Madelyn Furstenau ‘26, Student Life Editor
With the regular MLB season coming to an end, baseball fans everywhere are getting excited for the 2022 postseason. Though not every fan will be seeing their home team in this year’s playoffs, there is still a common joy to be found in creating brackets, watching games, and of course, anticipating the events leading up to the World Series.
The teams that made it into the playoffs this year are the Tampa Bay Rays, Cleveland Guardians, Seattle Mariners, Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees, Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, San Diego Padres, New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, and 2021 World Series champions, the Atlanta Braves. With both New York teams in the bracket, many fans were excited to see which one would exceed further in the postseason. Despite the lengthy lineup of teams, only one can win the World Series.
One team in particular has proven itself, once again, to be one of the best within the MLB—the New York Yankees. With an impressive record of 99-63, this team has comfortably taken the #1 ranked spot in the American League East Division, and the #2 ranked spot in the American League overall. Over time, the Yankees have won 27 World Series championship titles with the most recent one being in 2009.
The outlook for New York in the 2022 postseason was seemingly promising due to the fact that only four teams had a better record than the Yankees during the regular season. With star player outfielder Aaron Judge breaking the American League record for home runs in a single season, things seemed to be heating up for the accomplished New York team.
The first series matchup for the New York Yankees was against the Cleveland Guardians, who had previously won their Wild Card series against the Tampa Bay Rays. Game one took place on Oct. 11
and was won by the Yankees with a final score of 4-1.
However, the second game on Oct. 14 was not nearly as successful. The Cleveland Guardians won game two 4-2 while in extra innings. Not only did the Guardians make fewer errors, but they out-hit the Yankees as well. After this match, the series became tied 1-1.
Traveling from New York to Cleveland, game three occurred on Oct. 15. Once again, Cleveland pulled through with a win against New York. The final score was 6-5, allowing the Guardians to lead the series 2-1. During this game, the Guardians greatly outhit the Yankees with a total of 15 hits while the Yankees totaled only five.
The fourth game of the series took place the following day as the Yankees managed to come back and beat the Guardians 4-2. The two teams tied with six hits each, but both teams also had one error during the game.
In a surprising turn of events, the Yankees ended the postseason for the Guardians, and won the final game of the series matchup 5-1 on Oct. 18. Even with the loss, the Guardians managed to outhit the Yankees by two. This game concluded one of the two American League Division Series matchups.
The Yankees continued on to the American League Championship Series at Minute Maid Park in Texas. Their next series matchup was against the Houston Astros, who had a record of wins throughout all three games in their series against the Seattle Mariners.
Evidently falling back into their previous slump, the Yankees lost their first game 4-2. Veteran all-star pitcher, Justin Verlander, started for the Astros. Verlander struck out 11 batters and allowed only one run during the six innings that he pitched. Verlander said, “Just because we won game one, we understand that there’s a hard road ahead of us still.”
However, the Yankees didn’t have the same ethic that Verlander claimed the Astros had during game two. The Astros won the second game 3-2, and outhit the Yankees once more. At this point, New York fans were starting to worry. The team that had previously been expected to make it to the finals was slowly slipping away from World Series contention.
Unlike their series against the Guardians, the Yankees continued to slip without having a comeback. The Yankees lost their final two games of the series against the Astros, and as a result, were eliminated from World Series contention. After all of this, one question loomed: what happened to the Yankees?
Many believe that the manager of the Yankees, Aaron Boone, would be fired as a result of the final games of the postseason. However, it has been confirmed that Boone is expected to return for the 2023 season. Countless Yankees fans are fired up over this as they believe Boone is the reason for the Yankees’ poor performance in their final games.
When it comes down to it, the reality is that there is no one reason or person to blame for the current downfall of the Yankees. Every team is destined to play a few bad games, and the Yankees happened to play their worst when it mattered most. Yankees fans hope that with this upcoming offseason, New York can return to their expected level of talent.
Lyon Life 