Yankees Season Ends in ALDS

The Yankees won 9 more games in 2018 than they did in 2017 however they were eliminated in the ALDS this season rather than last year when they went to game 7 of the ALCS. 

What went wrong in the ALDS ? Well a lot, for one the biggest issue was the starting pitching. Yes the offense didn’t do it’s job but in 3 of the 4 games the Yankees starters imploded and couldn’t even allow the bullpen to come in a small deficit. First it was JA Happ who gave up 5 runs in a little over 2 innings. Then In game 3 it was Luis Severino. Severino gave up 6 runs in 4+ innings of work. Some believe Severino didn’t go through his normal warmup routine because he was unsure of what time the game started. Last night it was CC Sabathia who was victimized by soft contact and wasn’t helped out by Brett Gardner but still didn’t perform well. He lasted just 3 innings giving up 3 runs. He was lucky to escape the first inning. 

Aaron Boone managed a brilliant wild card game was out managed in every way against fellow rookie manager Alex Cora. Boone was always a move to late when it came to removing his starters. He didn’t have a feel for the game and letting Severino pitch the 4th inning of game 3 proved that. 

The Yankees offense could have picked up some of these pitchers but they didn’t. In game 1 and 4 the Yankees had chances and did nothing with them. Giancarlo Stanton had two notable strikeouts one in game one with the bases loaded in the 7th and one last night in the 9th inning. He was swinging all over the zone and showed no discipline whatsoever. He wasn’t the only one though as Miguel Andujar and Gleyber Torres struggled. Aaron Hicks went down with an injury, Didi Gregorius slumped aside from last night and Luke Voit was okay. Aside from Aaron Judge and at times Gary Sanchez the Yankees offense was dead. 

The Yankees biggest weapon is the bullpen and they only pitched with the lead in game 2. Yesterday the bullpen pitched 7 innings of just 1 run ball. They were dominant but the role they played was keeping the score close enough instead of closing out the Red Sox. 

The Yankees will be aggressive this winter and should put together an even better team in 2019 but after the Red Sox clinched on our home turf it will be a long winter.