For the fourth time in Aaron Judge’s nine-year career, the New York Yankees will play for the American League pennant. For the first time, they might actually win it.
The Yankees’ 3–1 win over the Kansas City Royals in Thursday’s Game 4 of the American League Division Series put them eight wins from a title. This will be easily their best shot at it.
For starters, this will be the first time the road to the World Series will not go through Houston. All three times Judge’s teams have played in the ALCS—2017, ’19 and ’22—their opponents have been the Astros. Houston won all three meetings, and in ’17 and ’22 won it all. Houston played in eight straight ALCS, advancing to four World Series (they also made it in ’21), the second longest streak of all time. But the upstart Detroit Tigers swept them in the wild card series last week.
The Royals did the same to the Baltimore Orioles, another potential impediment: No other AL team played the Yankees harder this year.
New York will instead wait to see who takes Game 5 in the other division series, the Tigers or the Cleveland Guardians. Either opponent will lack the Yankees’ star power—and wallets. Their Opening Day payroll ($296.7 million) was more than the Guardians’ ($98.3 million) and Tigers’ ($97.7 million) combined, and the gap is even wider if you just count the ALDS rosters: The Yankees’ ($214.3 million) is nearly three times Cleveland’s ($64.8 million) and Detroit’s ($18.4 million—not a typo) combined.
That extra game will offer another break for the Yankees, who can start any pitcher they like in Game 1 except for ace Gerrit Cole, whose seven innings of one-run ball on Thursday carried them to the series win. Manager Aaron Boone said he had not set up his rotation yet, perhaps in part because he does not yet know his opponent. New York’s sterling relievers, who allowed one run in 14⅓ innings against the Royals, can rest their arms. Meanwhile, whoever emerges from the winner-take-all, all-hands-on-deck, do-or-die Game 5 will likely have to scramble to fill innings in Game 1 of the ALCS.
😤 GERRIT 😤 COLE 😤 pic.twitter.com/cLUrVEyzK2
— MLB (@MLB) October 11, 2024
These Yankees have also gone all-in on this year, trading for All-Star right fielder Juan Soto in his final season before free agency. This is the moment.
They know it. They celebrated on Thursday, pouring champagne on one another, chanting M-V-P at Aaron Judge and booing third baseman Jazz Chisholm, a reference to Royals’ fans response to his suggestion that the Royals “got lucky” to win Game 2 at Yankee Stadium. (Asked if he planned to talk trash about either Detroit or Cleveland, Chisholm grinned. “I just say facts,” he said.) They planned to give themselves the night to enjoy the victory—they will not fly home until Friday morning. But they understand that all they have done so far is exactly what they were supposed to do.
“This is fun and all that, but ‘not satisfied’ would be how I feel,” said DH Giancarlo Stanton, who slugged .688 this series. “We’re in a good place. That doesn’t mean we’re in a great place, so just keep it rolling.”
That will mean keeping Stanton hot—according to Baseball Reference, he added 5% to the Yankees’ championship chances on his own this series—and getting Judge to join him. The Yankees’ captain was 1-for the series with an infield hit before he doubled in the sixth and scored an insurance run Thursday. “It’s been a while,” he said, “But just glad to get something going.” Cole and No. 3 starter Clarke Schmidt, who allowed two runs in 4⅔ innings in Game 3, will need to remain sharp; No. 2 starter Carlos Rodón, who was electric in his first three innings of Game 2 but could not make it out of the fourth, will need to manage his emotions better. All this work will need to start when they wake up on Friday.
“There’s so much baseball left,” Cole said.
And in case they forgot, he was there to remind them. As they jogged back into the clubhouse after the team photo for a few more rounds of drinks, Cole yelled, “Everybody’s gotta hydrate!”
What’s Poppin’ 🍾#RepBX pic.twitter.com/i9bJKApKwM
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) October 11, 2024
This article was originally published on www.si.com as This Is the Yankees’ Best Shot at a World Series in a Decade.
