Impressive season, but for Joe Girardi, a ring is the thing
Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees, who hit 52 homers during the regular season, launched one Tuesday night in his postseason debut. Credit: Jim McIsaac
After 91 wins, and a wild-card game hours away, the question posed to Brian Cashman still felt worthy of an answer.
Would this year be considered a success if the Yankees came up short Tuesday night and failed to advance to the Division Series?
“It’s been a successful season,” Cashman said. “And we want more success.”
You can tell Cashman knows the drill by now. It was the perfect reply. Not wanting to sell these Yankees short, but still acknowledging there is no trophy case in the Bronx for consolation prizes. While some dared to say back in spring training that a playoff berth was possible, it was the ideal scenario, if all the pieces fell into place. And that’s pretty much what happened.
“A lot of the ceilings we thought guys could reach, they hit,” Cashman said.
For that reason, it’s unfair to dismiss the accomplishments of a 162-game season based on the outcome of a do-or-die game. The Yankees were a consensus favorite over the 85-win Twins, but that mattered little.
Ask any manager, and they’ll explain why this wild-card format feels unfair, or at least needs adjusting. Even Joe Girardi, who enjoys pushing buttons and pulling strings, worried about the vagaries of a single nine-inning contest, or simply having a bad night.
“I’ve talked about it before we were ever in this game, so I don’t want to feel like you’re crying over spilled milk if something happens,” Girardi said. “But I’m not crazy about it. I’d like to see a three-game series.”
In reality, that’s what Tuesday night seemed like, as the Twins and Yankees needed a ridiculous 45 minutes to finish the first inning — and Luis Severino stunningly recorded only one out before his playoff debut was over. Severino had been the Yankees’ unquestionable No. 1 this season, and the decision to have him start the wild-card game, even at age 23, with zero playoff experience, never was open to debate.
“He’s been our best,” Cashman said. “That’s the bottom line. He’s earned the right and he’s earned the trust.”
While Severino definitely appeared ready for the assignment, the Yankees may have underestimated the effect of the big stage. His opening pitch was 100 mph, and the fourth, a 99-mph blazer to Brian Dozier, wound up over the leftfield wall. From there, Severino seemed a bit too amped up, only natural for a young player thrust into this spotlight, and a homer by Eddie Rosario put him in a quick 3-0 hole.
By then, Girardi already was reaching for the bullpen phone, and two more hits had him racing to the mound, signaling for Chad Green. As Severino trudged toward the dugout, he was loudly booed by a Stadium crowd that was probably too shell-shocked to realize what it was doing.
The Yankees definitely didn’t see that coming. Before the game, Cashman dismissed his team’s relative inexperience by pointing to the September chase of the Red Sox, and how the intensity of that pursuit basically served as playoff primer. It worked for Judge, who smacked 15 home runs, and there had been no hint of twenty-something jitters from anyone down the stretch.
Whatever sabotaged Severino, however, didn’t prove fatal to the Yankees, whose superior bullpen makes them well equipped to recover from a starter’s meltdown, especially with the wild-card format. Girardi switched gears to Green for two Ks that left two Twins in the first inning and then rode him into trouble in the third.
That paved the way for David Robertson, who stranded two more that inning and got two outs in the sixth before yielding. Thanks to home runs by Brett Gardner, Didi Gregorius, and of course, Judge, the Yankees had a 7-4 lead and plenty more arms left at Girardi’s disposal. But the game remained in doubt, and for some, the verdict on 2017 hung in the balance as well.
“I think that’s for everyone else to decide,” Girardi said. “I put the uniform on to win the World Series.”
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
