The Cole Train Made a Stop in Cleveland, Now it is Tanaka Time

You can say that the Yankees have never spent $324 million better than spending big on Gerrit Cole. In his first playoff appearance in the Yankee road grays, Gerrit Cole sent a message, "The Yankees are still a force to be reckoned with." There was some doubt entering the game given the team the Yankees were facing and Yankees lackluster performance down the stretch, but the Yankees put up 12 runs in the home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Game 1 was billed as a classic pitcher's duel but only one ace showed up. 

The Yankees set the tone early, 4 pitches early, as DJ LeMahieu led the game off with a single and Aaron Judge took the first pitch that he saw out of the park for a 2-0 Yankee lead. 2-0 was just the start for the Bombers offense as Gleyber Torres would go yard in a perfect day at the plate. Luke Voit had an RBI double, Brett Gardner had 3 RBI with a double and a home run, and Giancarlo Stanton added an absolute missile of a home run in the ninth inning. The Yankees "flipped the switch" as many fans had been clamoring for. A rough end to the regular season was quickly forgotten tonight as the Bronx Bombers took their potent offense on the road and won Game 1 12-3. 

The Yankees will have to get back to work Wednesday night against Cleveland's Carlos Carrasco. Carrasco rounded into form in September with a 1.73 ERA and a .229 opponent batting average in his last 4 starts/26 innings pitched. Carrasco faced the Yankees in the 2017 ALDS and did not factor in the decision as the Yankees won on a Greg Bird solo home run off of Andrew Miller. Carrasco did shut down the Yankee offense for 5.2 innings and struck out 7 in the raucous Yankee Stadium environment. The Yankees counter with Masahiro Tanaka or "Playoff Tanaka" as he is known when the calendar enters late September and October. 

Tanaka finished the month of September with a 3.09 ERA and a .221 opponent batting average in his final 23.1 innings pitched. Tanaka seems to take his game to a new level in the postseason as he has a career 1.76 ERA in 46 postseason innings. The Yankees will need Tanaka to continue his postseason prowess in order to close out the Indians and move onto the ALDS. If Tanaka stumbles, a rested bullpen awaits in right center field to put out any potential fires. 

The Yankee offense clearly exploded for 12 runs against a playoff novice in Shane Bieber. A veteran starter in Carrasco could pose a different challenge for the Yankees. Carrasco has a higher average velocity on his fastballs compared to Bieber and Carrasco has a more efficient spin rate on his curveball as opposed to Bieber's. Bieber struggled to locate his breaking stuff which helped the Yankees crush his near league average fastball. The Yankee approach should be similar to what we saw on Tuesday but I do not expect Carrasco's stuff to be as non-competitive as Bieber's was. 

This is a crucial game and one that the Yankees should treat as an elimination game. The lack of off days in the ALDS and ALCS will be a challenge if they reach those games. A Game 2 win and an elimination of Cleveland would help the Yankees rest and prepare for their next opponent. Also a winner take all Game 3 is something that many Yankee fans would not appreciate this early on in an October journey that is supposed to end with a trophy. 

Statistics courtesy of BaseballReference.com, BaseballSavant.com and Fangraphs.com 

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Welcome to the 2020 Postseason

Well.... we made it! The Yankees, Major League Baseball, and its fans have made it to the postseason. This sounded far-fetched in May but after a 60 game sprint, the Yankees have a spot in the dance. The 2020 Yankees, much like most of us in the year 2020, faced hardships and obstacles along the way. As we reflect on the regular season and look forward to the postseason the goal remains the same as every year, win a championship.

July 23rd was the beginning of the Gerrit Cole era in Yankee Universe and he delivered a rain shortened complete game win. This set the tone for the Yankees 16-6 run led by Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge, and DJ LeMahieu. This was quickly followed up by a 5-15 stretch which was headlined by injuries to Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, DJ LeMahieu, James Paxton, Gleyber Torres, Gio Urshela, and Tommy Kahnle. As the injured began to return so did the elite play as the team rattled off a 10 game win streak and looked poised to reclaim their spot at the top of the American League mountain. The Yankees would finish 2-6 in their final 8 games which barely got them the 5th overall seed in the American League playoff picture and a matchup with the Cleveland Indians. 

Tuesday at 7 pm EST at Progressive Field is when the 2020 Yankee season actually begins. Gerrit Cole and Shane Bieber will face off in Game 1 of the best of 3 Wild Card Series. The Yankees enter with more questions than answers but a good team can throw away their inconsistent regular season to move on to the fresh slate that is the postseason. Game 1 will be the most important game for the 2020 Yankees and it could shed a light on what to expect from this team as October moves on. 

When we look who the Yankees will face its best to prepare yourself for an all time pitchers duel. Shane Bieber is the presumptive American League Cy Young winner and possibly the American League Most Valuable Player. He led AL pitchers in wins, strikeouts, ERA, fWAR, and Fielding Independent Pitching. "The Biebs", as he is affectionately known as, has been next to unhittable but that does not mean the Yankees should be scared. The 2017 Yankees faced a similar opponent in the ALDS in Corey Kluber. Kluber was the AL Cy Young Winner in 2017 and in a must win Game 5 the Yankees chased Kluber after 3.2 innings, 3 earned runs, and 2 home runs allowed. Whether fans want to admit it or not, the home run ball is the key for the 2020 Yankees winning this series and every series going forward.

This team is built to hit home runs after players like LeMahieu and Hicks get on base. Though Bieber had a 0.81 HR/9 allowed this season, a change in approach to become a team that hits for singles and packs the bases is not the answer. Bieber stranded 91.1% of runners that reached base which adds even more emphasis to the home run ball. Basically, make Bieber work and be the Bronx Bombers that hit over 300 home runs in 2019. 

Gerrit Cole will have to work his way through a rather top heavy Cleveland lineup. The top five hitters of Cesar Hernandez, Francisco Lindor, Jose Ramirez, Carlos Santana, and Franmil Reyes account for majority of Cleveland's offense. Cole was masterful during the month of September as he pitched to a 1.00 ERA, 34 strikeouts, 5 walks, and a .147 batting average against. These numbers are reminiscent of the Gerrit Cole that the Yankees spent $324 million on in the offseason. If Gerrit Cole is on his game from the jump, the Cleveland offense is going to be in for a long night. 

Inconsistent is the word to describe the 2020 New York Yankees, but all will be forgotten with a successful postseason run. Gary Sanchez, Gleyber Torres, Adam Ottavino, and Giancarlo Stanton can shake up and down regular seasons with a month of elite play. The Yankees as a collective unit know they are closer to the 16-6 and 10-0 team than they are the 5-25 and 2-6 team. If this team can turn the page and play like they were expected to in the preseason, then there is no doubt in my mind that they will be the last team standing in late October. Conversely, if the last 8 games were just a precursor to what is to come, then this team will be lucky to get to the ALDS. 

This will be a different postseason for a number of reasons, the Yankees will not play in the Bronx this postseason, there will be no fans until possibly the World Series, and there are 16 teams vying for a championship. This will be a quick, but wild ride through the month of October. As every Yankee fan anxiously waits for tomorrow night at 7pm, remember the wild ride this team took us on in 2020 and hopefully the wild ride concludes with a socially distanced parade down the Canyon of Heroes.  

Statistics courtesy of BaseballReference.com and Fangraphs.com 

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