NEW YORK — Forty-one minutes after the Yankees beat the Guardians 5–1 in a winner-take-all Game 5 of the American League Division Series, the only sign of their victory was that they were packing their lockers for Houston rather than for home.
The Yankees did celebrate: They doused each other in Bud Heavy and Faire la Fête (translation: to party) Champagne. They posed for photos on the field. They hugged their families. But they wore more alcohol than they drank, and by 8 p.m., the plastic sheeting that protects the clubhouse from celebrations was gone and the players were mostly showered and ready to go.
A Delta charter plane was waiting to take them to Houston Hobby airport, and onto the American League Championship Series, which was scheduled to begin 24 hours and 18 minutes after Tuesday’s game ended.
John Minchillo/AP
Ace Gerrit Cole, who baffled the Guardians in Games 1 and 4, said that the subdued atmosphere reflected the team’s “professionalism.”
Backup catcher Kyle Higashioka, still dressed in his alcohol-soaked uniform, said he had not really celebrated at all. “I’m already kind of thinking about the [next] series right now,” he said. He planned to spend the flight huddled with starting catcher Jose Trevino, poring over scouting reports.
They won’t see much that surprises them. This will be the third time in six years that the Yankees and the Astros will compete for the pennant. The other three times, New York lost to the team that eventually faced Houston. Since 2017, the Astros have won 541 games. The Yankees have won 518. No other AL team is within 25 wins of them. For all the recent talk of whether the new playoff format, with 12 teams qualifying, fails to reward regular-season excellence, the two best teams in the AL will again vie for the chance to play in the World Series.
Their last two two championship series were taut, exciting affairs, with three of the 13 games decided by one run and three more by two or three. Houston won both. The first one, in 2017, which went seven games, was marred by cheating (Astros players banged on a trash can to relay illegally stolen signs); the second one, in ’19, which went six, by allegations of cheating (the Yankees believed Astros players were whistling to relay illegally stolen signs).
In the aftermath of the scandal, which The Athletic revealed in November 2019, the Yankees complained that the Astros had cheated them out of the chance to play in the ’17 World Series, which Houston won. Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge, who had finished second to Astros second baseman José Altuve in MVP voting, deleted an Instagram post congratulating Altuve. Speaking of the title in the aftermath of the revelations, Judge told reporters, “I just don’t think it holds any value with me. You cheated and you didn’t earn it.”
Many of the core members of those teams have moved on—shortstop Carlos Correa left the Astros for the Twins; Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner retired; Astros center fielder George Springer is now a Blue Jay; former Astros ace Cole and infielder Marwin González are now Yankees—and the ones who are left downplay any bitterness. But it is there, especially among Yankees fans, who began a brief “F— Altuve” chant in the late innings of Game 5 against the Guardians. The series should be electric, featuring two teams many fans hate but can’t help wanting to see play.
The Astros would seem to enter with the advantage. They swept their ALDS against the Mariners and, because of the bye, have played only three games in the past 13 days. Their pitching should be fresh and their hitters healed from nagging injuries.
The Yankees, on the other hand, contended with two rainouts and a full five games. They will open the ALCS with their top two starting pitchers—Cole and Nestor Cortes Jr., who excelled in Games 2 and 5, the second on short rest—unavailable until Games 3 and 4, respectively. Their bullpen, already shaky between injuries (Ron Marinaccio, Michael King, Chad Green) and indifference (Aroldis Chapman), covered four innings on Tuesday. Lefty Wandy Peralta on Tuesday became the first pitcher ever to work in all five games of a Division Series.
“We’re excited,” said Cortes. “You know, everybody knows, we know, the whole world knows what kind of a team they are. They run well. They hit well. They pitch well. They are a complete team. And I like to say that we are, too. So it’s going to be a battle between us two. We are going over there tonight. They have been on a couple days’ rest, but that doesn’t mean anything. We go out there tomorrow, just like we have been doing this whole season and these five games, battling every inning, trying to win every inning, and let the best team win.”
And you can be sure whoever wins will celebrate.
