Matchup with Yankees tantalizing

There’s just something about those pinstripes.

You might hate them. But admit it, you can’t stop looking at them.

And the Yankees’ newest player — some might say the new face of the baseball — makes it even more difficult.

The Yankees’ Aaron Judge is 6-foot-7, 280 pounds — the largest position player in major-league history.

He has a million-dollar smile and hits the ball a freakishly long way.

Judge is the new Jeter as in Derek, the future Hall of Fame shortstop who led the Yankees to five World Series titles.

The first four were in 1996 and then in backto-back-to-back years from 1998 to 2000. The Indians were the team that prevented the Yankees from winning five straight.

The Indians have faced the Yankees in the postseason three times — 1997, 1998 and 2007.

The first in 1997 was memorable. Cleveland came into the division series against New York the underdog, but took out the defending champs, 3-2.

In the other series, the Indians lost to the Yankees in the 1998 ALCS, 4-2, then returned the favor in the 2007 ALDS, 3-1.

For pinstripes drama, it didn’t get any better than 1997.

The Indians trailed in the series, 2-1, and then by one run in Game 4 late until Sandy Alomar’s dramatic two-out home run to right tied the game at 2 in the bottom of the eighth.

Omar Vizquel’s single in the bottom of the ninth sent the series to a deciding fifth game with a 3-2 Indians win.

In Game 5, Cleveland

built a 4-0 lead, then hung on for a stirring, 4-3 win. The image of late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner in his luxury box at then Jacobs Field with a disgusted look is proof nothing is guaranteed in baseball’s playoffs.

The Yankees had 10 more victories than the Indians’ 86 in the 1997 regular season.

All that went out the window once the playoffs began. It wasn’t easy for the Indians, and that’s seemingly always the case in the playoffs.

Players, managers and fans live and die with every pitch.

What’s interesting about the 2017 Indians is they’ve made baseball look easy the last month. They’ve won 29 of their last 31.

How that carries over into the playoffs will be examined ad nauseam if it’s an early exit.

The critics will ask:

Did the Indians peak too soon?

Time will tell, but it’s definitely possible — just as it was when the Indians took out the defending champs 20 years ago.

It only seems fitting the two teams should face each other again in the playoffs.

It’s happened every 10 years since 1997.

If it comes to fruition, it will be a mouth-watering matchup.

It’s been a five-year playoff drought for the Yankees. They haven’t been to the divisional round since 2012, when they beat the Orioles, 3-2. They made the American League wild card game in 2015, but lost to the Astros.

New York has clinched a wild-card spot, and will likely face the upstart Twins. The winner plays the AL team with the best record.

Right now, that’s the Indians, but with a

week to play, nothing is clinched.

The Indians are 98-58 after their win against the Mariners Sept. 24.

Should Cleveland hold that spot, and New York wins the wild card, it’s another Indians-Yankees playoff matchup.

The Yankees are 14-6 in their last 20, and their offense is red-hot. New York has scored 127 runs (6.4 per game) during that stretch, including games of 16, 13 and 11 runs.

What’s coincided with that hot stretch is Judge’s emergence from a second-half slump. In September, Judge has 11 home runs and 23 RBI.

For the season, Judge leads the AL in runs (124), home runs (50), walks (120), slugging percentage (.610) and on-base plus slugging (1.026).

He’s also second in on-base percentage (.416), wins above replacement (7.1), and

third in RBI with 108.

It’s not just Judge. Shortstop Didi Gregorius (25 HR, 85 RBI) and catcher Gary Sanchez (32 HR, 88 RBI) have also been carrying hot bats of late.

Still, it’s impossible to ignore Judge’s star power and stature.

He broke Mark McGwire’s rookie home run record of 49 after smashing two home runs on Sept. 25.

Most times when Judge connects for a long ball, it’s reminiscent of Bo Jackson’s raw power when he played for the Royals in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

If Yankees-Indians happens, all eyes will be on Judge.

All eyes will be on the Indians.

Mouth-watering indeed.

JON BLACKER — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The Yankees’ Aaron Judge hits a two-run home run during the seventh inning against the Blue Jays on Sept. 24.