Why the New York Yankees can beat any team in the postseason

But, if you are a fan of baseball and don’t have a horse in this race, then I would think that you would want to see arguably the best rivalry in baseball in the American League Championship Series (ALCS). The Yankees did it in 2000 when they beat the New York Mets in five games, capping off their three-peat.

This wild card matchup is one for the books. Out of the five teams that’ll represent the NL in this year’s postseason, three powerhouses are coming from the NL West division: the Dodgers, Diamondbacks, and Rockies. “I got that (postseason) vibe right away…my first day in NY”. That could end up being in Arizona’s wheelhouse since power threats such as 1B Paul Goldschmidt, 3B Mike Lamb and RF J.D. Martinez make them one of baseball’s best teams at hitting against high velocity.

Torey Lovullo, who guided Arizona to the postseason in his first year after taking over as manager, was previously a bench coach for the Red Sox.

“It gives you the home field, but no, it doesn’t”, Pluto said. The Yankees haven’t announced who’ll start Game 3 yet, but with Luis Severino throwing only 29 pitches in the Wild Card game, he should be ready to go. Chad Green came into the relief and finished the inning.

The Yankees answered in a huge way, with a monstrous 3 run home run from Didi Gregorius that electrified Yankee Stadium and brought them back into the ballgame. Rockies bopper Nolan Arenado and Twins slugger Brian Dozier are postseason newbies, too. Minnesota starter Ervin Santana settled down and finished the inning. In eight career starts against the Yankees, Bauer is 3-4 with a 4.20 ERA. By the time the inning was over and the Indians took the field, the midges were gone. Judge, the man the Yankees offense revolves around, is 4-for-14 this season against the Indians, including one home run off of Mike Clevinger. Aaron Judge was 2-for-4 with a home run, a walk, three runs and two RBIs. In game one, Cleveland is a -130 favorite with NY coming in as a +120 underdog, while the total is set at 8.5.

The Yankees, with the likes of RHP Dellin Betances and LHP Aroldis Chapman, possess a deeper bullpen than the Twins.

Unlike Gray however, Sabathia has not faced the Indians at all in 2017. After suffering through an abysmal 1-16 straight-up run in the second half, the Dodgers picked up their play and ended the regular season on a 6-1 SU run. The Cleveland pitching rotation was buoyed by breakout performances from Trevor Bauer and Carlos Carrasco as they posted the best Earned Run Average and strikeouts of any team, along with the ever dominant trio of starter Corey Kluber, reliever Andrew Miller, and closer Cody Allen.