SU is a fan of the best of 3 Wild Card round in MLB. It’s fair that you pay a penalty of a short series for not winning your division or not having the best record in your League. I also like having all 3 games in one city. That’s a reward for caring about having a better record than the other teams come September and running through the tape as they say.

Btw, I do not like the best of 3 format in the WNBA playoffs for all 8 teams. I know they are rushing to finish the season as the NBA gets going in a few weeks but best of 5 feels much better to me. But I digress.

SU is looking at the Yankees vs. Red Sox series (naturally) as they run it back from 2025. Per usual, the Yankees took off 80 games during the season where they play lethargically, lose every extra inning game and wonder why Aaron Boone managed teams do this every year. They fell short to the Rays and here we are. Boston has its own injury issues with Contreras possibly not being available and Gasper hurt. Of course, Judge is a likely not going to be on the roster and Stanton, who has been elevated to a slow jog, is still not playing (I assume).

The Yankees have great starting pitching (SU would say the best in baseball this year) and Bednar is a lock down closer. The set up guys (Blackman and Headrick) have had great years but they were overused and they are not a sure thing now. Yankee starters go 6 innings – that is pretty much it and SU says this series will be won in the 7th and 8th innings. If Weathers is available, that would be huge for the Yankees. But I do worry about Headrick in particular – he pitched so many innings this year and was not as effective in September.

Boston will throw every left handed pitcher available at the Yankees this series. Sonny Gray will start one of the games and he has been tough on the Yankees recently although not always over the course of his career. Otherwise, lots of lefties including Chapman as the closer. SU’s concern is that Boone is going to overstack the lineup with right handed hitters and it will also mean putting Garcia, Jr. on the bench. Goldschmidt will start at 1st base (makes sense – no issue there) and Heliot Ramos will play every game in right field (terrifying). He is a truly bad outfielder and in a series featuring close, low scoring games, you know the ball is going to find him. And must he really bat 3rd? And late in games, you cannot even replace him with a true outfielder. A big thank you to Brian Cashman for the roster deficiencies.

Rosario is also going to play a lot as will Caballero. SU is guessing that Boone will sit Spencer Jones although he rakes against lefties. And will they start Volpe over Jazz at 2nd base? SU would do that. Check your ego at the door. I would leave Grisham off the roster for the wild card round – no need. But they can load up on some extra position players in this round.

Look, the Red Sox stopped hitting in September. They don’t score much and they are not coming into this series with any momentum. However, SU says come the playoffs, momentum is overrated. It’s all about pitching and defense.

Prediction: I say the Yankees prevail in 3 games but I can easily see the Red Sox winning this series. It is a very close call. The Yankees generally struggle against starting pitchers and do their damage against the bullpen. The left-handed hitters (Rice, Bellinger, Wells, maybe Jones) are going to have to produce.

Elsewhere, I will go with the White Sox (enough of the Astros), Braves (sorry John) and the Padres.

The floor is open for anyone to offer up their fearless predictions. SU will worry about the next round at the end of the week.

So, the Yankees have clinched their spot in the Wild Card round and we know Boston will very likely be their first round opponent. Barring a collapse by the Yankees, the best of 3 series will be played at Yankee Stadium again this year between these 2 long-time rivals. SU is already worried. Some things to consider:

1. The Red Sox will start Sonny Gray who has been very effective against the Yankees of late and then 2 lefties. Plus they have plenty of lefties in their bullpen including Chapman to close. No doubt the Yankees’ crack analytics department is already at work loading up the lineup with right handed hitters. If it was up to me, I am putting out my best hitters who have produced all year long, i.e., Rice, Garcia, Jr. But increasingly I am thinking that is not going to be the case. No doubt Boone will want to get Ramos in there as well as Goldschmidt for games 2 and 3.
2. Ramos has been slightly better of late with a couple of home runs. SU can envision them putting Ramos at DH and Goldschmidt at first. Plus they continue to think that Rosario will finally start hitting left-handers this year which has not been the case to date. Oy. In this scenario, both Rice and Garcia, Jr. are on the bench.
3. Spencer Jones needs to play every game. He can actually hit left-handed pitching and is able to go the other way. What a concept. He must have learned this on his own over the years in the Yankees farm system. But will they want to put Grisham back in center if his hamstring is healed? No way, right? Believe me: way.
4. Jazz Chisholm? This one will be interesting to watch. If Volpe can hit well down the stretch, they may be tempted to put him at 2nd although his error last night was not a good sign. SU predicts Jazz plays every game if he is healthy.
5. What to do with Gerrit Cole? Boston seems to knock him around a bit plus he has not been good of late. You have to figure it’s Schlittler in game 1 and Fried in game 2. Then do you go Rodon or Cole? And do you trust Cole in the series deciding game?
6. And of course, you cannot trust Boone’s in-game decision-making. That is worth 0.5 runs per game in the negative direction.

