Full-strength Yanks don’t fear Tampa
SAN DIEGO — The Rays may have the banner from the 2020 (anything but) regular season, but on the eve of playing them in the ALDS, the Yankees didn’t care. The real season, with games against the Rays that actually matter, starts once the calendar flips to October. “Yeah. For me the regular season’s kind of like spring training. The real season is the playoffs,” Aaron Judge said Sunday before a workout at Petco Park. “You want to see when a team shows up, it’s in the postseason. That’s what we’re going to see. And I think we kind of showed that the first two games in Cleveland, we were able to put up runs, we had guys hitting in big situations, guys move runners over, guys hit sac flies to get runs in. That’s the type of Yankee team you’re going to see.”
The Rays destroyed the Yankees in the regular season this year, beating them eight out of 10 times. That is why the Yankees are happy to turn the page on the 2020 regular season and put an asterisk next to it — and the Rays’ 2020 American League East division title. Instead of the normal 162 games, the teams played only 60, which meant cutting the face-toface meetings nearly in half. Aaron Boone argued that the Yankees went into those series at a disadvantage. The Yankees played one doubleheader against the Rays, having had their schedule that week rearranged by the Marlins’ COVID-19 outbreak. They also played two doubleheaders in three days heading into a Rays series.
More importantly, however, the Yankees feel like they never had a full, healthy lineup when facing the Rays. Giancarlo Stanton went down during the first series at Tropicana Field and Judge did so shortly after.
GERRIT COLE, THEN WHO, THEN COLE?
Boone remained noncommittal about how he would line up his rotation for this best-of-five series, beyond starting Gerrit Cole tonight. He said there has been no decision about a Game 2 starter.
“We have not. Cole Game One and still haven’t had conversations about (beyond) that yet, so no decisions yet,” Boone said. “Obviously, we’ve got a good opponent, and just figuring out how we want to line it up moving forward after Gerrit.”
Masahiro Tanaka, who struggled more against the weather and poorly handled rain delays in his AL Wild Card Series start, lines up to pitch on Tuesday with an extra day rest. The right-hander threw a bullpen session Sunday at Petco Park, throwing about 30 pitches.
The Yankees could choose to push him back to a critical Game 3 in which they could face anything from elimination to a closeout chance.
After starting Cole tonight, there is the potential to start him on short rest if there is a Game 5, but Boone also would not commit to that.
“Well I mean who knows. That seems so far away right now. First things first. Just hopefully you can go out and get us off on a good note in Game 1,” Boone said.
Cole, however, thinks it’s a possibility. “Probably will alter the timing and the amount of throwing,” Cole said Sunday. “But should be a manageable adjustment.”