New York Yankees Gaining Ground in Wild Card Race
By Jason Burke
With just a handful of playoff contenders in action on Thursday night, the New York Yankees made the most of their opportunity to gain some ground in an all too familiar fashion–late inning heroics from a rookie.
The New York Yankees entered play on Thursday 2.5 games behind the Baltimore Orioles for the second wild card spot, and with nobody ahead of them holding games yesterday, they would either move up or down by a half a game. Thanks to the bat of Tyler Austin in the ninth (and Brian McCann‘s 3-for-4 night with two runs batted in via solo jacks), the Yankees remained hot, winning their fifth in a row and the first of a four game set with the Tampa Bay Rays.
The win moves the Yanks to within two games of Baltimore for that final playoff spot, and with Houston’s loss to Cleveland in their series finale, drops them to 2.5 games back, leaving just the Detroit Tigers between New York and Baltimore entering play on Friday.
In 40 at-bats in the cleanup spot, Didi Gregorius (yes, Didi is batting fourth in the Yankees lineup) is batting an even .300 and half of his 12 hits have gone for extra bases. Add this new development to the effectiveness of Luis Severino out of the bullpen (14 2/3 innings in six appearances, 0.00 ERA, two hits allowed, 10.5 strikeouts per nine) and it looks as though Joe Girardi is pushing all of the right buttons from the dugout.
With three more against the Rays this weekend and the four teams that New York is chasing all playing one another over that same stretch, this could be the weekend that the Yankees make their move towards the playoffs.
Over in the National League, the Cardinals entered play tied with the Mets for the second wild card spot with both teams just a half of a game behind the San Francisco Giants who are clinging to the top spot. They found themselves in a similar situation to the Yankees, where a win would have them gain ground while a loss would take them back half a step.
The Cards ended up falling to the Brewers, 12-5, with impressive 31-year-old rookie Junior Guerra holding the St. Louis bats relatively in order over five innings. The Brewers jumped all over starter Jaime Garcia for five runs in his 3 2/3 innings. Mike Mayers came on to start the top of the 5th, and allowed a sac-fly to tack on another run to Milwaukee’s lead, which stood at 6-3 at the end of the inning.
The 6th was not as kind to Mayers and the Cards. The Brewers began the inning by going single, home run, single, single, walk before Mayers was lifted with the bases loaded. A Ryan Braun sac-fly and a double from Hernan Perez would follow before the second out was recorded. Another single scored Perez, and gave the Brewers a 12-3 lead.
Obviously this is not how St. Louis wanted to start off their weekend series, but in less than a week they’ll have their chance to take down the Giants head-to-head in a four-game series that starts next Thursday.
Behind the Cardinals in the race, the Pirates continue to be one of the streakiest teams in baseball. After losing eight straight, Pittsburgh has run off two in a row to bring their record to 69-69 following a complete game from Ivan Nova on Thursday. The Pirates sit four back in the wild card as they continue their weekend series at home against the Reds.
Next: Buchholz Could Be Secret Weapon
Check back tomorrow for updates from a full slate of games, where we’ll bring back playoff odds, elimination numbers and author’s hot takes. Oh, the hot takes!