George A. King III, Post:
Friday night's 4-3 loss in 10 innings guaranteed the Yankees will be the visiting team against any club in the best-of-three wild-card series that opens Tuesday regardless of where it is played.
That means the Yankees, who are 21-8 at home and 11-18 away from The Bronx, will chase the World Series title entirely on the road. ...
Based on the way they bungled their way through Friday night's activity, winning a World Series seems like a longshot. Not only didn't the Yankees hit, they also committed four errors for the second time in three games. They have dropped five of six ...
Gleyber Torres and Kyle Higashioka made throwing errors, the sure-handed Gio Urshela botched a grounder and Gary Sanchez was called for catcher's interference for the third time in as many games behind the plate.
With two games left, the Yankees hold a one-game lead over the Blue Jays for second place in the AL East. ...
[The MFY have had] trouble catching and throwing the ball and scoring runs (five in the last three games). To make a miserable night worse, the Yankees watched the Marlins celebrate on the Stadium's hallowed ground.
Note: That so-called "hallowed ground" has existed for only 11 full seasons and has not witnessed a World Series since 2009.
Kristie Ackert, Daily News:
Friday, the Marlins launched into a on-field celebration not just of their 4-3, 10-inning win over the Yankees, but their stunning comebacks from 105 losses and a huge coronavirus outbreak to clinch a playoff spot. ...
More worrisome for the Yankees is that they won't get to celebrate anything if they don't start getting out of their own way.
It was the Yankees' third straight loss and fifth in six games. With just two games remaining in the regular season, the Yankees are slumping into the playoffs. ...
The Yankees' mistakes were costly in many ways.
The Marlins got a reprieve in the 10th when Kyle Higashioka's error [the fourth of the night, the eighth in the last three games, and the team's 15th error in the last eight games] — hitting the runner with the ball when the Yankees had Monte Harrison in a run down between third and home — allowed Harrison to remain on third. He scored what ended up being the winning run on Jesus Aguilar’s sacrifice fly.
DJ LeMahieu had a chance with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th, but grounded into a double play. ...
The Yankees have a major league-high 47 errors ...
Ken Davidoff, Post:
Moving day rapidly approaches, and the Yankees look like they have neither started packing nor notified their utilities nor hired the crew to transport their considerable belongings.
They really need to get their act together, no?
The Yankees [have] five losses in seven games [in Buffalo] and, more relevant, four losses in their past five contests overall. ...
This latest funk has turned the Yankees from likely wild-card-round hosts to likely visitors, meaning they'll close out their regular season in The Bronx against the Marlins this weekend then probably hit the road for as long as their 2020 continues — which feels right now like it could be just a few days. ...
That uncertainty aligns with this weird Yankees campaign within this weird MLB season. The Boone Bunch's COVID-reduced journey can be broken into clear peaks and valleys: 16-6, then 5-15, then 10-0 and now 1-4 with just three games left. ...
[The Yankees] don't own a winning record against any clubs competing into October.
Thursday's Loss
Dan Martin, Post:
With Thursday's 4-1 loss to Toronto in Buffalo, the Yankees have lost four of their past five as they head into their final series of the regular season against the Marlins in The Bronx.
After Wednesday's wipeout, which featured four errors, the offense couldn't figure out left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu and dropped five of their seven games at Sahlen Field this season.
The Blue Jays clinched a postseason berth with the victory ... [T]here's still a chance [the Yankees] could finish as low as seventh in the AL seeding.
And it showed again how vulnerable the Yankees are when they're not in The Bronx. They finished this abbreviated season 11-18 away from Yankee Stadium ...
Dan Martin, Post:
Gary Sanchez may not just be on the bench when Gerrit Cole is on the mound in the playoffs.
Manager Aaron Boone said Thursday on WFAN it would be a "day-by-day" decision during the postseason when it came to Sanchez and Kyle Higashioka behind the plate ...
On the year, Sanchez entered Thursday hitting just .143 with an OPS of .615. ...
Higashioka has caught [Cole's] past four starts, and Cole is 3-1 with a 1.00 ERA while giving up just a pair of homers. In eight games pitching to Sanchez, Cole has a 3.91 ERA and allowed a dozen homers. ...
[I]t's a steep fall for Sanchez, whose struggles on both sides of the ball have been hard to ignore. He entered Thursday hitless in a dozen at-bats since his brief resurgence at the plate. And in Wednesday's loss to Toronto, he went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and made a pair of errors, giving him three in two games.
Higashioka, meanwhile, has been solid both at the plate and behind it. ... [H]e's 6-for-15 with three homers in his past four games. ... Boone called Higashioka an "elite receiver with great hands behind the plate" ...
Wednesday's Loss
George A. King III, Post:
The Yankees can't win the AL East, and if they deliver a stinker like they did Wednesday night, their stay in the postseason will be short and painful.
On a night the Rays clinched the AL East title by beating the Mets, the Yankees embarrassed themselves in a hard-to-look-at 14-1 loss to the Blue Jays at Sahlen Field in Buffalo.
Four errors, brutal relief work and failure to hit in the clutch ... [means] the Yankees are in danger of entering the postseason Tuesday dazed and confused. ...
[Luke Voit:] "One of those games you have to throw out the window and keep plugging."
Had they tossed anything out of a window Wednesday evening, it would have been overthrown or dropped.
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