Yankees playoffs: The Bronx Beast has Awoken in the ALCS

The Yankees’ young players are taking no prisoners. What has awoken in the Bronx this postseason is starting to scare their opposition. And it should.

The Yankees have passed every test, absorbed every lesson. Perhaps they always knew the answers. And they have only one left: How to deal with being the favorite.

That’s a position they only briefly flirted with way back in June, when the season was still young and AL supremacy too far away to dream about.

Now it’s too close to dream about. That would be falling into a playoff trap. Because for the first time in a postseason series, the Yankees are now favored to win. I discount being favored in the wild-card game because the entire experience was so new and it was a one day affair.

And the spotlight is so much brighter now that the stakes are so much higher.

Time to Double Down

But If you feel a sense of urgency in this article, you clearly do not play for the Yankees. They seem more like a collection of Chad’s, the “Uh-kay” kid from the on-the-nose SNL skits.

Ask Judge if he is impressed that his fellow rookie—make sure to stress the word rookie when you read this sentence—Greg Bird is hitting big home runs, leading the league in postseason OBP (.550), and driving in runs against a more experienced team that finished with a much better record, and his response: No, not really.

"“I’m not impressed — that’s Greg Bird,” Judge said. “That’s what I expect out of him. That’s what he’s shown me through the minor leagues, the short time he’s been up here. He’s a fantastic hitter, probably our best hitter, and he’s proving it right now in the postseason.”"