In a disappointing turn of events, the New York Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs by losing the win-or-go-home Game 5 against the Tampa Bay Rays, 2-1, thanks to a late home run by Tampa infielder Mike Brosseau. Now, the Rays are moving on to the American League Championship Series and will face the Houston Astros starting Sunday.
Brosseau hit a solo home run in the eighth inning against Aroldis Chapman, after battling a 10-pitch at-bat. As you know, there is a little bit of history between the Rays infielder and the Yankees’ closer, as the latter threw a pitch near the former’s head in early September, and it resulted in some tension between the two teams.
However, Brosseau, and Chapman himself, denied that it was a “revenge” home run, saying that the issue is now in the past.
“The revenge aspect, it’s not a thought in my mind,” Brosseau said, according to Marly Rivera of ESPN. “We put it in the past and we moved on. We moved just straight to business. The battle that we’ve had all year with these guys, to go to Game 5 and have such an unbelievably played well-played game, well-executed – you can’t script it any better.”
The Yankees lost the game on that dinger
The New York Yankees’ fireballer was suspended three games after the September 1 incident, the same that resulted in Rays’ manager Kevin Cash comment that they also had a whole stable of guys that could throw 98 mph.
“I wasn’t thinking about (the Brosseau incident) at all,” Chapman also added postgame, per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. “That happened about a month ago. This is the way it worked out. He put a good swing on that pitch. I’ve got to give him credit.”
The game was tied at one run apiece in the eighth when Brosseau went yard against Chapman. The Yankees will now go home and start a very important offseason in which they will have to address starting and relief pitching, at the very least.