Yankees Dominate Twins en Route to ALCS

Courtesy+of+Flickr

Courtesy of Flickr

Anthony Cardone, Staff Writer

Well, that didn’t take long. A quick three-game series with the Twins and a win in all three games by scores of 10–4, 8–2 and 5–1 sent the New York Yankees on to the next round of the American League Championship Series.

The Yankees are still currently waiting on the outcome of a Rays-Astros series that is heading to game four on Tuesday; the Yankees will play the winner of that series next.

But it’s another step closer to a World Series title for the Bombers. The Yankees played well on both sides of the ball. Their pitchers — James Paxton, Masahiro Tanaka and Luis Severino — all had fantastic starts in the three games.

The bullpen shined once again by only giving up three earned runs in the series. Chad Green and Aroldis Chapman were the highlights of the bullpen, going scoreless in their outings with a combined five strikeouts in the series. This was a surprise, as they were facing the team who broke the record for most home runs in a single season, an offense filled with power from top to bottom in its lineup.

On the other side of the ball, the offense for the Yankees just did not stop. In game one, it scored 10 runs and jumped all over the Twins bullpen. DJ LeMahieu was 3-5 with a home run and four RBI. Edwin Encarnacion and Gleyber Torres both had clutch hits in the late innings to take the opener behind Paxton’s eight-strikeout performance. Gleyber Torres batted .417 in the series, Gregorius had a combined six RBI, and the Bombers hit a combined five home runs in the ALDS.

In game two, they picked up right where they left off. After an Encarnacion RBI single in the first, it was over for Minnesota by the time the third inning rolled around. An inning capped off by seven runs, including a grand slam bomb into the second deck by Didi Gregorius, put the Twins into a shock, going down two games to none behind and outstanding performance by Masahiro Tanaka. His ERA in the postseason is under two.

The Yankees then headed to Target Field on Monday to go for the clinch, and that is exactly what they did. With a rocky but successful start by Luis Severino, the momentum was on the Yankees’ side the whole game. After four shutout innings for Severino, the win was capped off by home runs by Torres and Maybin late in the game. Closer Aroldis Chapman would then throw a 99 mile per hour fastball right past Nelson Cruz to lock him up and lock down the series for New York.

It was complete domination by Aaron Boone and his team, but it wasn’t really a surprise. This Yankees team is deep, filled with talent at all positions and really could make a push for a 28th championship. Yankee fans are all excited to see what happens with the opponent as the Yankees rest up for almost a week to prepare for another series showdown under the lights in October.