HITTING THE ROAD: Joe Girardi and the Yankees will open the ALDS with two games in Baltimore despite finishing with the league’s best record. (Paul J. Bereswill)
HITTING THE ROAD: Joe Girardi and the Yankees will open the ALDS with two games in Baltimore despite finishing with the league’s best record. (Paul J. Bereswill)
After waiting since Wednesday evening, the Yankees finally learned who they will dance with in the American League Division Series late last night.
And it’s not a blind date.
Thanks to the Orioles’ 5-1 victory over the two-time defending AL champion Rangers in Texas last night in the AL wild-card game, the Yankees and O’s will open the best-of-five ALDS tomorrow night at Camden Yards in Baltimore.
The top two finishers in the AL East split 18 games this season, so there is no need for introductions.
Does that help?
“I think you can look at it both ways,’’ said manager Joe Girardi, whose club was 6-3 at Camden Yards, where the first two games will be played and 3-6 at Yankee Stadium where the final three are scheduled. The Orioles chased the Yankees for first place in the AL East until the 162nd game of the season.
“Obviously, you play a team 18 times you know all their strengths and weaknesses,” Girardi said. “In a sense they know all your strengths and weaknesses. I don’t know if there is a benefit or not but I know you are a lot more familiar with them.’’
Until the A’s came from off the pace to win the AL West, the Orioles were the feel-good-story of the season. Without a dominating starter, manager Buck Showalter relied on a terrific bullpen and watched Adam Jones lead a lineup that, like the Yankees, is heavily dependent on home runs.
That bullpen was the reason Baltimore was a MLB-best 74-0 when leading after seven innings.
While Girardi wouldn’t reveal his entire rotation, he did say ace CC Sabathia will start Game 1. The Orioles didn’t name their starter, but the speculation was that it would be Jason Hammel.
Like everybody else in the Yankees’ clubhouse prior to yesterday’s workout at the Stadium, Alex Rodriguez didn’t divulge which team he would like to face.
“We know what we have to do no matter where we go,’’ said Rodriguez, whose third base counterpart will be 20-year-old Manny Machado, his offseason workout partner in Miami.
What the Yankees must do is get more production from Nick Swisher, Mark Teixeira and Rodriguez than they received last year in a five-game ALDS loss to the Tigers.
After posting the AL’s best record (95-67) this season many argued the Yankees didn’t get rewarded for it as much as they should have. Yes, the final three games will be played at the Stadium. However, they are on the road for the first two.
That, however, wasn’t a big deal for the Yankees.
“It’s a one-year thing,’’ Curtis Granderson said of the wild-card team hosting the first two games. “But we have to win [road] games to get to the promised land.’’
Last night they worked out at the Stadium not knowing their opponent, a strange situation.
“Usually when you are a division winner you start at home and we are starting on the road. It seems to me there is a lot of uncertainty,’’ Girardi said. “It is what it is, you are going to have to win on the road anyway, that’s the bottom line. You are going to have to win games on the road to win series.’’
Technically, that’s not correct since the Yankees can drop the first two and advance to the best-of-seven ALCS by winning three at home. But the odds of that happening are long.
“We are not going to complain about starting the first two games on the road,’’ said Teixeira, who participated in a simulated game before the workout.
Back in March, if asked what teams from the AL East would meet in the postseason, the obvious choice would have been the Yankees and Red Sox.
Now it’s Yankees-Orioles, with Baltimore making its first ALDS trip since 1997.