Last night was the end of the 2018 Yankees season, at least a week earlier than expected. Losing the ALDS wasn't in the plans this year in the Bronx, much less losing it to the Boston Red Sox. In a season that saw the Yankees win 100 games, I saw one of the most frustrating seasons in recent memory.
Maybe I'm caught up in the recent hype that's surrounded this team the last couple seasons, or I was begging to see a winner after so many years of mediocrity after the 2009 championship. What I saw this season was the best Yankee team since that '09 championship team and then I saw a team that was debatably worst than the crosstown rival New York Mets. A tale of two seasons, complete opposites of one another. A team that went 22-1 at one point to a team who couldn't beat a 110 loss Baltimore Orioles team. A team with Aaron Judge and a team without him. Much of the last 3 months I spent saying the Yankees wouldn't see past the Wild Card game..if they even got lucky to play that game.
Yes, the Yankees were in danger of not even playing that game. But then the Seattle Mariners became the Seattle Mariners and fell out of contention. The Oakland A's closed the gap to 1.5 of getting home field advantage in the Wild Card game and the Judge returned to the lineup. Then the Yanks took off and started playing close to the first half Yankees. That went all the way to Game 3 of the ALDS. Then the second half Yankees showed up. I saw the "ace" Luis Severino pray he could pitch four innings, FOUR! Guess what, he didn't even know what time the game was starting. That's a problem. I saw a rookie manager in Aaron Boone be so quick to go to the bullpen when his real ace Masahiro Tanaka was dealing on Saturday night, but fails to go to the best part of his team when he needed to (Game 3). To top it off when he did, he brought in Lance Lynn! A starter...with the BASES LOADED and NO ONE OUT! And his proven commodity Chad Green who's speciality is that exact situation, sit in the bullpen! Then 16-1 happened.
Last night was similar to Game 3 in which Boone couldn't make the right move when he needed to. He should be criticized and second guessed, but as a rookie manager, he gets a pass because he had a mostly successful season. But last night's failure falls on the hands of Giancarlo Stanton. How does a 4-3 loss fall soley on him? After Judge and Didi Gregorious got on base and re-ignited what was left of the sellout Yankee Stadium crowd, Stanton KILLED any momentum that was built in the previous two at bats.
Much like he did with the game on the line in Game 1 (bases loaded and no one out, he struck out. A base hit would have changed the game to the Yankees favor), he struck out. Painfully, embarrassingly, and pathetically. First pitch was a hanging slider on the inside corner which should have been mashed. For a single, a sac fly, a double, a HR, anything. But it was taken for a strike. Ok, let's be patient in this at bat and make Boston closer Craig Kimbrel continue to crumble under the pressure of the bright lights of the Bronx. Instead Stanton chased TWO sliders out of the zone that he was FEET away from making ANY sort of contact. Inexcusable and unacceptable. Not a clue of what to do with the season on the line. No urgency, no plan, no approach, no clue. Work a walk, continue the rally. Instead he gave Kimbrel a life preserver that he so desperately needed. It was only the first out, but it was an important confidence booster for Kimbrel. JUST enough to get him by Gary Sanchez and Gleyber Torres. Sanchez missed a game winning Walk-off Grand Slam by a few feet and Torres missed extending the inning by half a step. Can't fault either in that situation. Sanchez put on a great at at-bat and did get an RBI out of it and Torres busted it down the line faster than his average speed to first base.
They tried, Stanton didn't. I have a problem with that. He just thought free swinging was going to get him a Yankee moment for the ages. Wrong. For 30 mil a year, I need better. I want better. I invest in this team all year, so I expect you to invest your best effort in the biggest at bat of the season. You're not a rookie, you're a reigning MVP! You don't get a pass. Now I have 5 months to replay that 9th inning last night and wonder what-if.
"We're all going to come together and use this as fuel for next year." Said Stanton after the game.
All we needed was a single. A single. A single not ONE Yankee produced in the biggest inning of the year with the season on the line. That's mind boggling. It truly was a season to forget in the Bronx.
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