The American League Division Series has become a lot closer than the New York Yankees wanted. The Kansas City Royals have been a formidable foe, losing Game 1 on Saturday in the Bronx 6-5, but rebounding on Monday at Yankee Stadium for a 4-2 win in Game 2. While the Yankees haven’t played poorly, some of their star players haven’t shone brightly this series.
Their Game 1 starter Gerrit Cole lasted five innings, giving up seven hits and four runs. In Game 2, Carlos Rodon took the mound for the Yankees to open and lasted just 3 2/3 innings, posting the same numbers as Cole — seven hits and four runs given away. The Royals only scored three runs in two games while sweeping the Baltimore Orioles in the first round of the playoffs. Cole and Rodon, who both have a penchant for giving up home runs (Cole averaged almost one per start during the regular season while Rodon allowed 31, second most in the league) gave up one apiece in their respective starts.
With the Yankee offense not producing as expected, better performances are needed from their two aces moving forward, that is if the Yankees can go deep into the postseason. Clarke Schmidt was the scheduled Yankees starter last night facing Seth Lugo of the Royals. The starters for Game 4 tonight in Kansas City and Game 5 Saturday at Yankee Stadium, if necessary in the best-of-five series, had not been announced as of AmNews press time.
Offensively, Yankees’ batters had walked 13 times going into Game 3 last night in Kansas City. Two of their runs in Game 1 came on walks. However, with multiple opportunities to push runs across, they left 19 men on base and sticking with that number, struck out 19 times in the first two games. Probable American League MVP Aaron Judge had only one hit in Games 1 and 2 combined and had struck out four times. The Royals had not used the strategy employed by many teams during the regular season of walking Judge to get to the next hitter. While he led the league in walks during the season with 133, he had walked only once in the series going into Game 3.
The Royals had also played errorless ball in the two games in the Bronx, while the Yankees had committed two errors, on their home field, one by third baseman Jazz Chisholm. It could probably be excused because while he has played well at the position, he has only been at third for two months. Jon Berti was the Yankee first baseman for the first time in his career at the position in Game 2. He played well, but how can he be depended on in the playoffs where anything is possible?
The Yankees finished with the AL’s best record at 94-68 and the best road record at 50-31. If they don’t manage to win two more this week, those records will be an afterthought.