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New York Yankees: AL Wild Card Game Preview and Predictions

By Matthew Travis

NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 22: Aaron Judge #99, Luke Voit #45 and Gary Sanchez #24 of the New York Yankees celebrates clinching a playoff spot after defeating the Baltimore Orioles 3-2 in eleventh inning at Yankee Stadium on September 22, 2018 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 22: Aaron Judge #99, Luke Voit #45 and Gary Sanchez #24 of the New York Yankees celebrates clinching a playoff spot after defeating the Baltimore Orioles 3-2 in eleventh inning at Yankee Stadium on September 22, 2018 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images) /
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New York Yankees
New York Yankees. Yankees celebrate (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images) /

AL Wild Card Game Preview

Yankees vs. Athletics

Luis Severino vs. Liam Hendriks

Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY

8:08 EST

Tonight, the Yankees will take the field for their third AL Wild Card Game in four years, and their second straight.

The two previous occasions were split with the Yankees beating the Minnesota Twins last season, but losing to the Houston Astros in 2015.

This year, they hope to have the same result as they did in 2017 as they throw the same man out on the mound.

In 2017, the Yankees put their ace, Luis Severino, on the mound but did not get the start they were hoping for at all.

Severino got only one out for the Yankees as he allowed four hits and three earned runs right off the bat.

The Yankees pulled him before the end of the first and replaced him with David Robertson who went three and a third and allowed only three hits and no runs.

What should Aaron Boone's approach be to the Wild Card Game?. light. Related Story

The Yankees managed to come back from the early 3-0 deficit with help from Didi Gregorius, Aaron Judge and Brett Gardner.

The three Bronx Bombers combined for three home runs and six RBIs with Greg Bird and Aaron Hicks getting the remaining two RBIs.

The Yankees pitching didn’t show up for the early October matchup, but luckily enough, their batting did.

The Yankees went on to win their first ever Wild Card Game by a score of 8-4, earning them a date with the Indians in the American League Divisional Series, which they went on to win in five games following a two-game to none deficit.

On the other hand, the Yankees’ opponents, the Oakland Athletics, have some experience in the Wild Card Game themselves. Back in 2014, the A’s faced off with the Kansas City Royals in the Wild Card Game.

Unfortunately for Oakland, they lost as the Royals scored twice in the ninth inning of that Wild Card Game sending KC, not the A’s to the ALDS where they swept Angels and the Orioles before eventually getting to the World Series losing in seven games to the Giants.

The Athletics will be putting Liam Hendriks on the mound against the Yankees in the club’s second ever Wild Card Game.

Something a tad bit unusual as Hendriks has served a majority of the season out of the bullpen.

In his last two appearances, Hendriks has both started and come out of the bullpen going an inning and two-thirds combined between the two.

His most recent start was his last appearance against the Angels on Monday, September 29th. Hendriks went only one innings as he let up only one hit and no runs.

This being said, expect Hendriks to go one to three innings tops in his ‘start’ tonight.

The Athletics will be relying heavily upon their bullpen tonight as they typically do whenever Liam Hendriks takes the mound.

The deepest Hendriks has gone into a game this year was two innings, which he has done twice, so expect to see action in the Oakland bullpen early and often tonight.

Now let’s take a look at some predictions from our panel of Empire Writes Back Experts.

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