SAN DIEGO — When the New York Yankees needed their star-studded lineup to produce runs in an elimination playoff game, they got three hits.
When they really could have used a special play in the field to save a run, Aaron Judge hit his head on the wall.
And when the Yankees needed their superstar closer to shut down the Tampa Bay Rays, Aroldis Chapman gave up a homer to an undrafted infielder who had never gone yard in a playoff game.
New York’s season came to a crashing end in San Diego on Friday night with a 2-1 loss in Game 5 of the AL Division Series. After failing to reach the World Series for the 11th consecutive year, the Yankees head into an uncertain off-season with the certain knowledge they weren’t even the best team in the AL East this season.
“It’s awful,” manager Aaron Boone said. “The ending is cruel, it really is.”
The team’s biggest faults in Game 5 were on offence. Judge’s fourth-inning homer was the only extra-base hit in Game 5 by a lineup that crushed a major league-record 17 homers in its seven playoff games, only to lose three of the final four games in that stretch.
While Tampa Bay will face the Houston Astros on Sunday in the ALCS, the Yankees will lament the inconsistency that will define this season. The Yanks were among the most impressive teams in the sport when they were good — but frequently embarrassing when they weren’t.
The Yankees averaged 5.7 runs per game during a red-hot 16-6 start, but then the bats went ice cold amid injuries to Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, DJ LeMahieu and others. The team went on a 5-15 slide — allowing the Rays to take hold of the AL East lead — then won 10 straight before closing the season by dropping six of eight games.
Judge hit his third homer of the post-season in the fourth inning of Game 5 to put the Yankees up, but New York managed just two singles and two walks over the final five innings, never getting a runner to third base against Tampa Bay’s impressive bullpen.
LeMahieu, Stanton, Luke Voit, Gio Urshela and Brett Gardner all went hitless in the Yankees’ biggest game of the season.
“In what’s been a year of peaks and valley for us on the field, I feel like we’re playing our best baseball of the year right now,” Boone said. “Against a team that really held us down tonight. We’re going to get there. I know it, and it’s going to make it all the sweeter, but a lot of hurting people in there right now.”
One inning after Judge’s shot, $324 million starter Gerrit Cole gave away the lead by allowing Austin Meadows’ homer over Judge’s head in right. The Yankees slugger couldn’t do something extraordinary to stop it — in fact, he ended up looking silly for a moment.
Judge followed Meadows’ drive to the warning track, but he failed to notice the padded overhang above the video billboard built into the wall. When the 6-foot-7 slugger leaped, he immediately hit his head on the padding and couldn’t stretch out to reach the ball, which landed behind the wall in a spot that might have been out of Judge’s reach anyway.
Judge’s mistake was a product of baseball’s decision to play the post-season on neutral fields, with the league playoff series occurring in the other league’s ballparks. Judge had never played a big league game at Petco Park before this series.
But the Yankees were still in it until Chapman lost his 10-pitch battle with Brosseau. Chapman filled a villain’s role perfectly in the matchup, given the 101-mph fastball that he threw near Brosseau’s head last month during the escalating tensions between these unfriendly rivals.
Brosseau and the Rays got the definitive last laugh, and the Yankees won’t be able to answer until next year.
DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit Red Wings made another investment this week in a young standout, signing Moritz Seider to a seven-year contract worth nearly $60 million.
The Red Wings announced the move with the 23-year-old German defenseman on Thursday, three days after keeping 22-year-old forward Lucas Raymond with a $64.6 million, eight-year deal.
Detroit drafted Seider with the No. 6 pick overall eight years ago and he has proven to be a great pick. He has 134 career points, the most by a defenseman drafted in 2019.
He was the NHL’s only player to have at least 200 hits and block 200-plus shots last season, when he scored a career-high nine goals and had 42 points for the second straight year.
Seider won the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie in 2022 after he had a career-high 50 points.
Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman is banking on Seider, whose contract will count $8.55 million annually against the cap, and Raymond to turn a rebuilding team into a winner.
Detroit has failed to make the playoffs in eight straight seasons, the longest postseason drought in franchise history.
The Red Wings, who won four Stanley Cups from 1997 to 2008, have been reeling since their run of 25 straight postseasons ended in 2016.
Detroit was 41-32-9 last season and finished with a winning record for the first time since its last playoff appearance.
Yzerman re-signed Patrick Kane last summer and signed some free agents, including Vladimir Tarasenko to a two-year contract worth $9.5 million after he helped the Florida Panthers hoist the Cup.
PENTICTON, B.C. – Vancouver Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko says he’s been working his way back from a rare lower-body muscle injury since being sidelined in last season’s playoffs.
The 28-year-old all star says the rehabilitation process has been frustrating, but he has made good progress in recent weeks and is confident he’ll be able to return to playing.
He says he and his medical team have spent the last few months talking to specialists around the world, and have not found a single other hockey player who has dealt with the same injury.
Demko missed several weeks of the last season with a knee ailment and played just one game in Vancouver’s playoff run last spring before going down with the current injury.
He was not on the ice with his teammates as the Canucks started training camp in Penticton, B.C., on Thursday, but skated on his own before the sessions began.
Demko posted a 35-14-2 record with a .918 percentage, a 2.45 goals-against average and five shutouts for Vancouver last season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — No. 1 Texas will start Arch Manning at quarterback Saturday against Louisiana-Monroe while regular starter Quinn Ewers continues to recover from a strained muscle in his abdomen, coach Steve Sarkisian said Thursday.
It will be the first career start for Manning, a second year freshman. He relieved Ewers in the second quarter last week against UTSA, and passed for four touchdowns and ran for another in a 56-7 Texas victory.
Manning is the son of Cooper Manning, the grandson of former NFL quarterback Archie Manning, and the nephew of Super Bowl-winning QBs Peyton and Eli Manning.
Ewers missed several games over the previous two seasons with shoulder and sternum injuries.
The Longhorns are No. 1 for the first time since 2008 and Saturday’s matchup with the Warhawks is Texas’ last game before the program starts its first SEC schedule against Mississippi State on Sept. 28.
___
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: and
