On Thursday night, the New York Yankees hit two home runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to take their final home series against the Boston Red Sox in dramatic fashion. Can this momentum thrust them into the playoffs?
New York (72-66) will not go away as they sit four games behind the Detroit Tigers for the final AL wild card spot. Seattle sits 3 ½ games ahead of the Yankees at 76-63, but they still have seven games remaining against the Los Angeles Angels and three against the Oakland Athletics, which could greatly affect their playoff chances. New York's schedule isn't much easier (eight games against the Orioles, plus four other series against divisional opponents), but last night's walk-off win could be the start of something special.
Down 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth, the Yankees desperately needed someone to step up. Mark Teixeira, Brian McCann and Chase Headley were due up and the team couldn't ask for much more. The Red Sox brought in closer Koji Uehara to shut the door and take two out of three from the Yanks, but Teixiera had other ideas. The first baseman took Uehara deep to right field and tied the game. Headley followed suit after McCann lined out to left and blasted a 414-foot homer to right to give the Yankees the series victory over Boston.
New York will open their next series against the Kansas City Royals tonight at Yankee Stadium and will face James Shields, Danny Duffy and Yordano Ventura over the weekend. They have Monday off and then face the Tampa Bay Rays at home for a three-game stand, which is where they should do the most damage. New York is 2-2 against Kansas City this year and already faced Shields and Duffy in previous matchups, but are 5-8 against the Rays. We saw New York pull a five-game win streak out of their hats when they were just 63-61 and looked like they were about to mathematically fall out of the playoff race.
But the Yankees need to make a killing over the next six games because the Mariners will be facing the MLB-worst Rangers and Astros over their next six, while Detroit faces the Giants and the Royals. The Tigers have six series in a row against division opponents to close out the year, so September shouldn't fail to provide an exciting race for the postseason. The Yankees were just 47-47 at the All-Star break and managed to separate themselves from the pack in the second half thanks to roster moves made by GM Brian Cashman.
Check out the preview for tonight's matchup between the Yankees and Royals here.
