Yankees could have greater need with destiny out of their hands in tall Rays task
What had the potential to be a juicy showdown this week in The Bronx may not be worth the squeeze for the Yankees.
Even if they go all out to sweep the Rays in a four-game series, they still would need to keep winning and get some help on the final weekend of the regular season to complete a comeback and take the AL East.
If they lose even one game to the Rays at Yankee Stadium, though, the race would be over, with Tampa Bay popping champagne as division champs and the Yankees all but locked into facing the Red Sox in an AL wild-card series next week.
Of course, right up until the Yankees are officially eliminated from the AL East race, they will try to catch the Rays, beginning by starting Carlos Rodón and Max Fried in Tuesday’s doubleheader. But if what seems inevitable comes to fruition — they trail by six games with seven to play — the Yankees can turn their attention to the arguably more important things awaiting them in the coming days.
“It’s tough,” José Caballero said as the Yankees packed their bags after losing a second straight winnable game to the Diamondbacks on Sunday at Chase Field. “We fight for this the whole season, but at the end of the day, we’re already in the postseason, so that’s what we look forward to. Just be better and learn from little mistakes and play clean baseball in the postseason.”
Even if the Yankees pull off a sweep of the Rays, any combination of two Yankees losses (against the Orioles) or Rays wins (against the Phillies) would mean the Rays still win the division.
It would behoove the Yankees to get some early clarity on the division, allowing them to focus on some housekeeping this week. Doing so would give them an opportunity to rest their most heavily used relievers; set up their rotation order how they choose to face the Red Sox (Cam Schlittler or Gerrit Cole in Game 1?); and figure out how to handle second base (with Jazz Chisholm Jr. returning), third base and right field (with Aaron Judge sure looking like he might miss the wild-card series with a right calf strain).
“You got to make sure guys are in a good spot going in, but we’re going to show up and try to win the games Tuesday and we’ll keep going from there,” manager Aaron Boone said. “We’ve been through a lot as a team this year already and we’ve answered the bell at mostly all the turns. Looking forward to hopefully playing a good week of baseball and building some momentum going into the postseason.”
The Yankees have had their chances to chase down the Rays before sharing the field with them again. The last time they saw each other, shortly before the All-Star break in July, they split a four-game series, with the Yankees leaving Tropicana Field trailing the Rays by four games.
Since then, the Yankees have gone 38-24, which represents the fifth-best winning percentage in the majors during that span. The problem is that the Rays have posted the second-best winning percentage in that time (41-23), gaining two full games on the Yankees.
The closest the Yankees have gotten to the Rays during that span was 1 ¹/₂ games, but that was way back on July 28.
“They’ve put together a great season to this point and put themselves in a great position,” Boone said. “Got a ton of respect for the season they’ve had so far. Hopefully we’ll cross paths beyond Tuesday at some point in the future [the ALDS].”
The Yankees have gone 3-6 against the Rays this season, meaning they would have to sweep this four-game series to secure the tiebreaker should the teams finish the season with the same record.
“They play their game,” said Caballero, who was a Ray for a season and a half before the Yankees acquired him last summer. “It’s tough to play them, playing the way they play. They did a good job during the whole year, pitching-wise as well. They have some good pitching. That’s why they’re at the top of the American League. But at the end of the day, it’s about what we do in the postseason. The 162 first games, it doesn’t matter. The clock starts [in the] postseason.”
