One night ago in the Bronx, the Yankees clinched home field advantage for the upcoming Wild Card game with all signs pointing to the Minnesota Twins as their opponent. The Twins can punch their ticket to the Wild Card game as early as Wednesday night.
Manager Joe Girardi has fielded dozens of questions on the upcoming do-or-die playoff game on a nightly basis from who will start the game, to his thoughts on the current one game format.
The question that still lingers on by a single pinstriped thread however, will the one game playoff even happen?
Coming off of their first back-to-back losses since the beginning of September, the Red Sox have dropped two games to the Yanks, who now once again sit at an encouraging 3 games back in the division, albeit with only 5 left to play.
According to Girardi, they are still without a doubt playing for the division, but is it still realistically within reach?
Stranger things have certainly happened, but it would take a monumental Boston collapse (which has happened several times in the past) as well as New York most likely running the table.
According to the YES Network’s Ken Singleton, the division is certainly still in play.
“It can be done.”@NancyNewmanYES & @29alltime on the @Yankees‘ chances of overtaking the Red Sox in the standings. pic.twitter.com/ecKef150lQ
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) September 27, 2017
The unfortunate caveat for the Yanks is that they will not face Boston again in the regular season. They will close out the regular season against the Rays and Blue Jays, who both have been out of the picture for a couple months. The Red Sox will have a four game set with the Houston Astros, who still have home field advantage throughout the ALCS to play for as they sit one game back of Cleveland for the best record in the American League.
Is it likely?
No.
It certainly appears that the one game Wild Card versus Minnesota will take place on Tuesday October 3rd in the Bronx. However, Wednesday night could determine a great deal as the Yanks take on the Rays and the Red Sox face Marco Estrada and the Blue Jays.
If the Yankees can gain another game tonight and push the deficit to 2 games heading into the weekend, this thing could get interesting.
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