CLEVELAND – As George Springer settled under a Greg Bird flyball to end Game 7 of the 2017 ALCS, Minute Maid Park began to roar.
Without a soul near him, the Astros’ center fielder demonstratively waved off his fellow outfielders, raised his glove, caught the ball, and pointed toward the sky with his bare hand. With a pennant secured, Lance McCullers Jr. and Brian McCann embraced on the mound as teammates rushed to join them. Meanwhile, a mosh pit formed in Houston’s dugout.
On the other side of the field, some Yankees watched in sorrow as the Astros – who eventually won a scandal-stained championship – celebrated a trip to the World Series. Others slowly filed into the visiting clubhouse with blank stares and hung heads after losing a series that they led, 3-2, before a return to Texas.
“It’s a tough situation being up a game and coming here just one win away,” Aaron Judge said that night before turning the page. “We’re all excited for next year and what it holds for us.”
There were plenty of reasons to be excited. Not only for 2018, but the foreseeable future.
With Judge, fresh off a 52-homer, Rookie of the Year campaign, leading a young core known as the Baby Bombers, the Yankees blossomed ahead of schedule in 2017. Expectations only increased when Aaron Boone replaced Joe Girardi and Giancarlo Stanton, the reigning National League MVP, arrived in a blockbuster deal that winter.
A 100-win season followed, along with one postseason disappointment after another.
ALDS exits in 2018 and 2020. A Wild Card embarrassment in 2021. Two more ALCS losses to Houston in 2019 and 2022. A failure to even make the playoffs in 2023.
After last season, fans wanted heads to roll. The Yankees ultimately kept key figures in place, but they met early in their offseason to evaluate their processes. At times, the conversations grew “heated,” Hal Steinbrenner said roughly a year ago.
“It was a soul-searching winter as an organization,” Aaron Boone added Thursday from the visiting manager’s office at Progressive Field. “We challenged each other and met and talked department to department just to make sure we’re on the same page.”
Several pages later, the Yankees have themselves a story that could end in fairytale fashion.
After beating the Guardians, 5-2, after 10 innings in Game 5 of the ALCS on Saturday, the pinstripers are pennant winners. Now they’re heading to the World Series for the first time since 2009.
“We had unfinished business because we thought last year’s team was championship caliber, and we flopped,” Brian Cashman said before the victory. “This year’s team knew the window isn’t always open all the time, so they wanted to make sure they took advantage of it.”
Cashman noted how numerous players put extra work in over the winter, arriving early to the Yankees’ Tampa complex or revamping their offseason routines after injuries and poor performances doomed the team in 2023.
“They showed up this spring with a different mindset,” the general manager continued.
One particular example, Stanton, played a pivotal role in the Yankees’ series-ending win on Saturday.
The designated hitter, who reported to spring training with a new-look body after Cashman said injuries were part of his game last offseason, smoked a game-tying, two-run homer off Tanner Bibee in the sixth inning.
GIANCARLO STANTON AGAIN! TIE GAME! #ALCS pic.twitter.com/tX2VqXuqVL
— MLB (@MLB) October 20, 2024
The blast further cemented Stanton’s status as an all-time postseason slugger, as he now has five homers this October and 16 for his playoff career. Naturally, he was named ALCS MVP, but he had bigger goals on his mind, as he’s been waiting for a trip to the World Series since becoming a Yankee seven years ago.
“I didn’t plan for it to take this long, but we’re here now,” Stanton said of reaching his first World Series. “This is exactly what I came here for.”
While Stanton’s homer knotted the game, the Yankees didn’t punch their World Series ticket until Juan Soto took Hunter Gaddis deep to center for a three-run homer. The go-ahead dinger was the result of a seven-pitch at-bat in which Soto fouled off four straight pitches before going deep. It also followed a Brayan Rocchio error earlier in the inning.
JUAN SOTO PUTS THE YANKEES AHEAD IN THE TENTH
pic.twitter.com/u1H5mgSYdF
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) October 20, 2024
As Soto’s ball left the yard, he watched it carry. Then he thought to himself, “We’re gonna win. We’re going to the World Series,” he said.
The impending free agent, acquired from the Padres over the winter with the hopes of finally putting the Yankees over the top, then made his way to first, turned toward his dugout, and repeatedly pounded his chest before rounding the bases. In response, the Yankees, mere outs away from the last step in their title chase, spilled onto the field in celebration.
“I want it since day one,” Soto said of the at-bat. “I was always saying since spring training, ‘Give me every hard moment, every tough time. I’m gonna step up on that play and try to do my best.’”
Once those outs were recorded – Luke Weaver got the win after ending the game with two scoreless innings – the Yankees celebrated near the mound as fans who made their way to Progressive Field hooted and hollered.
Many screamed “re-sign Soto,” a chant that echoed throughout the Bronx all season.
Soto wasn’t the only one to hear praise, as “MVP” chants were directed at Judge with him expected to win the American League’s regular season award.
“I don’t know how to describe it, honestly. It’s just so special,” Judge said as he celebrated in the Yankees’ champagne-soaked locker room. “You just look back at all the hard work, all the guys showing up in Tampa when no one else was there after a disappointing season last season, that’s what I go back to. That’s the first thing I thought of.”
Long before the party, Carlos Rodón held the Guardians to two earned runs over 4.2 innings of work. The lefty, another player who reshaped himself over the offseason after a disappointing debut season in New York, wasn’t perfect, but he limited damage while walking one and striking out six.
With the Yankees now heading to the World Series for the first time in 15 years, the Fall Classic will pit them against a historic foe in the Dodgers or the crosstown rival Mets.
Whoever the Yankees play, they expect to win.
“We didn’t come here for this,” Judge said. “We came here for the ultimate prize.”
Cashman, meanwhile, noted that cohesiveness will be important as the Yankees pursue that goal. It’s been a key part of this team, which has mixed new faces and vibrant personalities with remnants of the Baby Bombers and the underachieving years that followed.
“They know what’s on the line, and they all have that common goal,” Cashman said. “They want to find a way to become a world champion. It’s served us well they’ve stayed tight together so far, and they’re going to need to stay tight the rest of the way.”