A wild and wacky season now comes down to this. A best-of-three series in Cleveland to kick off the postseason for the first ever 16-team tournament -- a result of baseball in the world of COVID-19.
The Yankees come limping into the postseason having lost six of their last eight. If this scenario should sound familiar to Yankees fans, it should. Back in 2015 the Yankees lost six of seven down the stretch, before bowing out in the Wild Card game against Dallas Keuchel and the Houston Astros.
This is also the scene of the Yankees bitter, hard fought ALDS victory in 2017, where the Yankees came back from a 2-0 series deficit to win the series 3-2. New York was later eliminated in the ALCS by the eventual World Series Champion Astros.
Of course these two franchises know each other very well, even if they haven't played one another this season. This will mark the fifth postseason series between the two with each club having won a pair.
This time the series carries greater weight, especially Game One which will feature a battle of ace's, Gerrit Cole (7-3, 2.84 ERA) for the Yankees against potential AL Cy Young Award candidate Shane Bieber (8-1, 1.63 ERA). The winner forces a winner-take-all game on Wednesday night.
The Yankees need Cole to dominate tonight against an Indians lineup - that like the Yankees -- hasn't exactly hit on all cylinders this year. The Indians as a team are batting .228, with only Jose Ramirez in double digits in home runs with 17. That is not to say the Indians don't power much punch, they do - we know they do. This is a Cleveland squad that still has one of the best young hitters in the game in Francisco Lindor, who is always a threat to go deep.
Also keep an eye out for 25-year old outfielder Franmil Reyes, who hit .275 this year with 9 homers and 34 RBI. There is pop in that lineup, it just hasn't been consistent enough at times.
If Cole can keep this Indians' lineup in check, it will give the Yankees a chance, and they need all the help they can get against Bieber.
Bieber struck out 122 batters this year in 77.1 innings. That is remarkable considering baseball only played 60 games this year. Had this been a standard 162 game season, Bieber easily strikes out 250-plus hitters. In fact in three of his last four starts, Bieber racked up 10 strikeouts in those contests. He is a totally different pitcher than the guy the Yankees saw on June 9 of last year, when they tagged him for five runs in an inning and two-thirds.
Of course the big question for the Yankees in this game, and in this series, is their offense.
The Yankees have been hit or miss offensively this year, with only Luke Voit (22 homers, the AL leader in that category) and D.J. LeMahieu (.364 batting average, league leader) as the only constants.
For the most part this season has been mired in injuries to the likes of Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, neither of whom had a really legitimate shot to take off this season. Meanwhile, the face of Yankee fan ire was directed right at Gary Sanchez who struggled all season both with the bat and his glove behind the plate -- an issue that has become all too common place for him over the years.
Sanchez hit only .147 this year, but he was not alone. 10 different Yankees hit under .245 this season, including Gleyber Torres (.243), Brett Gardner (.223), Mike Tauchman (.242) and Mike Ford (.135). It also didn't help matters that Stanton finished the season in a 2-for-21 slump, and Aaron Judge hit only .194 for the month of September since coming off the injury list.
There was a lot of issues this year offensively, and the Yankees struggles at the dish were a big reason why this team had swoons all year where they were either really good, or really bad.
Case in point the Yankees were 16-6 to start the year, then 5-15, followed up by a 10-0 stretch, before culminating in a 2-6 finish. Who are these 2020 Yankees? Which team will show up is a huge question.
If the Yankees find some offense on Tuesday night, and are able to ride Cole's right arm to victory in Game 1, it will be on Mashairo Tanka in Game 2, and likely JA Happ in Game 3 (if necessary). Both have been madly inconsistent themselves this season, with Tanaka coming off two rough outings to end the regular season.
Still there is reason for optimism. This is a Yankees team loaded with talent, and resumes alone tell us that this is a Yankee team capable of doing some damage this postseason.
The question can this team finally live up to the high expectations? And can manager Aaron Boone put his players in position to succeed?
If the Yankees win this series, they will likely line up against a very good Tampa Bay team in the ALDS, if not it will be an early start to an off-season full of regrets and second guessing.
Prediction: Indians in 3.
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