4, but win game 5. To me this is the ALCS and I do think the Yankees will be World Series bound. I am hoping for a different result than 2024, but either way I think the Yankees will be back in the World Series for the 42nd time and hopefully winning for the 28th time.