The Yankees’ season started with 52 wins in 70 games.
There were comparisons to the 1998 squad, which at the time set an American League record with 114 wins and marauded their way to a World Series, losing only twice in the playoffs.
There were premature parade routes being planned for the 2022 team, carts being moved out in front of teams of horses, and undoubtedly millions of dollars placed in World Series bets.
All of that went up in flames during the American League Championship Series, during which the Yankees did not win a single game, getting swept by the Houston Astros before they could even sew World Series patches on to their beloved pinstripes. With blank stares on their face in the postgame clubhouse, a few Yankees tried to explain how the season went from euphoric to euthanizing in such a short span.
“I don’t know,” said shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa. “I think it was just a lot of adversity to overcome, and injuries as well. We went from almost blowing the lead in the [AL] East to an 8.5-game lead, to winning the division. We just weren’t able to bring that momentum to the postseason. That was definitely tough. This is not a good feeling right now.”
“We battled some injuries, but every team does,” Anthony Rizzo conceded. “We just fell short. We gave runs away, they capitalized. We just didn’t play well enough. That’s what October baseball is all about.”
As time heals their wounds — and, later on, when these guys are all retired — they might be more willing to say that they never stood a chance against the Astros. Luis Severino got the closest, but phrased it in a much more diplomatic way. His postgame media scrum following the sweep was dotted with many sighs and long, drawn out pauses.
“Right now, they’re better than us,” the pitcher said. “The bottom line is we need to be better if we want to beat those guys.”
The Yankees are right about one thing: If not for a crowded injured list — DJ LeMahieu, Andrew Benintendi, Michael King, Chad Green, Frankie Montas, Matt Carpenter, Ron Marinaccio and Scott Effross were either hobbled during the playoffs or too hurt to play at all — this might have been a more competitive series. Nestor Cortes pointed to one of those injuries specifically as a turning point in the season, or the moment when he felt like things started to shift toward the bad zone.
“I want to say, maybe I’m wrong, when Michael King went down,” said Cortes, who himself had to leave Game 4 early with injury. “There were a lot of spots down the road and into the playoffs that would have been his inning. We depended on him a lot. I don’t think it flipped completely, but we obviously felt it.”
Two of the players gave separate, opposite answers about the effects that injuries had on the clubhouse vibe.
“I don’t think it had too big of an impact on the clubhouse,” Kiner-Falefa stated. “We have great leaders, they did a great job.”
“Always,” Severino said when asked if injuries can rattle a clubhouse. “Any time you have someone like DJ who goes from playing every day to not being in the lineup, we missed Carpenter for a little, we always need those guys. But that’s not an excuse to say that’s why we lost.”
Excuses aren’t exactly necessary in a situation as apparent as this. Houston won fair and square (we hope) and used a better roster, better managing and a better organizational philosophy to embarrass the Yankees. Now, for the 13th straight offseason, it’s back to the drawing board for the Bombers as their quest for World Series ring number 28 adds another year.
“Credit to those guys over there,” Kiner-Falefa said of the Astros. “We have a long offseason to hopefully get better.”
But as baseball has shown time and time again, being a good or even better team doesn’t mean anything if said team doesn’t play well in October. The Astros were both better than the Yankees and playing great baseball at the right time. Trying to figure out how to capture that second part is the billion dollar question that keeps Major League Baseball’s executives up all winter.
“Nobody was expecting the Phillies to be where they are,” Severino gave as a topical example. “They were not the best team before the playoffs. During the playoffs, something switched. We need to figure out a way to do that.”
Cortes gave one final spin on the situation, choosing to focus on some of the positives rather than dwelling on the negatives.
“I think we did do a good job of staying together, even through that rough patch. I mean, we finished with the best record in the AL East. You have to give a lot of credit to the guys who made that happen.”
In the end, though, a season that began with a straight-to-the-moon trajectory came crashing down in the span of 36 innings.
“It’s been a weird couple of days,” Severino bluntly, and correctly summarized.
