Yankees blast away A’s in Wild Card game to set up ALDS matchup with Red Sox
There will be a Red Sox-Yankees playoff series for the first time since 2004
NEW YORK — The New York Yankees have had two months, ever since they were swept at Fenway Park in early August, to come to terms with a reality that could have left their palms sweaty: that their World Series ambitions would have to begin with nine innings of unpredictable, win-or-go-home baseball.
Knowing what awaited them — general manager Brian Cashman called it a steel-cage match — had drained some of the satisfaction the Yankees might have otherwise reveled in after winning 100 games.
As it turned out, maybe all that time simply prepared them for the moment.
The Yankees showed few signs of jitters — only steeled nerves — in dispatching the Oakland Athletics, 7-2, on Wednesday night in the American League wild-card playoff before an energetic, capacity crowd at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees got a first-inning home run from Aaron Judge, a rousing start from Luis Severino and stout relief work from Dellin Betances before busting open the game with a four-run sixth that sent the stadium into the first of many “We want Boston!” chants.
The Yankees advanced to play the Red Sox in a division series beginning Friday at Fenway. It is the first time the storied rivals have met in the playoffs since the epic series in 2004, when the Red Sox rallied from a 3-0 deficit en route to winning their first World Series title in 86 years.
The Yankees’ victory, sealed when reliever Aroldis Chapman caught an underhand toss from first baseman Neil Walker to retire Matt Chapman, was an affirming one for several Yankees — particularly Severino, who had been knocked out in the first inning of last year’s wild-card game, and Betances, who rarely pitched in the playoffs last year.
If Aaron Boone, the rookie manager, has often managed with a loose hand this season, allowing his players a chance to play their way into and out of trouble, his moves Wednesday confirmed a sense of urgency.
He chose Severino over J.A. Happ, betting on the pitcher with a higher ceiling, and then made two bold in-game moves: removing third baseman Miguel Andujar after two at-bats for the defensively superior Adeiny Hechavarria, and turning to Betances in the fifth inning when the A’s were threatening to dent the Yankees’ 2-0 lead.
It was the first time Betances had pitched before the seventh inning this season and only the sixth time in 68 appearances that he had entered in the middle of the inning. But with two runners on base, he dispatched Matt Chapman and Jed Lowrie on fly balls and struck out Khris Davis, the major league home run leader who later homered off Zach Britton for the Athletics’ only scoring.
The Athletics, who began the season with the lowest payroll in baseball, are not shy about bucking convention. So, having lost four members of their rotation to season-ending surgery, they went an unconventional route for the wild-card game, filling their roster with 10 relievers and one starter.
They chose Liam Hendriks — a journeyman reliever who had been designated for assignment in June — to open the game, a role he had taken to in September. In his past seven starts, all of which lasted an inning, he did not allow a run.
Wednesday night was different.
Hendriks walked Andrew McCutchen, then Judge followed by ripping a 2-1 fastball into the left-field seats. It was, like many of Judge’s home runs, a no-doubter, and he turned and shouted toward his teammates in the first-base dugout as he trotted down the line.
Then all eyes turned to Severino when he got the ball in the bottom half of the inning. Boone made one of the most scrutinized decisions of his initial turn as a manager in naming Severino to start over Happ, who had pitched better in the second half and far better in their starts in Oakland earlier this month.
“I wouldn’t say anything specifically that I leaned on — ‘Oh, this is why I’m doing this,’” Boone said. “In the end, I just felt like with Sevy, I feel like he’s throwing the ball much better. I feel like he’s turned the corner.”
Severino justified Boone’s faith and he did so with an unconventional plan.
After buzzing through the first inning, riding a fastball that hit 98 mph, Severino turned to a heavy dose of sliders. The pitch proved difficult for the Athletics to hit, but it also turned out to be a struggle for Severino to keep it in the strike zone.
He walked one in the second, another in the third and two in the fourth, which followed a throwing error by Andujar, leaving the bases loaded with two outs. That is when he returned to the fastball — blowing a letter-high, 99.6-mph heater past Marcus Semien. As soon as he did, Severino unleashed a primal scream as he bounced off the mound to the dugout.
Severino came out for the fifth, but after Jonathan Lucroy lined a single to left and Nick Martini followed with a single to right, Boone came out to lift him.
Severino, who left to fierce boos in last year’s wild-card game, was saluted with a rousing ovation as he walked back to the dugout.
The Yankees pulled away with a four-run sixth inning. Judge was again the catalyst, bouncing a high chopper just inside the first-base bag for a leadoff double against Fernando Rodney. Aaron Hicks then hit a liner between a narrow gap in the shifted infield that he legged out for a double, scoring Judge easily to boost the Yankees’ lead to 3-0.
After Rodney threw a wild pitch that advanced Hicks to third, Athletics manager Bob Melvin turned to his closer, Blake Treinen. But he could not stifle the Yankees.
Giancarlo Stanton drew an eight-pitch walk, fouling off three full-count pitches. Luke Voit followed by fouling off a pair of full-count pitches before lifting a high fly ball into the right-field corner. Stephen Piscotty gave chase and leapt at the wall, but the ball eluded him and bounced back toward the infield. By the time he retrieved it and fired toward home, Hicks and Stanton had scored and Voit had chugged into third and it was 5-0.
Voit then raced home on Didi Gregorius’ flyout, barely eluding Lucroy’s tag after he gathered Martini’s throw to the plate. The A’s challenged the call, but it stood up for a 6-0 lead. After Davis’ home run cut the advantage to 6-2, Stanton added a solo home run off Treinen.
