Last night, at Petco Park the best team won the ALDS. The Tampa Bay Rays put down the New York Yankees for the final time this season. They were the better team all season long, and they were in the postseason. The Yankees lost on the day they learned they lost the “Chairman of the Board,” Whitey Ford, who passed away at 91 on Thursday night.
Tomorrow on EmpireSportsMedia.com, I will tell the story of the great Whitey Ford in tribute.
On September 1, Aroldis Chapman buzzed the Tampa Bay Rays, Mike Brosseau; last night, Brosseau got back at Chapman, hitting the winning run off of him in the bottom of the eighth inning. In the top of the ninth, the dead bats that have been so prevalent throughout the season were dead again, and the New York Yankees lost the ALDS to the Rays and their fourth postseason in a row. The Yankees are now going to have to wait another year to get that 28th World Championship.
It’s far too early to talk about changes, but pitching wins games, and the Yankees, regardless of having one of the best pitchers in baseball, didn’t have the pitching staff to win games. You can have the best home run hitters in the game, but if you don’t have pitching, you don’t win games. One pitcher or one batter can not carry a team. The New York Yankees have failed again, but have nothing to be ashamed about. They battled and battled with another year of unprecedented injuries right up to the last out last night.
The night started with two pitchers, both on short rest. Tyler Glasnow went 2.1 innings and was replaced by Anderson, Fairbanks, and Castillo, who held down the Yankees striking out eleven Yankee batters. Gerrit Cole, for his part went into the sixth inning, holding the Rays to just one run. Zack Britton pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, and Chapman pitched a successful inning of work, until he gave up the homer to Mike Brosseau. The final score was 2-1, Chapman took the loss for the Yankees and Diego Castillo got the win for the Ray.
There will be a lot of finger-pointing tomorrow. Some will say it was the decision to start game 2 with two starters, some will it is was no hitting, some will say poor pitching, and some will even say Aaron Boone is a bad manager. You can be sure that the Yankees brass will be examining everything over the next months. The bottom line is that both teams played this last game very well, somebody was going to fail at some point, and this time, it turned out to be the Yankees.