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October 10, 2020

Schadenfreude 276 (A Continuing Series)

YED!
SPECIAL 2020 EDITION

Yankee Elimination Days
YED 2001 - November 4
YED 2002 - October 5
YED 2003 - October 25
YED 2004 - October 20
YED 2005 - October 10
YED 2006 - October 7
YED 2007 - October 8
YED 2008 - September 23
YED 2010 - October 22
YED 2011 - October 6
YED 2012 - October 18
YED 2013 - September 25
YED 2014 - September 24
YED 2015 - October 6
YED 2016 - September 29
YED 2017 - October 21
YED 2018 - October 9
YED 2019 - October 19
YED 2020 - October 9



Kristie Ackert, Daily News:

For the second straight year, the Yankees season was ended by a home run given up by Aroldis Chapman. Friday night, it came with a little bit of revenge. Mike Brosseau had an 101-mile an hour Chapman fastball right behind his head that led to a benches-clearing argument a month ago. He crushed a one of Chapman's 100-mph fastballs Friday night for a game-winning home run.

His homer gave the Rays a 2-1 win over the Yankees in Game 5 of a the American League Division Series at Petco Park. . . . Brosseau worked a 10-pitch at-bat before beating the Yankees closer. . . .

The Rays, who won the AL East and dominated the Yankees all year, now advance to the American League Championship Series where they will face the Astros beginning Sunday night. . . .

The Yankees' season ends in disappointment for the third straight year. Last year, it was Chapman giving up the home run to Jose Altuve in the AL Championship Series that ended the season.

"It's awful. It's cruel, you know, it really is," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said . . .

The Yankees came into this year with World Series expectations, but . . . Their lack of starting pitching depth was exposed in this best-of-five series. . . .

[Gerrit] Cole . . . felt the pain of his first year with the Yankees coming up short. . . .

The Yankees had a runner in scoring position just once Friday night, in the sixth inning, and they failed to score.  . . .

For Judge, it was another year ending in disappointment. . . .

Joel Sherman, Post:

The Yankees keep importing pieces, keep searching for that next title. But the clock ticks, one season turning to the next. Prime years disappear. Aaron Judge completes his fourth season, Gary Sanchez his fifth. The payrolls swell. Yet, one ringless season morphs into another winter of "what ifs."

Nathan Eovaldi, Michael Pineda, Sonny Gray and James Paxton are good ideas, and then not. Jacoby Ellsbury is never a good idea. Brian McCann and Didi Gregorius have their term of pinstripe service and then they exit.

Aroldis Chapman comes, goes and returns — a symbol now of great talent, big money and larger frustration.

Twice in a row, a Yankees season has finished out of the hand of the reliever with the largest contract ever. Last year, the Astros' Jose Altuve walked off Chapman and the Yankees in ALCS Game 6. This year, Mike Brosseau, who had a triple-digit Chapman fastball sail over his head on Sept. 1 as part of the blood feud between these squads, exacted revenge by turning a 100.2 mph Chapman fastball into a homer that broke an eighth-inning tie and the Yankees' spirit. The Yankees were not going to get to the Astros this year or to the ALCS . . .

"Every year we come to spring training with that stacked team, ready to roll and compete for a World Series title," Judge said after a 2-1 defeat. "To come up short the last few years is tough."

How tough? The Yankees lost to a team they despise, Tampa Bay, which kept them from facing a club they loathe, Houston. The Rays had more pitching, better at-bats and one more homer. So the Rays get the Astros while the Yankees will turn from a short season to another long offseason. . . .

Chapman likely will begin next regular season serving a suspension for his Sept. 1 dart over Brosseau's head. Brosseau homered twice against the Yankees the next day and got his and the Rays' greatest revenge by winning a 10-pitch at-bat against Chapman and turning around a 100.2 mph fastball — the highest velocity that became a homer this year.

Tampa Bay beat the Yankees in the AL East, in this Division Series and in their extracurriculars. They celebrated on a neutral site without neutrality — blaring on the field "New York, New York" and "Empire State of Mind." Talk about buzzing one over your opponent's head. . . .

