Hour 4: Yankees' Playoff Pitching Strategy and Craig's Beef With Houston

Craig Carton (0:00)

So we got some Yankee news for the lineup tonight. It's gonna play right into the hands of those who either think the Yankees aren't really trying to win a division, but Aaron Judge is not in the lineup tonight, Big Mac.

Chris McMonigle (0:15)

Nope.

Craig Carton (0:16)

Do you care or not care? I mean, I care.

Chris McMonigle (0:22)

Of course, I care.

Craig Carton (0:23)

I think they resigned to maybe we- He hit the homerun last night.

Chris McMonigle (0:25)

I think that's what's really gonna bother Yankee fans. Because he got the homerun? He got the homerun. You want to see if you can get him hot. We're trying to get him hot for the playoffs. Yeah. So he hit the homerun last night, although his previous bats prior to the homerun were god-awful.

Craig Carton (0:36)

I think all three strikeouts, right?

Chris McMonigle (0:37)

And they were bad. Yeah. But he hits the homerun. You're hoping to build on that. Now, you know he's getting built up and you know he's going to get some days off. I figured it would be tonight and then the day off tomorrow, two days in a row. They love to do that.

Craig Carton (0:49)

Because there's a day game tomorrow.

Chris McMonigle (0:51)

Thursday, right? So you play him tonight, off tomorrow during the day.

Thursday's off. So it's double day off. But as long as he plays tomorrow now, I think it is what it is. He wasn't going to play. But that was the thought. And I think Boone said it, or at least I read it somewhere, that they figured one more game off in this series and then it's full go. So from here on out. Oh, is that right? From here on out, you should play every game. Because you have the built in day off anyway. You have the built in day off and then in Arizona and then they come home for the four game set against Tampa. And you got to imagine he's playing all four games, even the double header.

Craig Carton (1:21)

So I get ready for this, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday if necessary. September 29th, September 30th, October 1st. Those are the three dates that the wild card round is played in, all three games will be. The way it stands right now, obviously things could change, but it'll be against the Boston Red Sox. So there you go, took care of business against the Red Sox last year, before you played Toronto of course.

And it looks like you have another chance.

And that shouldn't scare you. You should take the first two against the Red Sox and be done with it.

Chris McMonigle (1:55)

Well, look, they're a good team. They're a solid team and they present the challenge to the Yankees with all their left-handed pitching. They have their close and it's not even just starters. Chapman, their closers had another great year, kind of resurrected his career, is obviously left-handed. They're going to try and throw, get her a crochet, coming back from injury. Their A starting pitcher is going to be coming out of the bullpen. Hasn't yet. We'll see where he's at as far as his injury return, but that could be another devastating lefty they could have coming out of the bullpen.

Plus, they're starters that have really just absolutely dominated the Yankees, their left-handed starters.

They present the challenge. They're a good baseball team, but yeah, I think the Yankees are better and they should win that series. It's going to be at Yankee Stadium, but again, we don't know it just yet. I'm not completely deading the American League East division title. It's not over yet.

Craig Carton (2:42)

It's four in the lost column, right?

Chris McMonigle (2:44)

It's four in the lost column. They do have four games against them, and as much as it would be shocking to win all four games, they could.

Craig Carton (2:51)

Yeah, why not?

Chris McMonigle (2:52)

It's not impossible to win four games against Tampa Bay. It's highly unlikely.

Craig Carton (2:55)

Let me ask you this question. If the Yankees are down four in the lost column going into that series, okay?

Chris McMonigle (3:00)

It's a good question.

Craig Carton (3:02)

Do you go out there and try to win all four of them, put your pitching staff in order to win them like it's a playoff series?

Chris McMonigle (3:07)

Yeah, I mean, I don't know. Probably not. Right? Probably not.

I think it's going to be a very interesting question, how they handle that. Now, they could still win games without setting up the...

Craig Carton (3:16)

If you're down three...