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.”

Only Winning a Championship will Impress These Yankees

And why would he be impressed? Aaron ripped the title of best player in the AL postseason from Altuve in games two thru four, and is currently slashing .313/.450/.813. Only Chase Headley has a better AVG and OBP, but Judge leads all other Baby Bombers in both, and the team in SLG.

No slight meant to the important contributions of Chase, but few would argue that Judge’s hits have had more impact. They’ve certainly produced more total bases.

Of his five hits, two have been home runs, another two were doubles, helping him amass six RBIs. Didi has more hits (6); Judge has more of everything else.

Like the Man Himself

But even total bases cannot fully summarize the impact Aaron’s home runs have had. When their biggest man starts to hit his biggest shots, it seems to energize his teammates disproportionate to the effect on the score.

They all seem to feel bigger, like they too can perform Herculean feats. They, too, can do things no one thought could be done. Like beat the best team in the AL, Cleveland. And put themselves in position to beat the second best, Houston.

Beating two 100-win teams in a row is not just overcoming odds, it’s defying all expectations. But that is what this team now does on a nightly basis. Especially now that every area of the team is playing up to capability.

The pitching arrived ready to compete at the highest level. Now, the offense has awoken to join them. And that’s not all that has arisen in the last four days.

Let’s See Who Hits the Hardest

First, these bombers have revealed a long-standing sports maxim: Good big men beat good little men. This has shown itself true in ways the Red Sox could not exploit.

In the first two games, Houston exerted all its will and energy to scratch out four runs and two wins.

But once the Yankees started hitting bombs back in the Bronx, they reigned down doubles and home runs at a soul-crushing rate. That’s what happens when men the sizes of Greg Bird, Gary Sanchez, and Aaron Judge start hitting.

The Yankees scored nineteen runs while winning three in a row, while the Astros scored five. And they didn’t just lose those games…they lost their hearts. Listen to Ghost of Yankees Past Carlos Beltran describe the scene inside Houston’s locker room after losing game five:

So when Beltran walked into the Astros’ clubhouse in the minutes after Wednesday evening’s ALCS Game 5, Beltran was surprised by what he encountered: silence. His teammates sat in their lockers, their heads bowed. “I saw people acting different than they did during the regular season,” he says.

Something inside these men has died and I’m not sure it can be revived in time. And they’re not either.

And I do Mean Storm

That trueism reared its head in another significant series moment. With the Yankees storming back in game four, and everyone able to tell that the series was on the line, Headley fell down between first and second.

In a rash of plays, when a more measured approach might have served the Astros better, the first basemen threw the ball to second as Headley scrambled towards the bag. Altuve admitted that, due to his diminutive size, he had to back away from the bag just to be able to catch the ball:

“Me, I’m 5’ 5”,” Altuve said. “Headley is six-something. He blocked me and I had to step back to catch the ball. If I didn’t do it, I don’t think I catch that ball.” But by backing away, Altuve lost the sure out.

His physical limitations allowed just enough room for Headley to find the bag, and the Yankees to find their way all the way back. In a tight series in which every play counts, those kinds of plays have made it seem the Yankees are growing bigger and more imposing, while the Astros are shrinking in size and away from the action.

That’s what happens when you bring back not just your own ghosts, but your opponents.

Losing begets Losing

The ramifications of that game four loss went far beyond the 2017 playoffs. For Astros fans, it brought back the specter of the game four, 2015 ALDS loss to eventual World Series champion, Kansas City.

Houston entered game four ahead in that series, two to one. And they entered the eighth inning of that game up by four runs. But the Astros bullpen imploded, blew that late inning lead, and Houston lost the game.

Two days later, they lost the series.

If you feel little emotional reaction to reading this, you are not an Astros fan. The similarities were not lost on they, or the players. And it was a big part of their desultory disposition after losing both games four and five.

One thing the Houston players did feel confident about, though, was that they never want to see Yankees stadium again.

Peligroso

And Yankees stadium stands now as a warning symbol. Where it once seemed like a museum and mall with a baseball field in the middle, it now projects an aura of cold death to opposing players. Inside, only Yankees fans and players come to life, and opposing players’ baseball dreams come to die.

By next season, expect to see this sign appear over the top of the entrance for visiting players: Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here.

That won’t end when the season ends. Anymore than will the championship dreams of this team, no matter what happens in 2017.

