The New York Yankees have swept the Twins in the ALDS, but there are concerns going into the championship series that may serve as a disadvantage.
The Minnesota Twins were not equipped to beat a New York Yankees team because they did not have the luxury of going to the bullpen if their starters struggled, which all of them did at one point in time in their starts.
The Yankees could be eliminated from the postseason thanks to that exact reason.
The Houston Astros are likely to advance over the Rays to play the Yankees in what would be a matchup between the top two teams in the major leagues.
One concern the Yankees have is that their starters aren’t known to go deep into games because they have such a good bullpen.
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In Game 1, James Paxton only went 4.2 innings and allowed 3 earned runs. In Game 2, Masahiro Tanaka went five innings. Luis Severino only went four innings in his Game 3 clinching start.
That means that the bullpen had to pitch a minimum of four innings in each game.
When New York is tasked with going up against guys who are known to go 7 and 8 innings into games like Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole, the less the starters are out there the more taxed the bullpens will be which will not help the Yanks in the later games of the series.
The Astros would have the advantage deep in the series because their bullpen would be fresher than New York’s.
The second concern I have for the Yankees is the days off. Having four days off without any action, then having to play the best team in baseball is anything but ideal. I know that they had a relatively easy series against the Twins with a lot of success offensively, but the Astros don’t just have a home-field advantage but they will be able to ride their hot streaks as well.
If the Astros offense is clicking on all cylinders, they should have a small advantage going into the ALCS because they will be more confident going in than if they were struggling in the final games of the Tampa Bay series.