Yankees on the verge of being swept out of ALCS

The New York Yankees are on the verge of losing to the Astros in the postseason for the fourth time in eight years, as they trail in the ALCS, 3-0, following last night’s blowout loss. Yankee fans are, as you might imagine, pretty upset about the whole thing. While demanding that the Steinbrenners sell the time might be a bit extreme, I fully understand their frustration.

It’s true that the World Series shouldn’t be your only measure of enjoyment and success of a baseball season, but you can only dominate in the regular season and say “winning a championship isn’t everything” so many times before it gets old. Hell, I was almost there with Cleveland in 2018 and that was only three years of handily winning the AL Central and falling short in October.

While I do understand and sympathize with Yankee fans' frustrations, it’s also infinitely funny that the Yanks are about to be swept while Bryce Harper and Manny Machado — two free agents they refused to pony up for in 2019 — are battling it out on their own teams in the NLCS.

Long live playoff baseball.

Cleveland Guardians news

What went into the Aaron Civale decision in ALDS Game 5: Week in baseball | Cleveland
An all-time great quote from Terry Francona here that lets you know everything about how he values his players (and why they value him).

“You probably heard me say it a number of times and I know it wasn’t a really popular decision, but you can’t just care about your guys when it’s convenient,” said Francona. “Although Biebs was more than willing to do whatever we asked — I want to make sure people know that — I wasn’t comfortable.”

Around the league

• The Phillies won a wild one to extend their NLCS lead to 3-1.
• The Yankees continued to not hit the ball.
• Bruce Bochy is the next Rangers manager.
• Bryce Harper joined the Phillies to win, and that’s exactly what he’s doing.
• Jose Quintana could be an intriguing free agent this offseason.