Despite Third Straight Loss, New York Yankees’ Magic Number Reduced to One

Needless to say, once playoffs roll around, all the statistical breakdowns and all the number crunching goes right out the window. “Dry” was not the word to describe their situation, what with bad weather and champagne on the way.

When the Twins and Angels lost, the Yankees were just a run away from clinching a playoff spot.

David Ortiz sat out the finale against the Yankees, and manager Torey Lovullo said it’s unclear whether the 39-year-old designated hitter will play in any of the season’s final three games in Cleveland because of “general soreness”, likely a product of having started 49 of the first 52 games after the All-Star break while he chased his 500th career home run.

Centre fielder Mookie Betts followed with a two-run homer, four innings after he blasted a game-tying homer off Dellin Betances. He allowed a three-run home run in the first inning and gave up another run in the third. That might have been rust as much as anything else. Tanaka retired the last two batters of the inning, but was sitting at 71 pitches thrown through just three innings of work.

Alex Rodriguez reached base four times drawing two walks and his 33rd home run in the sixth put the Yankees ahead 5-4. In the top of the 7th Mookie Betts hit a solo homerun off of Betances to once again tie the game.

It’s all fine and good if he can come out of the bullpen, but the Yankees will need their starters to pitch well if they want Eovaldi’s appearances to be at all useful. Betances has allowed six homers since July 4. Refsnyder also drew a walk, loading the bases for Didi Gregorius, who flew out to left field to mercifully end the inning. She is just straight up laughing at him. He doesn’t really change who he is.

“I was a little bit rusty, ” he said through a translator, adding that his splitter, an important pitch, was not working as well as it usually does.

Tanaka’s night – windy with an early hint of October chill – did not start out well. “So I had a pizza and I gave it to a homeless guy and hit two home runs”.

But resilience has been the Yankees’ trademark this season and they flexed that in the fifth. With one out and runners on second and third, Brian McCann hit an RBI groundout and Chris Young hit an infield single to drive in another – a 4-4 tie game. He finished off the sixth by leaving a man with a behind-the-back stop on a grounder.

But they came into this day with the pressure mounting to, as Girardi said, “wrap this up”. They were swept in the next round by the Detroit Tigers and struggled with massive injuries the next two years while getting 84 and 85 wins, respectively.

Yankees: 2B Stephen Drew went for a battery of tests and the team is preparing as if he will miss the remainder of the season, manager Joe Girardi said.

“That was the gentleman he saw before, when he had his concussion years ago”. I do think both will happen soon but it would have been nice to get those out of the way tonight, especially against the Red Sox in a game that should have been won. In this unlikely season, though, they haven’t yet used up their chances. Next year, Orsillo will do select games on television and radio.

The out-of-town scoreboard had offered tantalizing news. “I have to hold the score and keep us right there, give us a chance to win”.

Orsillo was popular with Red Sox fans, but his true popularity seemed to catch the club by surprise only after the news leaked that he wouldn’t be brought back. Unfortunately for New York, the team would not be as successful with runners on later in the game.