[T]he Yankees are now becoming experts at being second best. They lost to the best team in the AL in 2017 (Astros), 2018 (Red Sox), 2019 (Astros) and now 2020 (Rays). They have spent billions trying to be the best and, instead, they were beaten by . . . a player, Brosseau, who was not even drafted.

Both Aaron Boone and Judge said it would "be sweeter" to win after so much heartache. But all that is promised next year is another year. The clock ticking more. The Yankees are good enough to get here, constantly excellent. But the title drought is now 11 seasons — which is substantially more in Yankees calculations. . . .

Brosseau's vengeance pretty much ended the 2020 Yankees because they did not register a hit after the sixth inning and had no hits in eight at-bats with men on base. They were short again. Ringless again. The revolving door spun more in, more out, more payroll, more sorrow. The 2020 season will be another close but …

"It's awful," Boone said. "The ending is cruel, it really is."

Mike Vaccaro, Post:

This time, there was nothing nefarious lurking around the batter's box. Nobody will ever ask if Mike Brosseau had a buzzer attached to his chest. Nobody will ever wonder if someone slammed a garbage can in order to relay what was coming. . . .

This time it was simply the 10th pitch of an epic at-bat on church-quiet neutral grounds. Aroldis Chapman wasn't going to be beaten with his slider this time. He came with the heat. He came with the gas. He came with 100 miles per hour. Brosseau was ready for it.

And Brosseau wasn't going to wave his teammates away after he crushed it, either, wasn't going to beg them to not rip his jersey off. In the serenity of an empty Petco Park, he was going to let joyous Rays teammates share the moment with him any way they wanted to: hugging, back-slapping, dancing, howling.

And all the Yankees could do was stare. . . .

This will be a difficult few days watching — or ignoring — the American League Championship Series, now featuring two bitter enemies. . . .

And somehow the Rays are there after surviving this breathless, breathtaking, winner-take-all classic. Gerrit Cole was as magnificent as he needed to be . . .

It didn't hold up. Meadows hit one just out of Judge's reach in the fifth, and then Brosseau hit one just out of the reach of Brett Gardner in the eighth. Brosseau swore at game's end he wasn't seeking revenge for the missile Chapman had unleashed near his head back in September, and if he says it's so, we have to believe it.

But the contrasting dugouts told you all you needed to know about how everyone else felt. Tampa Bay was jubilant, a frat house unleashed with kegs freshly tapped, a party brewing in San Diego. And the Yankees were instantly silenced, a season of such promise suddenly hooked up to life support. There would be no ninth-inning magic, no 11 o'clock lightning. Not this time. Not this year.

Winter comes early this year. . . .

Ken Davidoff, Post:

First "New York, New York" played over the Petco Park sound system Friday night, a handful of Rays players dancing outside their dugout, smoking cigars and toasting each other.

Then "Empire State of Mind." . . .

A Yankees-hater couldn't have scripted this pinstriped ousting any better: Done in by a team with a fraction of their payroll. Of their fan base. And by the guy who their guy nearly beaned with a 101-mph fastball.

Another Yankees season wraps up without a World Series appearance, and this one must sting immensely. Mike Brosseau's eighth-inning solo home run off Aroldis Chapman propelled the Rays over the Yankees, 2-1, in American League Division Series Game 5 Friday. The win advanced the Rays into the AL Championship Series against the defending league champion Astros.

For this COVID-reduced season, the Yankees wound up playing the Rays 15 times, more than any other opponent. The Rays posted a noticeably lopsided 11-4 edge in those meetings. . . .

[The Yankees will] have regrets or concerns to mull: Gary Sanchez's decline into virtually unplayable. Gleyber Torres' unreliable defense at shortstop; he made an error in this game that didn't directly hurt them yet forced ace Gerrit Cole, starting on three days' rest, to work harder. Their confounding Game 2 decision to limit Deivi Garcia to opening duties and then bring in unhappy veteran J.A. Happ as a bulk guy, a move that failed and impacted everything that followed.

