Yankees: Who’s your early wager to pitch the one-game shootout

The Yankees, unless they get torrid instead of hot, are destined to finish as the top seed in the Wild Card race. Except for home field advantage, this means nothing if they can’t win the one-game shootout. Who would you call on to pitch that game? I’ll handicap the potentials for you here.

Yankees manager, Joe Girardi, as much as he probably tries not to, can’t help but think to himself who he would select to pitch the one-game shootout against the second Wild Card team to move on in the playoffs.

One and done was where the Yankees ended up in their last playoff appearance in 2015 when Dallas Keuchel and the Houston Astros put the brakes on the Yankees, while Masahiro Tanaka failed to deliver the start the team needed.

Potentially, Girardi has six starters to choose from. Realistically, though, his choice is narrowed down to three with Jaime Garcia and Jordan Montgomery being eliminated at the get-go, with each relegated to long relief if needed if, in fact, either is included on the roster for that game.

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We’ll take each of the four in alphabetical order, and I’ll attempt to handicap each. Following that, I encourage you to post your favorite on the Yanks Go Yard Facebook page under this story line.

Sonny Gray

Some say Sonny Gray has the best stuff of any pitcher in the American League, which is quite a statement when you consider Chris Sale and Corey Kluber also pitch in the same league.

When Gray has a problem, it’s because his ball moves too much, making a well-targeted pitch dance out of the strike zone at the last moment. Gray, ever the experimenter, often changes his grip on the ball mid-windup just to see what the pitch will do.

With the Yankees bullpen in fire alarm mode for this game, Girardi would select Sabathia knowing he is sending a playoff proven and experienced pitcher out there and butterflies will not be an issue.

In many ways, Sabathia has been the most reliable pitcher on the staff, and with his experience, he’s accepted a significant role in the clubhouse as a leader and mentor for the entire staff.

On the downside, Sabathia is playing on fragile knees, and every pitch he throws could be the last one of his career.

Sabathia also lacks the blow-away stuff that could be required with men on base to shut the door. But he will keep hitters off balance, chasing pitches he wants them to swing at.

Handicap: 5-1

Luis Severino

Luis Severino is the most intriguing of Girardi’s choices. He’s the lone man on the staff capable of blowing away a lineup for as many as seven or eight innings while hardly breaking a sweat.

His stuff is defined as “nasty” by hitters in the league and his season has done nothing but increase his own and Girardi’s confidence level.

Since June, he’s had only one clunker of a start. Unfortunately, that came on August 12 against the Red Sox when he gave up ten runs in only 4.1 innings.

This could give Girardi pause to wonder if he is ready to pitch in a “big game” like this one. Youth and inexperience, on the other hand, could make Severino the guy with all the naivety who goes out there and pitches the game of his life.

Handicap: 3-1

Masahiro Tanaka

With a series of starts like the one he had last night in beating the Tigers, Masahiro Tanaka could increase his standing with Girardi.

But overall, with his inconsistency, Tanaka would represent Girardi’s biggest gamble in a one game do-or-die scenario. And Tanaka’s only playoff experience in America is the game he lost against Houston in 2015.

Tanaka has been an enigma for the Yankees all season. And no one, including Tanaka, has been able to figure out when he goes off the rail, why it happens. But if he doesn’t have pinpoint control of his splitter on any given day, his game is over.

When he does, though, the opposition’s game is over.

Handicap: 7-1

Summing Up

By now, you know my money would go on Sonny Gray to pitch the deciding game.

But having said that, Girardi could, and I’d like to see him do it, use two of the four telling them to go out there with no holds barred for three innings apiece. Imagine the combination of Gray and Severino in the same game, followed by Dellin Betances and David Robertson (or vice versa) to wrap it up?

Next: Yankees farm report: Summer is ending, harvest just beginning

The downside of that, though, is both pitchers would not be available to make a start in the first game of the ALDS. But it’s worth a thought.

Now it’s your turn to ante up.