We are 5-2 against them this year. Dallas Keuchel has a 1.41 career ERA against the Yankees in 44.2 IP (not including the 6 shutout innings in Yankee Stadium during the WC game). Their rotation isn't scary. Their best pitcher (Luis Severino) has struggled against us in his 3 games against us. Their bullpen is the real strength of that team, and while they've scored plenty of runs, only Judge & Sanchez scare you in that lineup, and Judge has been exposed a bit.
The Yankees have a very good, deep bullpen and just enough offense to be a tough postseason opponent. It's a vastly different - and better - team than we one we beat in '15. (So are the Astros, of course.) The Astros are good enough to beat *any* team. And obviously ANYthing can happen - but the Red Sox and Yankees, both (along with the Indians, of course) are good enough to beat the Astros, especially in a five-game series where the margin of error is much smaller.
Absolutely correct, but out of the 3, if you had your druthers, I think most of us would pick the Yankees. The Indians are downright terrifying with 3 legitimate aces, a shutdown bullpen, and an offense that can match ours. The Red Sox have the one guy in the AL that has the potential of Kevin Brown-ing us in a 5 game series. Plus, Boston just has a way of pulling off miracles in the playoffs.
When I see the Yankees, I see a team that may be able to get Chris Sale-like performance (or better) from their bullpen 5-6 innings each game. If the Astros don't have the lead after 3, they are going to have to beat that pen most likely. The Yankees probably are not going to be as easy to defeat when they can rest their their pen after almost every game. This Yankees team is much different than most of the teams Keuchel has faced, and I am not going to make too much out of 7 games unless their is an underlying reason for the record. There just is not a good correlation between regular success against a team and winning a playoff series against the same team that is more than you would expect just based on their overall records. I think Boston would be an easier opponent (probably should say less hard) despite the Astros poor in-season performance. Plus, I'm not sure MLB wants a Yankee-Indians series on prime time excluding Game 1. With as many pitching changes as I expect from those two teams when their aces aren't on the mound, it would not surprise me if they would have 1-2 games break the 4 hour mark if they played a 5 game postseason series.
It isn't like facing Kluber will be any better. Main hope is not to have to go through both. Those numbers include Keuchel this season. Chris Sale + David Price + Joe Kelly + Craig Kimbrel for 2 games scares me more than the Yankees.
With Gray and Severino, to go along with a really deep pen i don't see the Yankees being all that much easier than Boston. At this point, the dream 1st round scenario is to pass the Indians and hope the weaker team wins the play in game. It's possible you could get an extremely weak opponent.
Since the goal is the World Series, is it preferred that we play : Yankees and then Twins/Angels or to play Twins/Angels and then Sox? The first is obviously very unlikely, but possible. I'm assuming none of care much about Twins vs. Angels, and I assume most of use would prefer Boston to Cleveland. Can we have the miracle where we play Twins/Angels and then the Yankees?
Baseball is unlike other sports, so the weaker team winning a 5 games series is certainly possible. Since were playing out the rosie scenarios. Any scenario in which we avoid Cleveland is my preferred scenario. The Yankees catch up to Boston, and the Red Sox get bounced in the play in game. We do have a 4 games series with them to end the year. Taking 3 of 4 could do us a lot of good We pass the Indians, and Yankees eliminate Indians in 1st round, so we get Twins/Angels and the Yankees.
We lost 4 straight to the Oakland A's. I'm very understanding of how anything can happen. Only the 2nd wild card is going to be a heavy underdog.
Psychological advantage is a huge deal in the baseball playoffs. We've got the edge over the Yankees in this regard; it's about even vs Boston, and Cleveland is our daddy. Freaking Trevor Bauer man.
Based on what, exactly? Baseball seems to be the least affected by psychology, given the whole "momentum only goes as far as the next day's starting pitcher" element of it.
The sucky reality is I don't see us going undefeated the rest of the way and Cleveland losing 3 or more games the rest of the way. For each loss we take add one loss to that 3 they must lose. I know we play to win them all. But at this point we need to make sure we do our part in making that last series against the Red Sox irrelevant. I want us going in with a 5 game lead in the loss column over Boston. Then, We can start mike Fiers to go 5 and Sipp to go 4 for all I care. Next game it is lirianos turn for a return to the starting rotation and Clippard finishing. Don't care. I just want home field in the first round wrapped up by the Boston series. If by some miracle Cleveland drops 3 and we are back in the lead so be it.
