IT’S OVER FOR YANKS & DAVID
Bombers beat Boston in Ortiz’s Bronx finale but playoff hopes end
DAVID ORTIZ’S career at Yankee Stadium is finished. So are the Yankees’ 2016 postseason dreams.
The Yankees bid farewell to Ortiz with a 5-1 victory and a three-game sweep of the AL East champion Red Sox, but even their fourth consecutive win wasn’t enough to keep the Bombers’ miniscule postseason hopes alive.
That’s because the Orioles did their part to ensure that this weekend’s series at the Stadium will be meaningless for the Yankees, as Baltimore’s win in Toronto officially eliminated Joe Girardi and his team from postseason contention.
“I think guys realize it came to an end tonight, and it’s difficult,” Girardi said. “There were some good things that happened, but in the end, we fell short. We didn’t have a successful season.”
This marks the fourth straight season the Yankees will watch the American League Division Series from home, having lost to the Astros in last year’s AL wild card game and missed the playoffs altogether in 2013, ’14 and ’16.
“Obviously our goal every year is to come in and win the division, win the World Series,” said CC Sabathia, who finished on a high note with 7.1 innings of one-run ball. “That’s the reason why you play with the Yankees. The future looks bright, though.”
That the Yankees were in the race at all was a miracle of sorts. They stood at 52-52 when they completed their pre-deadline fire sale, dealing Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller and Carlos Beltran for 10 prospects and reliever Adam Warren.
But after waking up 56-56 on August 10, the Yankees went on a 20-9 run over the next month, thanks largely to rookie Gary Sanchez, who went on an absolute tear at the plate.
“What Gary did was
remarkable,” Brian McCann said. “You hit 20 home runs in a month and a half, you’re going to win a lot of ballgames.”
They stood only one game back of the second wild card spot on September 10, but a 7-11 record over their past 18 – including a 3-11 stretch prior to their current winning streak – proved to be costly, leaving them with too much ground to make up and not enough time to do it.
Sabathia finished his season strong, Thursday’s win giving him a 9-12 record with a 3.91 ERA, his highest win total since he won 14 games in 2013 and his lowest ERA since 2012, when he posted a 3.38 mark during an All-Star season.
Over his final eight starts dating back to August 23, Sabathia went 2-2 with a sparkling 2.37 ERA. The Yankees were only 4-4 in those games, getting shut out in three of the four losses.
Sabathia has a vesting option for 2017 that kicks in as long as he doesn’t end the season with a shoulder injury, meaning the 36-year-old should be back for a ninth season in pinstripes.
“It means a lot to finish the season strong, something to build on for next year,” Sabathia said.
The Yankees honored Ortiz before the game as David Cone, Jacoby Ellsbury and Mariano Rivera presented him with a leather-bound book signed by many current and former Yankees, along with an oil painting of Ortiz at the Stadium.
Fans — many of whom were wearing Red Sox shirts — offered Ortiz a loud ovation, cheering the man that had broken the Yankees’ hearts time and time again during the past dozen years.
“I think everybody knew on the field that it was a long shot to get in the playoffs anyway, but we were still paying attention,” Headley said. “We were still hoping to win.”
With the game tied 1-1 in the fifth, the Yankees took the lead on Jacoby Ellsbury’s RBI double. Two more runs in the sixth left the Yankees in control, allowing Sabathia to cruise into the eighth.
In the end, it didn’t matter. Before the game was over, the Yankees saw the Baltimore score go final, officially ending their postseason hopes and leaving Girardi to think about 2017.
“Extremely frustrating,” Girardi said. “This is hard because we worked a long time to try to get to the postseason and win championships. When you fall short, you realize there’s a ton of work to start over again, it’s really, really difficult.”