Yankees ALDS Preview

By Lucas Bolduc

The Yankees are moving on to the ALDS! After a thrilling game two wild card win against the Indians, the Yankees have a date with the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS. Understandably, Yankees fans might be worried about these Rays, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t. The Rays had their way with the Bronx Bombers in the regular season, holding a 8–2 record against them. It seems like Tampa had the Yankees number, looking utterly dominant. The Yankees haven’t had a losing record against Tampa since 2014. Which shows how the Yankees have been able to take care of their division rival with ease for the past 5 seasons. Many Yankees fans question the team’s poor performance against the Rays, asking why we struggle with someone we’ve been beating constantly for 5 years. To Tampa’s credit, they have an excellent pitching staff, all the way through their bullpen. And as Joe Aguiar always says, you may not know these guys’ names, but they’re damn good. The Rays also make little mistakes, focusing on perfecting their mechanics and defense, which makes it harder for a stacked Yankees lineup to produce any runs. But, there are things the Yanks can do to defeat these Rays, so let’s get into it.

The Yankees averaged 5.25 runs per game this season, but against Tampa, that number drops to 3.4 runs per game. The most important thing for the Yankees in this series is for the bats to come alive. Tampa doesn’t have the offensive firepower to keep up with the Bombers putting up five to six runs a game. With The Rays phenomenal pitching, we’ll need all the runs we can get. Judge and Stanton have to live up to their big market names. For Stanton, its proving that he’s worth the contract he already has, for Judge, it’s proving himself worthy of a lucrative, long term deal. If those two can step it up this series, and if the guys who are already hot, such as DJ Lemahiue and Gio Urshela can continue their tears, this team should be in for delivering a beating to a team that tortured the Yanks in the regular season.

As for the Yankees pitching, we know what we have in Cole and Tanaka. Although Tanaka showed signs of struggling initially, he cooled down and settled in and looked great. As for the next few pitchers in the rotation, they need to be stellar. J.A. Happ was a shoe in for a game three start in Cleveland, so you’d think it’s the same case for this series against Tampa. Happ can’t mess around. While he had an amazing end to his season, posting an ERA in the low two’s in his last seven starts of the season, he has to keep that same mentality for what will ultimately be a crucial start in both the Yankees playoff run, and Happ’s future with the team. As for game four, in my opinion, the best option is to use Chad Green as an opener. Of course the other option being Jordan Montgomery starting the game. My problem with that is a lot of times Montgomery has very shaky starts to games, and doesn’t settle in until it’s too late. Green opening the game, followed either by an inning eater such as Loisiga or Monty, is the plan the Yankees should roll with.

Official Series Prediction: Yankees advance to ALCS winning series 3–2.

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