Back IN the day, back when success at this time of the year was a habit with the Yankees, regularly etched into the calendar alongside Oktoberfest, they would know exactly what needed to happen now. They would know, by instinct and by custom, how to approach Game 3 of this American League Division Series when it resumes in Kansas City Wednesday.
As the years have passed, there has emerged a rose-tinted narrative that those Dynasty Boys were so good, so dominant, so efficient, they simply rolled over teams. The passing of time tends to airbrush the Maalox moments.
Sometimes, they did simply overwhelm all comers.
And sometimes they had to counterpunch. Sometimes they had to crush the spirit of upstarts who had the temerity to believe they might’ve gotten in the Yankees’ heads, gotten into their nervous systems. And just about every time, those Yankees not only had an answer but an immediate one. It was one of their superpowers.
They knew how to swing a sledgehammer.
These Yankees need a little of that now, after the Royals’ 4-2 win at Yankee Stadium Tuesday. They need to pack a few sledgehammers in their carry-on bags.
“We’ve done this a lot,” said Jazz Chisholm Jr., owner of one of the few Yankees bats not smothered in mothballs, who hit a ninth-inning homer. “One day we get our butts kicked, the next day we’re kicking butt.”
That’s the idea. It has to be. It always was. In 1998, down 2-1 in games to Cleveland in the ALCS, El Duque Hernandez wrote the first chapter of his legend: seven innings, 115 pitches, four hits in snuffing out Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome and friends, reminding them which team had won 114 games. The Yankees didn’t lose again the rest of the playoffs.
Two years later, after the Mets took Game 3 of the World Series, Derek Jeter hit a leadoff home run off Bobby Jones. Immediately, order was restored to the Subway Series. The Yankees didn’t lose another game that year, either.
In 2001, Jeter executed his flip play in Oakland at a moment of the ALDS when it seemed the A’s were going to end the Yankees’ run at last.
That was in the same stadium where, a year earlier, the Yankees faced a do-or-die Game 5, heard an uber-confident Eric Chavez talk a little too much trash on the scoreboard during batting practice, and slapped a six-spot in the top of the first.
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The Yankees could use a little bit of that Wednesday — or a lot of that. Look, the Royals are a good club, a smart club, and they didn’t win Game 2 in a lottery. They won on merit the same way they improved from 56 to 86 wins on merit, same as they swept the Orioles on merit. It looked like Carlos Rodon might mow them down all night; they recovered to knock him out before the end of the fourth. They’re a hard out.
“They’re tough,” Rodon said. “They keep coming at you.”
The Yankees offense, which has suffered through periodic brownouts all season, failed to hop early on nervous Royals pitching in the first innings of both games. They got away with it in Game 1. They couldn’t in Game 2. So instead of flying to Missouri with a hammerlock on the series, they go there tied. The Royals have to believe they have a shot.
The Yankees need to disabuse the Royals of that notion. Quickly. Vehemently. The easiest path for an underdog to send a favorite home early is when they’re allowed to believe a little too much, hang around a little too long. Ask Alabama — or, more relevantly, Vanderbilt — what’s possible when that happens.
“We’ve got to win two more games, it’s as crucial as that,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said 20 minutes after Gleyber Torres grounded out to Bobby Witt Jr. to clinch the game. “It’s the playoffs. Every day is crucial. Hopefully we regroup [Wednesday], go take care of Game 3 since that’s the next thing in front of us.”
They need to make a statement in Game 3, early, the kind of proclamation that was there for the taking all across the start of Game 2, one they could never quite seize. They got an early lead and Rodon coughed it up immediately. There was plenty of traffic, but a dearth of big hits. We’ve seen this out of the Yankees before this year, plenty.
Almost always, there have been answers. Chisholm is right about that. Almost always, before things could spin sideways too furiously, the Yankees righted themselves.
“It’s been a hallmark of our success,” Boone said. “Especially after the difficult ones. These guys are really confident and understandably so. We’ll be ready to go in Game 3.”
Said Aaron Judge: “The boys are pumped up. They’re excited.”
They need to be. Back in the day, back in the good times, they always were. It happened too many times for that to be a coincidence. They were eloquent, elegant champions. But they were also stone-cold killers who specialized in bully ball when necessary. These Yankees could use a little of that.
They could use a little bully ball. Quick.