I will return briefly to Alexander the Great to illustrate the point. He was so ferocious in his destructive abilities that, years after the end of his life, just the sight of his statue caused fear and physical reactions even to kings:

…so that many years afterwards, when he was now king of Macedonia and master of Greece, as he was walking about and surveying the statues at Delphi, the sight of an image of Alexander smote him suddenly with a shuddering and trembling from which he could scarcely recover, and made his head swim.

That’s what the sight of Yankees stadium is starting to feel like for other teams. A few more playoff victories, preferably this year, will cement the edifice in stone and instill fear, fear of the destructive abilities of the men who wait inside.

An Angel on Their Shoulders

But no matter how this series, and remaining postseason unfolds, these young Yankees have awoken the ghosts of Yankees past, including a recent entrant whose soul seems to inhabit the spirits of the Baby Bombers: Gene “Stick” Michael:

“People are making the most of the moment,” Judge said. “But also a lot of hard work is showing up right now.” Just before Game 5, one of the many Yankees advisors in that effort, Lee Mazzilli, was in the dugout, joking with Bird about how Yankee Stadium had come alive with passion and euphoria in that Game 4 comeback, almost like the way it was in the old stadium. “The ghosts,” Bird told him. “Ah, they’re not here,” Mazzilli said. “That was the old place.” “No, they moved over here,” Bird said. “And we’ve got one more.” Bird smiled and said only, “Stick,” and turned to run on to the field, right on time.

Perhaps no other member of Yankees universe had more to do with the development of these World (Series) rattling baby bombers. His physical presence no longer inhabits this world, but his spirit lives on in every base hit and run stealing defensive play.

As much as they play in honor of the legacy left behind by men such as Ruth, Gehrig, and Mantle, current Yankees such as Sanchez, Judge, and Bird play to honor the man who helped get them here. And that seems apropos for a team that seems to always keep things in perspective.

What’s More, You Will be a Man My Son

They kept their patient approach and team-wide confidence when they found themselves down by three runs before their first at bat in the Wild Card game. Instead of panicking, they went to school on their opponents when they lost the first two games in each subsequent series.

And it was they who played with poised when the ALDS was on the line, and in the pivotal games so far in the ALCS.

Of most important, this young group has never let the moment carry them away, or rest on any laurels. Here is the new but, as of yet, unnamed captain of the Yankees responding thoughtfully in the middle of realizing his wildest dreams, and while still bathing in the adoration of a sold out crowd seemingly able to say only three letters (MVP):

Judge is not a rash person. He is a thoughtful sort, and you can often tell this by the way he answers a question: as if he’s in the on-deck circle preparing for an at-bat. When a reporter finishes a question, Judge sometimes will bow his head as if in serious thought, allow a beat or two to pass, then launch into his carefully considered answer. He reacted exactly that way when somebody asked him how it felt to be one win from the World Series. After the pause to consider, he softly exhaled, “Whew!” He took another beat, then said, “It’s great. But we’re not done. We can’t get ahead of ourselves.”

You Should be Modest When You Have Still Won Nothing

This group has graduated from novices to full fledged fighters, and perhaps assasins. They seem to have known the answer to every question before it was asked. There’s only one more lesson, and my guess is they have a handle on this already, too: How you handle success is at least as important as how you handle failure.

They will come into tonight’s game in a unique position, as a road team now favored to win the series. How will they react if they begin to feel it slip away? What will happen if it goes to a seventh game, and now everyone is talking about they as the chokers?

If it comes to that, my guess is they will be as unflappable and resilient as they have been all season. But I doubt it does. We have seen that these boys carry the comeback gene. Tonight, I think they will show they have the killer instinct gene, as well.

This might be The End, My Houston Friends

And that’s because all of the Bombers have had their shining moment. Except Luis Severino. He pitched well in game four of the ALDS, but it could not be called a defining postseason accomplishment.

That will probably change tonight. It just feels like all the stars have aligned to give him this moment, and remind everyone why he has the best stuff on this, or any other, staff. At least that’s my hope.

Next: Yankees Severino Won't Let His Emotions be the Master of His Moment

And that is the difference between this team of players with seemingly unlimited talent, and potential, and everyone else. We hope they can win, and keep this run going, this run that has already re-shaped the baseball landscape for this postseason, and years to come.

That is our hope. But these Yankees players have transcended such limitations. They seem never to think anything but that they can and will win.

And, because a great closing line is worth using more than once, that makes all things possible.