Before we get too far into this I want to preface this
article with a little disclaimer. I want the Yankees to win the AL East
Division and I don’t want to go to a one-game playoff with their season on the
line. I don’t necessarily want the Yankees to win the Wild Card but I will take
the Wild Card over playing golf into the first week of October so with that in
mind I wanted to take a look at the potential AL Wild Card Game opponents the
New York Yankees could be facing off with, assuming they make it there
themselves of course, next month in the postseason. Before jumping on the bandwagon
that I am jinxing the Yankees or it is bad “juju” or karma to look ahead
remember that entering the series with the Baltimore Orioles yesterday the
Yankees had a 98.4 chance of making the postseason according to Fangraphs. I
feel good about this thing and so should you.
The Baltimore Orioles, who the Yankees continue their series
with here in just a few hours, and the Tampa Bay Rays, who the Yankees just won
a series against inside Citi Field this week, are still mathematically in the
hunt for the AL Wild Card but the way these two teams have been playing of late
mixed in with their strength of schedule you have to think both teams are
considered long shots at this point. You can’t predict baseball, remember, and
both teams could go on historic runs into the postseason, I am not completely
counting them out, but I think by the end of the weekend the Yankees would have
put the nail in both of these coffins with series victories. Just a hunch. Entering
the weekend both teams had right at or less than 1% of making the postseason
according to Fangraphs.
The Seattle Mariners are in front of both Baltimore and
Tampa Bay and the Seattle Robbie Cano’s have four teams in front of them just
to face off with the Yankees. New York has beat up on Seattle this year and won
more times than not in their head-to-head series with a 5-2 record. Seattle is
expected to get both James Paxton (12-3, 2.78 ERA, 1.08 WHIP) and Felix
Hernandez (5-4, 4.28 ERA, 1.36 WHIP) back from injuries this week and both are
returning just in time for the final playoff push for Seattle. Paxton would be
tough to see in a one-game playoff as would Hernandez, only because Hernandez
absolutely kills the Yankees, but I have to think the Yankees could take care
of business if Luis Severino or Masahiro Tanaka, whichever right-hander starts
the game for New York, pitch well.
The Texas Rangers are division rivals of those Seattle
Mariners and are one of the many teams that Seattle will have to leapfrog in
order to get into the postseason. The Rangers have played the Yankees tough
this season splitting the six meetings between the two clubs led by Cole Hamels
(10-3, 4.05 ERA, 1.18 WHIP) and Andrew Cashner (9-9, 3.19 ERA, 1.26 WHIP).
While Hamels record this season may not be much to write home about the
left-hander definitely knows where the switch is and knows how to flip it when
the calendar turns to postseason baseball. Hamels has a career 3.48 ERA in the
postseason and a 1.09 WHIP in 98.1 innings pitched including a 2008 NLCS and
World Series MVP to show for it. Neither pitcher strikes out many batters
leaving much of the responsibility on the backs and the bats of the Rangers
offense. Can the likes of Adrian Beltre hit enough home runs off either
Severino or Tanaka to keep the Rangers in the contest? They always say that
good pitching beats good hitting in the postseason and if Texas wins either one
of the Wild Card spots in the American League I guess we will put that theory
to the test one more time.
The Kansas City Royals were left out to sea by many early on
in the season and somehow the Royals just keep fighting back. The Royals have
struggled against the Yankees this season losing four of the six meetings
between the two clubs and in one start against Kansas City this season Severino
dominated and shut out the Royals over eight innings of work but again, the
postseason is called the second season for a reason. Either Danny Duffy (8-8,
3.78 ERA, 1.25 WHIP) or Jason Hammel (8-11, 4.91 ERA, 1.39 WHIP) would likely
get the start for Kansas City if the Royals were to get there although Duffy
comes with a question mark or two since the lefty hasn’t pitched since August
22 after nursing a pronator strain in his left pitching elbow. While this
potential matchup looks great for the Yankees on paper I cannot be the one to
count out the Royals, especially considering essentially this exact lineup went
to back-to-back World Series including one time as an AL Wild Card winner. Eric
Hosmer and Mike Moustakas have a lot to prove as each are likely on their way
out of Kansas City and both would presumably like to go out with a bang.
The Minnesota Twins have been hanging around all season long
and had it not been for an absolutely stellar season by the Cleveland Indians
here in 2017 we may be talking about the Cinderella team of the year being
these Minnesota Twins. Paul Molitor has done a great job as their manager this
season and so has Ervin Santana (15-7, 3.35 ERA, 1.13 WHIP), their ace who
would likely start the AL Wild Card Game if everything lined up right. If the
Twins were to have to use Santana in a tiebreaker or a Game 163 scenario then
the team would likely turn to Jose Berrios (12-7, 3.94 ERA, 1.17 WHIP) after
silencing Aaron Judge and the Yankees offense once already this season on July
19. Berrios is the only Twin to beat the Yankees this season, Yankees lead the
season series two-games-to-one, and the 23-year old does not seem bothered by
the bright light or the spotlight. Minnesota is a huge threat to the Yankees,
especially in a one-game playoff, but if New York doesn’t pitch to Miguel Sano
and the offense makes an appearance I truly think the team will be just fine.
The final team the Yankees could potentially face off with
head-to-head in the AL Wild Card Game is the team that I predicted to win the
spot here a few weeks back on the blog when I discussed the strength of
schedule for all the vying teams in the AL, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
of Disney World of Orange County of Elm Street of Pasadena, California home of
the Big Bang Theory. The Angels actually have a winning head-to-head record
against the Yankees winning four of the six meetings between the two clubs and
in one of those starts Severino wasn’t exactly sharp allowing six runs, five
earned, in six innings of work in a loss. Los Angeles may have lost their two
best starters this season in JC Ramirez and Alex Meyer but the team also got
back Garrett Richards (0-1, 1.38 ERA, 1.00 WHIP in three starts) who would likely start the game if the Angels were
to get that far. This is a much improved team since they have faced the Yankees
also, although to be fair so is New York, after adding Brandon Phillips and
Justin Upton before the August 31st trade deadline and this team
could be really scary come October in a one-game playoff. I think LAA will
ultimately win the second Wild Card but part of me is wishing that they won’t,
that’s called respect.
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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)