Yankees braintrust needs to work on kinks if they want to knock off Red Sox in October

 BOSTON

For the purposes of this exercise, let’s imagine the Red Sox have won the AL East title, the Yankees have beaten Seattle or Oakland in the wild-card game (nice start by Severino! What a home run by Judge! Good thing those passed balls by Sanchez didn’t hurt!) and we are at the eve of Yankees versus Red Sox in the AL Division Series.

(Of course, the Yankees themselves can’t participate in this exercise. They left Fenway Park 9 1⁄2 games back in the division after the 5-4 loss in 10 innings Sunday night, and now they have to talk about how there are two months left and anything can happen. Giancarlo Stanton said just that Saturday night. But you, me and the guy across the street know that after the Red Sox took the first three games of this series, it’s much more likely the 2018 AL East flag will be planted in Boston than New York.)

And .  .  . action!

What the Yankees and their advance scouting people have to do from now until Oct. 5 is to figure out how to beat the Red Sox in a five-game series. The Yankees will start that series with two disadvantages: the Red Sox will have home field and Luis Severino will be able to start only once because he was needed in the wild-card game.

Still, unless the Yankees completely collapse down the stretch or suffer major injuries, the teams are pretty evenly matched. The Red Sox lead the season series 8-5.

The Red Sox presumably will have Chris Sale, who is out with a shoulder injury. The Yankees, if they can coast to the wild card, will be able to rest Severino and Masahiro Tanaka and CC Sabathia enough down the stretch to enable them to be more effective in October. That’s a key for the Yankees, to not overtax their starters in what likely will be a futile effort to overtake the Red Sox in the division.

Severino, in particular, may be struggling because of fatigue. There’s no indication he’s injured, so the Yankees had better hope it’s just a dead-arm period. Tanaka and Sabathia are two big-game pitchers who always perform better on extra rest. The Yankees might have to go to a six-man rotation in September so their starters can be at their best for the five- or six-inning stints manager Aaron Boone will be asking from them in the playoffs.

Don’t forget about J.A. Happ and Lance Lynn, both of whom have had success against Boston. Boone will have options.

The Yankees should have a big bullpen advantage over Boston, but Boone and pitching coach Larry Rothschild have to get Chad Green and Jonathan Holder straightened out. And Zach Britton has to get some meaningful innings so he can be in top form in October. Britton has been a ghost since the Yankees got him from Baltimore on July 24, with only three appearances going into Sunday. He can be a difference-maker in a short series.

The Yankees also need to figure out how to contain the Red Sox running game. What in the name of Dave Roberts is going on when the Red Sox are 13-for-13 in stolen bases against the Yankees, as they were before Austin Romine threw out Xander Bogaerts trying to steal in the second inning Sunday? Whether it’s a healthy Sanchez or Romine behind the plate, the Yankees have to reach deep into their bag of scouting tricks to stop Boston from running wild.

You may think these things are mere window dressing in the big picture of baseball, but you would be wrong. The Yankees (and every team) employ people whose jobs are to look months ahead and heavily scout opponents to find that one weakness that might turn a postseason series. This is the time for those folks to earn their paychecks.

Finally, it would help immensely if Aaron Judge’s broken wrist would heal in time for him to be a force in October.

And .  .  . scene.

Now back to our regularly scheduled remainder of the regular season.