Yankees move on to face Red Sox
NEW YORK — Aaron Judge got the party started with a two-run homer nine pitches in. Luis Severino let out a primal scream after escaping a bases-loaded jam with 100-m.p.h. heat. Giancarlo Stanton capped the mauling with a monstrous drive in his post-season debut.
From the first inning on, there was little doubt. Next stop for the Yankees: Fenway Park and the rival Red Sox.
Going ahead quickly against reliever-turned-starter Liam Hendriks, the Yankees pounded the Oakland Athletics 7-2 Wednesday to win their second straight AL wild card game.
Severino atoned for flopping in his post-season debut last year, and late-season spark Luke Voit added a two-run triple off Blake Treinen in a four-run sixth, missing a home run by inches. Stanton added a 443-foot drive off the Oakland closer in the eighth that landed in left field’s second deck, completing a power show by the team that set a major-league record for most home runs in a season.
After one of those boisterous Bronx celebrations that used to be an October staple, the Yankees will take a train to Boston for a best-offive Division Series starting Friday, a matchup of 100-win heavyweights. By the late innings, the sellout crowd was chanting “We want Boston!”
The Red Sox went 10-9 against the Yankees this year.
For Oakland, it was the latest disappointing defeat in what has stretched into decades of disappointment. The A’s have lost eight straight winner-take-all post-season games since beating Willie Mays and the New York Mets in Game 7 of the 1973 World Series, and dropped all four of their post-season matchups against the Yankees.
New York became the first team since the 2001 A’s to reach triple digits in wins and fail to finish first — the Red Sox set a team record with 108 victories.
Severino was 14-2 at the all-star break this year but slumped badly in the second half and rookie manager Aaron Boone’s decision to start the 24-year-old right-hander instead of J.A. Happ or Masahiro Tanaka was intensely debated.
Severino made the move look like genius. He threw nine fastballs in a 10-pitch first inning, then relied on sliders and changeups. He struck out seven his first time through the batting order, got in trouble in the fourth before striking out Marcus Semien on his fastest pitch of the night: 99.6 m.p.h. at the letters. He showed his emotion and looked spent despite not having allowed a hit.
And he was.
Jonathan Lucroy and Nick Martini singled leading off the fifth, then Boone signalled for Dellin Betances to relieve.
Betances retired Matt Chapman on a liner to right and Jed Lowrie on a fly to centre, then struck out bigleague home run champion Khris Davis with a slider. New York went on to open a 6-0 lead in the bottom half of the inning.
Oakland was a little engine that could, coming off three straight lastplace finishes and last in opening-day payroll before creeping up to 28th following midseason acquisitions. The A’s managed to win 97 games despite a half-dozen starting pitchers getting hurt.