Yankees advance
» New York handles Oakland, claims AL wild card.
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 mph heat. Giancarlo Stanton capped the mauling with monstrous drive in his postseason 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 night to win their second consecutive American League wild-card game.
Severino atoned for flopping in his postseason 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 443foot 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-of-five 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.
“They can’t wait,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who smashed the pennant-winning home run against the Red Sox in Game 7 of the AL Championship Series in 2003. “And I think they’re ready, and they relish the opportunity to go up against the game’s best.”
For Oakland, it the latest disappointing defeat in what has stretched into decades of disappointment. The A's have lost eight straight winner-take-all postseason games since beating Willie Mays and the New York Mets in Game 7 of the 1973 World Series, and dropped all four of their postseason matchups against the Yankees.
Hendriks, coming off seven straight shutout starts of one inning in September following his return from the minor leagues, walked Andrew McCutchen leading off, and Judge drove a fastball over the left-field scoreboard.
“I was already excited from the national anthem on,” Judge said. “The crowd was into it from the beginning.”
It was just the second home run since July 21 for Judge, who missed seven weeks with a broken right wrist before returning in mid-September.
“The first run is big,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “And when you're in — when you're away and you get the crowd into it, you know, that's more that you have to overcome.”