The Yankees did all they could — taking eight in a row down the stretch, closing the gap as much as was possible, with the Blue Jays only winning the AL East because of the tiebreaker. I’m writing this as the Jays enjoy a nine-run lead over Tampa (they ultimately won, 13-4), but David Bednar just iced the Orioles to seal a sweep. Ben Rice’s two home runs were huge, leading the club to a 3-2 victory on Sunday.

All in all I’m pretty skeptical Luis Gil will be in the postseason rotation for the Yankees, and a move to the bullpen might not even be the right fit given his control issues. He only walked two Orioles, but it took him 79 pitches to get through five innings. Every single at-bat seems to feature two non-competitive pitches, spotting a batter two easy takes per.

Take a look at his changeup problem, for example:

He threw 25 changeups, and nine of them are more than a baseball’s width off the zone, as well as above the thigh. These are MLB pitches *I* could take and not worry about. Sure enough, all nine were spit on. It’s like that with all three of his offerings, a full third of his pitches just don’t even come close.

He ended up only surrendering two runs, on back to back home runs leading off the fourth. The topline result is fine, just like his season ERA, but the process to get there is awful bumpy.

Fernando Cruz took over for Gil, and immediately got into some trouble, with a single and a walk putting the tie in jeopardy. A low line drive that Anthony Volpe couldn’t quite corral still netted the Yankees one out, and then Cruz and catcher Austin Wells combined on a nifty play to nab Jordan Westburg at home:

Tight defense was needed because the Yankees weren’t doing much at the plate. Ben Rice got us cooking early:

At this point last year Rice was evaluating a 74 wRC+ debut stretch, with a 27 percent K-rate. Now those marks stand at 133 and 18.9 percent respectively. What a turnaround from the guy who might finally be the team’s long term answer at first base.

Giancarlo Stanton also stayed hot, coming to the plate with two aboard and down a run after those aforementioned dingers:

It looked like we might be ticketed for the worst possible outcome on Game 162 — extra innings. Thankfully, Ben Rice once again stood tall:

David Bednar closed things up, a little surprising given how the Yankees may deploy their bullpen in such a short Wild Card Series.

I do think the Yankees should be proud of how their season ended. Tied for first place after that slide in June and July would have been a pipe dream mid-slide, they have the player that I think should be MVP — indeed, the sixth-best hitter in MLB history given 5000 PAs. They have seen massive steps forward from Ben Rice and the emergence of Cam Schlittler, a huge season from Cody Bellinger, and what a 1-2 punch atop their rotation.

But…

They’re playing in a Wild Card Series because they put themselves in that position. A three-game sweep by the Marlins in the first weekend of August, or that four-game sweep up in Toronto in July. A single win in each of those series would have made today a laugher. They couldn’t do that, and now they’re playing in the slot they earned.

Boston will be no easy task come Tuesday. Max Fried vs. Garrett Crochet is as close to a heavyweight title match as it gets in baseball. On the face of it, it seems like a series where one or two home runs will make all the difference… good thing we’ve got a couple guys that can clear the fences.