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The Yankees will play from Sunday until October.
There was a time this summer when those words might have sparked great excitement for Yankees fans as the season swung on the verge of bitter disappointment. But after an embarrassing defeat to the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday put the team back in a dangerous situation, the idea of playing one more game isn’t a good thing just yet.
Just Friday afternoon, the Yankees looked ready to host a game of wild cards on Tuesday. Now they face the prospect of going into a crazy four-way tie for two AL wild cards to be settled on Monday.
In a scenario familiar to the Yankees, a team chasing all their successes with failures, an impressive 5-1 road trip, moved up to number one in the wild card standings, but failed to close things cleanly despite returning home for the final series of the season, needing only two wins and a home field advantage to secure a fifth-year playoff spot. wild card game.
Facing Tampa Bay has proven to be a particularly frustrating way down. The Rays, the best team in the American League, narrowly won the Bronx on Friday and then knocked out the Yankees, 12-2, Saturday.
Brandon Lowe hit three points for the Rays and knocked them down in all seven rounds as Tampa Bay hit a 100-win plateau for the first time in franchise history. While the rest of AL East lurched around for two wild points, the Rays further established themselves as the league’s elite team.
“It’s just a bad day for us and we need to get over this quickly,” lamented Yankees manager Aaron Boone.
Boone has said that phrase in some form a few times this season, and in some key cases the team has responded well. But Saturday’s defeat, combined with victories by Boston, Toronto and Seattle, puts the suddenly stumbling Yankees in danger of playing an extra game to win a wild bet that looked like they had just days ago.
“The way this season is going, it makes some sense to come to the final day,” said Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner. “It seems right.”
The final day challenge starts at around 3pm for all 30 teams, but the biggest intrigue focuses on the teams fighting for the American League wild cards. (The Dodgers and Giants could draw for the National League West title, but the loser of a potential tiebreak would still consider the playoffs wild.)
In the AL, the Yankees and Red Sox draw with 91 wins, while Toronto and Seattle sit at 90.
If the Yankees beat the Rays on Sunday, one of two wildcards is guaranteed, and if that’s combined with a loss for the Red Sox in Washington, the wildcard would be at Yankee Stadium Tuesday night. But if both teams won, Boston would host the game thanks to a 10-9 regular season advantage over the Yankees.
In high-stakes games, the Yankees send Jameson Taillon into the field against Michael Wacha, while the Red Sox’s left-handed ace Chris Sale faces off against Joan Adon of the Nationals in his major league debut. Advantage to Boston.
But Toronto and Seattle are still alive and the craziest odds are a foursome. For this to happen, the Yankees and Red Sox must lose, while the Blue Jays and Mariners both must win. All four teams will have 91 wins. What follows, then, will be two tiebreaks on Monday, with four teams choosing or getting one of four assignments to determine who plays with whom and where.
The most likely outcome in this scenario would be for the Yankees to travel to Boston or Toronto to play a tiebreak on Monday.
It is also possible to have three-way ties for the first or second wild cards. These rules are actually more complex, requiring two days to complete and pushing back the AL wildcard.
The simplest solution for the Yankees is to deal with their own wins and then see where the other teams land.
“Obviously we can somehow control our own destiny,” Gardner said.
But the Yankees could have avoided all this uncertainty by winning on Friday or Saturday. Instead, Jordan Montgomery allowed seven runs from two and three innings on Saturday, bringing the Yankees together with Boston and Toronto on a line of conga mediocrity for several weeks where neither team was interested in seizing the opportunity.
Stunned after being swept away by the Yankees at Fenway Park, Boston then lost two-thirds to the Orioles, the worst team in baseball. They seemed to have dashed all their hopes before they rallied to win twice in Washington to tie the Yankees.
With their strong junior offense, the popular Blue Jays have lost two of three at home against the Yankees and five of their last eight games with Toronto’s Orioles entering their final series.
Only Seattle, baseball’s hottest team since mid-August, played with consistent determination last month. But they lost at home to the Angels before beating Los Angeles 6-4 on Friday night and set up a fascinating final day on Saturday.
The Rays, who have already set the best record in the American League, can’t help but show their apparent superiority even though they don’t play much.
“They’re a really good team out there,” Gardner said of the Rays, “but if we’re going to make it to the playoffs and ultimately get where we want to go, it’s a team we’re going to have to go to beat and pass.”
Thanks to the Yankees’ bad timing, Sunday will be a great day for baseball. Monday could be even better.
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