The New York Yankees punched their ticket to the World Series on Saturday night after defeating the Cleveland Guardians in a best-of-seven ALCS.
They will face the Los Angeles Dodgers, who finished a nail-biting series against the New York Mets on Sunday night. It’ll be a rivalry for the ages.
Despite the Yankees’ power and prestige, the road to winning the AL pennant wasn’t easy. Still, strong ingredients showed up to pave the way.
If the team has any chance of being the winner of the Fall Classic, these three things are going to be what makes… or breaks them.
Who is the better MVP?
While the matchup alone will be a strong one, one specific face-off will be just as compelling.
We don’t know the true outcome, but it would appear Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani will be named MVP of their respective leagues.
Ohtani in 2024: .310/.390/.646, 54 home runs, 130 RBI — 190 OPS+ and an All-Star selection. He also became a member of the 50/50 club after stealing 59 bases.
Judge in 2024: .322/.458/.701, 58 home runs, 144 RBI — 223 OPS+ and an All-Star selection.
Postseason is a different animal, but these two definitely make you stop what you are doing and watch their at-bats.
Pitching ain’t easy
As far as the Yankees go, they have solid starters with Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón reaching their peak at the perfect time this season. They also possess Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt, so starting pitching is where they’re thriving at the moment.
I know they say defense wins championships, but so does starting pitching.
It was impressive to watch Dodgers manager Dave Roberts play Tetris with his pitcher implementing bullpen games and using openers, but it worked.
Michael Kopech was the opener on Sunday tossing one inning followed by five other pitchers out of the bullpen. Blake Treinen finished things out by throwing two innings.
L.A.’s bullpen is chalk full of impressive arms. So quality and quantity, they have the edge.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto had a stellar last few outings striking out 11 in 12 1/3 innings, but the question with him is if he can repeat that.
Stantonion
Giancarlo Stanton has hit five home runs in nine games this postseason. All eight hits against Cleveland in his postseason career have been home runs. (!!!)
He was named ALCS MVP because of his route during the series, but that’s not the hardware he wants.
“It”s a special moment for me, a special time,” Stanton said. “But this ain’t the trophy I want. I want the next one,” Stanton said, via MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch.
Pitching to Big G will be a tough task for the Dodgers.
[MLB.com]
