MLB Playoffs 2018: Live Yankees vs. Athletics Wild Card Updates

M.L.B. Playoffs 2018: Live Yankees vs. Athletics Wild Card Updates

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The New York Yankees meet the Oakland Athletics in an American League wild-card game at Yankee Stadium. The winner goes on to face the Boston Red Sox in a division series. The first pitch is scheduled for 8:08 p.m. Eastern.

Aaron Judge and the New York Yankees take on the Oakland Athletics at home on Wednesday.CreditChang W. Lee/The New York Times

How to watch (or listen): TBS has the broadcast, or you can listen at ESPN Radio, WFAN 660/101.9 FM and WADO 1280 (local).

Yankees vs. Athletics Top Story Lines

The Yankees came into the season as World Series hopefuls, having added one of the scariest hitters in the majors to a team that took the eventual-champion Houston Astros to seven games in last year’s American League Championship Series.
The Athletics came into the season with extremely low expectations created by three straight fifth-place finishes in a five-team division. Oakland, despite a comical number of injuries to the team’s starting rotation, gave the Yankees a run for the top wild-card spot, finishing with 97 victories to New York’s 100. Now the team everyone expected, and the one no one expected, will face off in a winner-take-all wild-card game that will send the winner to a league division series matchup against the Boston Red Sox.

Aaron Judge is in his typical No. 2 spot in the lineup, the one that modern baseball stats experts believe should be reserved for a team’s best hitter. At his best, Judge certainly qualifies, but since he returned from a fractured bone in his wrist, he has been fairly bad, hitting just .220 in 41 at-bats with a .341 slugging percentage. The Yankees will have to hope his performance against Boston on Sept. 28 — his second-to-last appearance of the season— is indicative that he is coming around. In that game he went 2 for 4 with a home run, a walk and three runs scored.

Home-field advantage was paramount for this series between two of the teams that benefited most from playing in their own parks. The Athletics were 50-31 at pitcher-friendly Oakland Coliseum, while the Yankees were even better, going 53-28 at hitter-friendly Yankee Stadium. The difference in home record is what decided which team came out on top, as both teams went 47-34 on the road.
Oakland’s infield defense was one of its strengths. Matt Chapman led the team with 29 defensive runs saved, and Matt Olson had a terrific season at first base with 14 DRS. Even Marcus Semien, the team’s shortstop who had been a below average defender in previous seasons, had 9. Combined, the team’s four typical starters in the infield (those three and Jed Lowrie) combined to save 51 runs.
By contrast, the Yankees’ four typical infield starters (Greg Bird, Gleyber Torres, Didi Gregorius and Miguel Andujar) combined for minus-31 DRS. Andujar had minus-25 and all four players were in negative numbers.
Oakland’s Blake Treinen was among the game’s most dominant relievers this season, with a 0.78 E.R.A. in 80 and one-third innings. But don’t necessarily expect him to be employed like a typical one-inning closer. He got more than three outs in 19 of his appearances, entering a game Oakland was tied in or losing 15 times.

Both teams are making somewhat atypical decisions at starting pitcher, even if neither qualifies as a surprise based on their recent history. The Yankees are starting Luis Severino, who struggled a great deal in the second half, rather than the team’s most consistent starter, J.A. Happ. The Athletics will start Liam Hendriks, a reliever who did not face more than eight batters in a game this season, rather than the team’s nominal ace, Mike Fiers.
Yankees fans undoubtedly remember Severino being pulled after just one-third of an inning in last year’s wild-card game, and while the Yankees will be hoping their All-Star starter can pitch deep into the game, Oakland will go to the bullpen quickly on purpose. Not only is Hendriks a reliever, but the team has just one starter on its roster for the game (Edwin Jackson) and he will likely be held in reserve in case the game goes to extra innings. The A’s, after several injuries to starters, borrowed the bullpen game concept from Tampa Bay and have had success with it thanks to a solid stable of relievers.
Khris Davis, the slugging designated hitter, is certainly Oakland’s most intimidating batter. He led the majors with 48 homers — his third consecutive season with 42 or more — and drove in 123 runs. But if you delve into advanced statistics, he actually trails three of his teammates (Matt Chapman, Jed Lowrie and Stephen Piscotty) in offensive wins above replacement. Chapman not only leads Davis by a wide margin in oWAR (5.0 to 3.2) but contributed 3.5 defensive WAR at third base as well. His overall score of 8.2 trailed only Mookie Betts and Mike Trout among position players.
The Yankees got power from throughout the team’s lineup this season. They had a record 12 batters hit 10 or more home runs, though none of them topped Giancarlo Stanton’s 38 despite all of the hoopla surrounding the team adding Stanton, who hit 59 homers for Miami last year, with Aaron Judge, who hit 51.

Benjamin Hoffman is a senior staff editor and regular contributor to the Keeping Score column in sports. He joined The Times in 2005. @BenHoffmanNYT • Facebook