Why the Yankees Can’t Make The Fall Classic

“ALTUVE! HAS JU-”

That’s when I shut the TV. 10 seconds later, Jose Altuve cleats touched home plate, shutting the door on the Yankees’—and, therefore, my—2019 baseball season. Only 10 minutes earlier, I was jumping up and down celebrating DJ Lemahieu’s game-tying ninth-inning home run. Now, though, the Yankees were done, going home to think about what they could’ve been. The Yankees were unquestionably a great team in 2019, battling injury after injury and living off the “next man up” mentality. But when it came to the ALCS, a rematch of their 2017 series vs. the Houston Astros, they were proven to be good, but not great. Many of the things that they had excelled at in the regular season and in their steamrolling of the Twins in the ALDS like bullpen pitching and driving in runs didn’t carry over when they faced the Astros juggernaut. Their loss can’t be blamed on one particular at-bat or even on a specific player or two. It was a range of different shortcomings that they’ll need to address over the winter.

First and most importantly, they couldn’t come through with runners in scoring position. A great example of this is when Didi Gregorious came up to bat with bases loaded in game three, and couldn’t come up with anything except a weak dribbler to the right side. He would later bat with first and second, and line out, once again stranding key base-runners. This is something that plagued the Yankees in the last two postseasons, but after the first 165 games the Yankees played before the ALCS, it looked like that problem had finally been solved. Even after game one, in which Gleyber Torres came through twice with RISP, it looked like the Bombers were much improved.

Nope!

In the series, the Yankees were an abysmal 6-35 with RISP, good for a .171 batting average. Compared to their .294 line during the regular season, that is simply atrocious. They left 42 runners on base! Most teams are lucky to get 42 baserunners in a series. The Yankees did that and just left them there. This is something that definitely needs to be fixed before next October.

Secondly, Aaron Boone made some questionable decisions throughout the series. Take game three, for example. Facing Cy Young candidate Gerrit Cole, someone who went on a 25 game streak without taking a loss and someone against whom teams were lucky to get a few baserunners in a full game, the Yanks managed to get back-to-back hits in the first inning. Brett Gardner stepped up to the plate. Everyone in the stadium knew a bunt was the obvious next move to advance the runners into scoring position. Everyone except Boone, that is. So Gardner flew out, momentum shifted, and the Yanks proceeded to score one run all game—and none in the first.

All season, Boone lived and died off of the home run ball. The Yankees were one home run shy of a Major League record. The playoffs are a different animal, though. Runs need to be manufactured. During the whole series, Boone looked like he was just waiting for someone to hit that home run to give the Bronx Bombers momentum and some runs. But Judge, Sanchez, or Encarnacion couldn’t deliver that lucrative homer, and Boone didn’t seem to know how to do the little things it takes to put runs on the board. There were barely any stolen bases, and there were no hits, no runs, and no bunts.

Boone also made some questionable decisions on who to play. Gary Sanchez was lost at the plate; yet, he played every inning of every game while his backup, Austin Romine, languished on the bench. Boone also paid a price for going to ice-cold reliever Adam Ottavino in several close games, who ended up blowing them all.

Finally, the Yankees usually strong defense let them down in the series. In game four, the right side of the Yankees’ infield made four errors. Four, Including two by Gold Glove candidate Lemahieu! Those could’ve been an aberration, but the defense of Sanchez behind the plate was not. He let a seemingly endless array of pitches go by him and sometimes just didn’t seem like he understood the game. Sanchez also wasn’t framing pitches that well, again begging the question: why not put in Romine? At the very least, it’s a fresh set of legs and a new look for the Bombers. While we’ll never know if that would have made a difference, Romine’s fielding would have almost certainly been better.

Still, the Yankees had a phenomenal season in 2019 and have a lot to build on. But to finally take the leap and get to the World Series, they will need to find a way to figure this all out. It’s a slim difference between good and great. The Astros seem to have this figured out. Hopefully, the 2020 Yankees will as well.