Yankees in a great spot heading home for ALDS Game 3

Following the Yankees 6-2 complete team road victory over the Red Sox, the Bombers head home with a chance to clinch the ALDS.

I get that David Price has four years and roughly $127 million left on his contract, but did the Red Sox really think he’d have much of a chance against the mighty Yankees offense? After all, since 2016, Price is 2-7 with a 7.71 ERA versus the Yanks. This season alone, the 33-year-old left-hander is 0-3 with a 10.34 ERA against New York.

Perhaps because the Sox stole Game 1 of the ALDS (yes, stole — the Yanks’ inability to drive in RISP cost them the contest), manager Alex Cora figured, there’d be less pressure on Price to perform at Fenway.

Unfortunately for the 108-win Sox, the pressure cooker that is playoff baseball was limited for all of one batter, as Aaron Judge hit a 445-foot homer over the Green Moster in left-center to give New York a quick 1-0 lead.

Then in the second inning, Gary Sanchez, a man with a lot to prove this October hit the first of his two moon shots on the night. Sanchez’s second homer (off of Eduardo Rodriguez’s 92.7 mph fastball) went an estimated 479 feet — making him only the second Yankee catcher in Postseason history with two home runs in one playoff game. The other being Yogi Berra, who did so in Game 7 of the 1956 World Series.

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Let’s get back to David Price. Following the Kraken’s initial explosion, Price was able to induce two groundouts before back-to-back walks to Gleyber Torres and Brett Gardner. The next man up, Andrew McCutchen, hit a liner off the Green Monster (a homer anywhere else) to extend the lead to 3-0 — and Price’s night was officially over.

It took all of 42 pitches in 1.2 innings for the Boston faithful to boo their No. 2 starter off the mound and swing the momentum back New York’s way.

You could see the “underdog” Yankees getting under the skin of the best team in baseball. In the top of the fifth inning, reliever Ryan Brasier became enraged as Sanchez repeatedly took his time outside of the batter’s box.

At one point, Brasier was caught telling El Gary to “get back in the f—ing box.” Although Sanchez told ESPN’s Buster Olney, postgame, that he didn’t think much of it, considering Brasier struck out Sanchez with a 97 mph fastball, Brasier’s brashness went unwarranted upon Sanchez’s nail in the coffin homer, two frames later.

Heading back to the Bronx with staff ace Luis Severino scheduled to take the hill in Game 3 is the ideal situation for a Yankee team that showed they are unafraid as to what the AL East champion Red Sox have to offer.

In the past two Postseason’s, the Yankees are 7-0 at home, outscoring the opposition 42-14.

Though the Yankees will hope for more than the four innings Severino pitched in the Wild Card game against the A’s — Sevy was sharp, striking out seven while allowing only two hits in 87 pitches.

After going 53-28 this season at the House that Jeter built, Judge told NJ.com that taking the series back home, tied at one is “huge” because there is “nothing like” the atmosphere in the Bronx.

"“I’ve never been a part of an atmosphere like that, the way the fans — they’re out there on the field with you. Every single pitch, they’re locked in,” Judge said."

As Bryan Hoch of MLB.com noted, in the history of the 2-2-1 Postseason format, teams headed home tied at 1-1, go onto win the series 64 percent of the time.