Yankees clinch playoff berth: Three reasons why they can end their World Series drought this year — SkimNews
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- Yankees clinched a playoff berth for the third straight season and ninth in the last 10 years after the Blue Jays lost Monday, but still trail the Rays by four games in the AL East ahead of a four-game head-to-head series Sept. 22-24.
- Aaron Judge homered Monday for the first time since returning from an injury that sidelined him from May 31 to Sept. 8, and the Yankees are 41-24 when he starts versus 46-39 when he doesn't.
- Cam Schlittler leads all of MLB with a 1.95 ERA at age 25 in his second major league season, giving the Yankees a Cy Young frontrunner atop a rotation joined by Gerrit Cole (3.48 ERA in his return from Tommy John surgery) and Max Fried (2.73 ERA in 18 starts, plus 2021 Braves playoff experience).
- The Yankees lead baseball in team ERA even with lengthy starting-pitcher absences, but sit middle-of-the-pack in runs and OPS while leaning heavily on home runs.
- The AL playoff field is historically weak — the West champion and final wild card could both finish barely above .500, meaning the league's three best records will knock each other out before the ALCS in the new format.
- The Yankees haven't won a World Series since 2009, going one-and-done in AL pennants since, and the same article acknowledges they could still lose a three-game Wild Card series to the Red Sox before ever reaching the Fall Classic.
Why it matters: The Yankees' drought since 2009 is one of the longest for a franchise with a record 27 championships, and they now have a healthy Aaron Judge and the best team ERA in baseball to attack it. But the new playoff format means even a clearly superior Yankees team could be bounced in a three-game Wild Card series by a sub-.500 opponent before reaching the World Series.
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