With Yankees and Mets both heading to the LCS, ‘a fun time awaits in New York’

KANSAS CITY — It was just an innuendo, too early in October to bookmark the clip to history. But it’s a familiar and comforting image that has preceded champagne before: With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, a New York Yankees center fielder in a gray uniform slides to right to follow a fly ball, then pinches it to to end a postseason. series.

Twenty years ago it was Bernie Williams at Shea Stadium. This time it was Aaron Judge in Kansas City, who caught a routine fly from Yuli Gurriel, pumped his fist and pointed to the sky. On they go.

Get ready for chicken buckets in the Bronx!

The @yankees go back to the #ALCS!

(MLBx @BudweiserUSA) #CLINDED pic.twitter.com/JrFHzavHIF

— MLB (@MLB) October 11, 2024

The Yankees defeated the Kansas City Royals on Thursday in Game 4, 3-1 on the scoreboard and 3-1 in games for this American League Division Series. They are the second MLB team to earn an invitation to the championship series and yes, they know the other one: the New York Mets.

“It’s definitely going to be a fun time in New York, man,” Judge said after the usual drunken revelry in the visitors’ clubhouse. “They are having a great season and it will be fun to look forward to getting the chance to meet them again down the road.”

For the Yankees and Mets, those paths rarely converge this time of year. In LCS’s 55 seasons, this will be only the third to feature both the Yankees and Mets. You may remember the others: 1999, when only the Yankees won, and 2000, when New York City had the World Series all to itself.

The Mets and Yankees met for five thrillers, each decided by one or two runs. The series was purely delicious, until the waiter took your plate too early. When Williams caught Mike Piazza’s drive to end Game 5, fans were hungry for more.

We’re still hungry — at least in New York, where the World Series seemed like a birthright in the years before expansion. From Game 1 in 1949 through Game 2 in 1957, 44 of the total 48 World Series games took place in New York. It may not have been much fun for the rest of the country, but in the land of the Yankees, Giants and Dodgers it must have been a delight.

Lately, the World Series has mostly taken place elsewhere: 80 of the last 83 games have taken place outside New York, dating back to the Yankees’ last championship in 2009. The Mets reached the World Series in 2015, but the Yankees have had their games traps. last five appearances in the ALCS, three with Judge at center.

“It means everything,” Judge said of this final opportunity. “We haven’t secured a pennant since I’ve been here with the Yankees. The group we have, how special this is – I’m just excited about this opportunity. It will be something special.”

The Yankees’ last win in the division series was a choppy, soggy mess: five games in eight grueling days against Cleveland in 2022. They had no days off for a series with the Houston Astros, then the defending AL champions, who played three days had time to rest and rolled into a swing.

This time the Yankees will rest, their opponent rushed. By winning here Thursday, the Yankees earned a three-day break before Game 1 in the Bronx on Monday against the Guardians of Tigers, who will settle their ALDS Saturday in Cleveland.

“We were kind of limping along in ’22,” manager Aaron Boone said, recalling season-ending injuries and tough divisional series. “I remember coming into Houston in the middle of the night — no excuse, but I feel like we’re in a better place now, just from a scheduling and health standpoint.

“But when you get to this point, we are now down to the final four. Everyone has a good feeling about their team. That is the case with me.”

The Yankees do what good teams should do in October: protect late leads, play solid defense and wear down the other team’s pitchers. The bullpen turned 15 2/3 scoreless innings against Kansas City, rookie first basemen Jon Berti and Oswaldo Cabrera played flawlessly, and Yankees hitters walked 27 — while striking out just 28 — against a Royals staff that prided itself on his control.

“The way the whole lineup was able to execute at-bats, get the pitchers going and get the next guy up,” catcher Austin Wells said. “That’s what we’re trying to do here, so I think we’ve done a really good job.”

The Yankees have never trailed in two games, but last Saturday’s opener was the first postseason game ever with five lead changes. The Yankees had the upper hand that night, and that’s what Judge cited when asked what gives him the most optimism right now.

“I think it goes back to that first game,” he said. “We had a lot of setbacks in the regular season, a lot of ups and downs, a lot of hard times, a lot of good times. To come away with the best record in the AL was huge for us, and then you go to the first game where they hit us, we hit them, they hit us back, we take the lead back. Just a lot of back and forth, and that’s what’s going to happen in the postseason.

“You guys have been looking at the postseason and what’s going on. Just a lot of lead changes and who can keep punching when you get beat. Lots of fight from these guys. Just never give up.”

It’s the same story with the Mets, who posted comeback wins in their postseason clincher in Atlanta, both of their first-round wins in Milwaukee and two of their NLDS wins against the Phillies.

The Yankees aren’t surprised. They revere Mets manager Carlos Mendoza, who coached Boone’s staff for six seasons before switching districts last fall.

“I knew he was completely ready for that job,” Boone said. “Is good with people. He is clearly bilingual and can communicate very well with everyone. You realize what a good guy he is, and you also recognize his intelligence. So he’s just the real deal.”

Imagine a World Series with Boone and a protégé; the Steinbrenners and the Cohens; the homegrown sluggers (Judge and Pete Alonso); the imports that seem made for New York (Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor); the Bleacher Creatures and that Grimace creature.

Okay, so we don’t even know the LCS matchups quite yet. Four other teams are also desperate to crash onto the podium at the end of October. But right now — for a New York minute, you might say — the Mets and the Yankees are the only ones who know they’ll be playing for the pennant.

A Subway series? In 2024 they could make it there.

Brendan Kuty of The Athletic contributed to this story.
(Top photo of Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto in July: Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)