Most of all, though, they must wonder how they got pushed around by the little guys on their block. The Rays drove the Yankees crazy and sent them home. It's their 2020 season in a painful nutshell.

Deesha Thosar, Daily News:

Yankees players, in control of their emotions, would not let themselves get too animated or comfortable throughout their abbreviated 60-game regular season. They made it abundantly clear those feelings of satisfaction, despite any success, would be pushed back and saved for the World Series. . . .

The Yankees stood tight-lipped and sorrowful after Aroldis Chapman gave up a go-ahead home run to the same player, Mike Brosseau, he was headhunting last month. . . .

[T]he Yankees 2020 season, just like last year, was once again a disappointment. . . .

[T]heir lack of success against the Rays in 2020, a team that beat the Yankees in eight out of their 10 regular-season matchups, kept them from enjoying the fruits of their labor beyond an ALDS Game 5. If it was always World Series or bust, then this season was just another failure.

Dennis Young, Daily News:

Alex Rodriguez is right. There haven't been too many opportunities to say that this year; his bid for the Mets veered into shamelessness and his once-sprightly TV work has soured into silly, completely wrong fixations on home runs as "empty calories" and bunting as comfort food. But Rodriguez is on the money with his complaint that his old team — the one he led to its sole title in the last two decades — outsmarted itself on the way to yet another early exit from the AL playoffs. . . .

Instead, the Yankees tried to beat the Rays at their own game, and failed miserably. . . .

This is now the second straight year that the Yankees crashed out of the playoffs because their starting pitching wasn't good enough. . . .

[T]he post-2009 Yankees are hoarding more profits than they ever have; as of 2018 they actually spent the lowest percentage of revenue on players of any team in baseball. The World Series drought isn't quite a coincidence.

Early Editions

George A. King III, Post (10:46 pm):

The pinstriped bubble collapsed Friday night when Aroldis Chapman stuck a very sharp knife in it. . . .

Mike Brosseau, who infamously had his head buzzed by a 101-mph fastball from Chapman at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 1, sent a 3-2 fastball from the Yankees closer, a pitch clocked at 100 mph, over the left-field wall in the eighth inning.

The defeat ended what can only be described as a disappointing season on many levels for the Yankees. Favored to reach the World Series . . . the Yankees finished second to the Rays in the AL East.

Friday night, the Yankees wore the runner-up hat again . . .

[F]our Rays pitchers held the Yankees to three hits . . .

The Rays advanced to the best-of-seven ALCS . . . The Yankees, meanwhile, head into another offseason without reaching the World Series. Their last trip was in 2009 . . .

Since homering off [Cleveland's] Shane Bieber in the first inning of the opening game of the AL wild-card series, Judge [went 3-for-25 in the postseason] . . .

Kristie Ackert, Daily News (10:36 pm):

The Rays were furious when Aroldis Chapman threw a 101-mile an hour fastball behind Mike Brosseau's head back in a fiery regular-season game on Sept. 1. They were even more ticked off when they heard Chapman's suspension for that infraction was deferred on appeal by MLB until next season.

Friday night, they got some satisfaction.

Brosseau worked a 10-pitch at-bat, battling back from 0-2, to hit a go-ahead home run in the bottom of the eighth off Chapman in the Rays' 2-1 win over the Yankees that clinched the American League Division Series at Petco Park. . . .

The Yankees . . . fail to advance out of the division series for the second time in three seasons. . . .

The Yankees had a runner in scoring position once Friday night, in the sixth inning and failed to score. . . .

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2 comments:

  1. GKOctober 10, 2020 at 4:13 AM

    In a season (and a whole f-ing year) with no good news comes YED. Modesty is not a character who wear those poopstripes- Judge saying " ...Team comes in stacked every offseason". Commonsense says -stacking up in the offseason does not count. The best part, Chapman's facial expression watching the home run ball was about the same as the one from last year. 2020, can you give us more good news?

    ReplyDelete
  2. allanOctober 10, 2020 at 2:44 PM

    The 2019 and 2020 expressions were the same as the one he displayed after giving up the homer that almost blew the 2016 WS for the Cubs!

    ReplyDelete