The New York Yankees are going to the World Series for the first time since Obama’s first year in office.
Juan Soto hit a three-run home run on Saturday to bring the American League pennant back to the Bronx for the first time since 2009. The 25-year-old superstar outfielder worked seven pitches against Cleveland Guardians pitcher Hunter Gaddis, and with two strikes, he smashed a high fastball into deep center field. He watched it with an unsteady face as it left his bat, seeing just how far it was going to go.
And then it landed over the center field fence to give the Yankees a 5-2 win in Game 5 of the American League Championship series, and a 4-1 series win.
The crowd in Cleveland was three quarters stunned silent, one quarter rowdy Yankees fans. Those traveling Yankees fans kept the Progressive Field crowd loud and roudy long after the final out, with chants of “Let’s Go Yankees!” that echoed across an otherwise silent city, into the distance of Ohio’s Lake Erie.
For Cleveland, it is a crushing loss and a continued trend of October heartbreak to the evil empire.
Cleveland has now lost four postseason series to the Yankees dating back to 2017, Aaron Judge’s rookie season. That year, with Cleveland coming off its own American League pennant, a 102-win season and the longest winning streak in American League history. With a 2-0 lead, the wild card Yankees won three straight, and Cleveland hasn’t been the same team since. The Yankees beat Cleveland again in the 2020 wild card series, the 2022 divisional series, and have now denied the city a World Series appearance.
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For the Yankees, the win marks a significant step in a high-stakes mission to claim their 28th championship.
Soto, the hero of the night, was traded for in the offseason with just one year left on his contract. Soto has proven to transform the power of the Yankees lineup this year batting alongside Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. But the Yankees and general manager Brian Cashman knew they had to win it this year to make the trade worth it.
Soto could command the richest contract in MLB history this offseason. He could have commanded that kind of contract before even before hitting the signature home run on Saturday. Now, the price could be even higher.
Now Soto and the Yankees will await the winner of the National League Championship series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Mets.
The Dodgers lead the series 3-2, and could punch their ticket to their 12th World Series against the Yankees in their storied shared history with one more win at home. The Mets would need to win two in a row on the road to face their hometown rival in the first Subway Series since 2000.
No matter who the Yankees play, the expectation will be the same. But they’ll hope that this time, they actually live up to the expectation of the Yankee brand for the first time in far too long.
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