There is still an outside chance the Yankees can catch the Rays but they would likely have to sweep them in the upcoming 4-game series to get the tiebreaker for the season. The Yankees are winning of late but if you follow the games, they almost always do nothing against the starting pitchers and do their damage vs. the bullpens. Does that translate against the better teams in a short series? The Red Sox are actually not that good this year but they put the ball in play. Tons of 2nd guessing to come in this series if the Yankees fall short.

A few other random thoughts as we head into the Fall which is the most fun time of year for sports fans with college football and the NFL kicking off combined with the MLB playoffs:

1. SU had Ben Shelton winning the US Open at the start of the tournament and he certainly came close. He has grown on me over the years (I found him annoying back in 2023 with the phone hang-up gesturing but I am old and I know many enjoy this stuff). His dad is a great influence and he seems to be on a nice trajectory. Zverev had a good game plan in the finals by giving him no pace in almost every rally and daring Shelton to be more aggressive than he probably wanted to. I think he’ll learn from this loss. Zverev has a checkered past with the abuse charges of 2 ex-girlfriends which the announcers never mention, and he can’t ever beat Alcaraz or Sinner. But you have to give him credit for taking advantage of this year’s majors with one of those two sidelined.
2. The Giants gave off great vibes on Sunday night finally beating Dallas and playing with more confidence and poise. You can already see the impact of John Harbaugh. The bar is low for them this year but there is plenty of reason for optimism.
3. SU loves college football. OK, I know we are way past the days of “student-athletes” and all that with NIL money and what is basically free agency. There are always nutty endings to games, awful calls by the officials, and now even timekeeper scandals :). Fans live and die with the blown calls and controversies, but it is certainly entertaining. Texas had a wild 4th quarter comeback vs. Ohio State, Michigan had the clock issue in game 1, etc. For the record, I do not like the cupcake games to pad records. I fully understand why it’s done given the college playoff process and the need to chalk up wins but watching Miami beat Florida A&M 77-7 is silly.
4. Finally, a couple of streaming recommendations for you. The UConn women’s basketball documentary on Apple TV is excellent. The Djokovic documentary on Amazon is OK but not must see TV for SU. Fauda season 5 is excellent – very powerful.

For those of you following along at home, Anthony Volpe had been red hot in Scranton for the past few weeks as he revamped his swing. Rather than mindlessly swinging for home runs in every at bat (Yankee system-wide credo under the leadership of Brian Cashman), somehow Volpe must have gotten permission to actually change his swing to get base hits. Blasphemy!! Outrageous!! The Yankees pride themselves on developing .220 hitters who strike out a third of the time so this obviously required approval from the highest level of Baseball Operations.

OK, I will behave. The net result is that Volpe is actually hitting more home runs but he is using a much more level swing now. Jazz Chisholm gets hurt (after finally starting to hit a bit) and Volpe, in his first start back now playing 2nd base, gets 3 hits including a grand slam.

Note to Aaron Boone: Volpe is on a heater. Maybe, just maybe, you put him in the lineup every day now for the rest of the regular season at 2nd base or even shortstop. And come October, even if Jazz returns to action, you keep him on the roster and find a place in the lineup for him to play. And yes: SU says that may mean you sit Lombard Jr. or even leave him off the October roster. Personally, I would leave off someone else (even Jazz if his thumb has not healed or anyone else). Volpe took his demotion like a man and reworked his swing. Started playing at 2nd base too. Reward the effort. Did not complain and make a fuss.

Contrast him with Jasson Dominguez who has wasted every opportunity to earn more playing time this year. Actually very sad as he is a good kid but clearly needs a change of scenery. Another overhyped Yankee prospect (I believe in the dictionary if you look up “overhyped”, you see pictures of Yankee prospects but not sure).

And for Boone/Cashman, the same holds true for Spencer Jones. Keeps his head on straight and does the work. He is your October centerfielder. No need to keep Trent Grisham around and his jogging speed in the outfield. Play the home-grown young guys and roll the dice. And he can hit lefties.

Surely these are easy calls by management. And surely they are going to screw it up. SU has spoken.