The Rays closed within 1 1/2 games of Toronto for the wild-card lead. The Yankees would rather have someone else upset the Astros in the ALDS while they’re dealing with an easier challenge out of the gate.CLEVELAND (AP) - Harold Ramírez’s two-run double with two outs in the 11th inning gave Tampa Bay a win over Cleveland, helping the Rays tighten the AL wild-card race and ending the Guardians’ seven-game winning streak. Sure, an upset is more likely in a shorter series. In this instance, the Yankees and favored Astros would face off one round earlier than the masses anticipate and desire. The doomsday scenario: The Twins surpass both the Yankees and the Astros and secure the AL’s top seed - an unlikely resolution, although definitely not impossible, with Minnesota trailing the Yankees by four games in the loss column as of Thursday. Enough trouble spots exist here to want to bypass the entire experience.Ħ) Astros. Even with stud Jose Ramirez ( right hamate bone) likely not healthy in time for the ALDS, they still possess a stellar pitching staff, an all-world player in Francisco Lindor, an accomplished veteran in Carlos Santana, a wild card in Yasiel Puig and the future Hall of Famer Terry Francona in the dugout. Throw in a young, athletic lineup, and this is a matchup the Yankees would be best off avoiding.ĥ) Indians. Nevertheless, they loom here because their home, the Oakland Coliseum, confounds the Yankees, who are 1-9 there in the Baby Bombers Era. Their pitchers strike out even fewer guys than the Twins’, their 1,079 placing them 12th in the league, and they don’t score like the Twins. They can swing the bats, as evidenced by their shattering of the all-time, single-season home run record set by last year’s Yankees, yet can they neutralize opposing hitters with pitchers that don’t miss bats exceptionally well (1,231 strikeouts, seventh in the AL through Wednesday)?Ĥ) A’s. All the more so when you factor in the Twins’ lack of postseason experience. Call me old-fashioned, but I still think it matters. Intellectually, the Yankees’ history of postseason victories over the Twins (2003-04, 2009-) shouldn’t matter. The Rays, moreover, have dealt with a Yankees-esque flurry of injuries, with Yandy Diaz, Brandon Lowe and Blake Snell among those sidelined, compromising them to the point where they lost three of seven games to the awful Orioles over the last couple of weeks.ģ) Twins. With two games left in their season series, the Yankees own a 12-5 record against their division foes. The risk of a second straight elimination at the hands of these guys wouldn’t be worth the reward of a victory.Ģ) Rays. Now, if you anonymously polled Yankees officials, they’d probably pass on this opportunity to avenge last year’s ALDS loss. They just can’t shake their post-parade hangover. They had allowed 5.07 runs per game, ranking them eighth in the AL, and ace Chris Sale (left elbow) is done for the year. Even a 7-3 run barely moved the needle for the Bosox, and it sure didn’t eliminate the reality that their pitching is shot. They look more haggard than Nick Nolte at the end of “48 Hrs.” Boston trails the A’s, the second wild-card team, by 6 ½ games, seven in the loss column. We at The Post, however, are ready to talk about it right now, so let’s tackle a topic we’ve addressed piecemeal heretofore: Which potential AL Division Series foes should the Yankees want to face, and which should they want to avoid?įrom most appealing to least, here we go:ġ) Red Sox. With a magic number of 12, the Yankees could clinch their first American League East title since 2012 on this 10-contest swing through Boston, Detroit and Toronto, at which point they can officially start discussing the playoffs. Go full 1919 White Sox with the intentional incompetence, or just disappear a la Vince Vaughn in “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.” Anything that would push the defending champions further into this pennant race.īecause the Yankees would absolutely maul the Red Sox in a five-game series with Games 1, 2 and 5 at Yankee Stadium. Yup, I’d urge him to urge his players to tank this rivalry series against the Red Sox, which kicks off Friday night at Fenway Park. If not for the meritocracy that rightly determines home-field advantage for baseball’s postseason, I’d take Aaron Boone aside early Friday afternoon and offer him some free advice:
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