The Yankees have employed a couple of different alignments in both the lineup and the field in the first two games of the ALCS, and as they head home down 0-2 before Saturday’s huge Game 3, manager Aaron Boone isn’t sure what his starting nine will look like just yet.
The biggest decision, it seems, is whether or not to play Giancarlo Stanton in left field, where he played in Game 1 in Houston before going back to DH in Game 2.
“I don't know. I'm kind of working through that today and certainly tomorrow. We got Cristian Javier going, so I'll consider all that,” Boone said Friday. “Giancarlo I feel like bounced back pretty well yesterday from his first day being out there, obviously an off day today. But I haven't decided on how I'm going to go in that direction yet.”
The second big question is whether Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Oswald Peraza, or maybe even Oswaldo Cabrera will be at shortstop, the latter an option if he’s not in left field again. IKF is one of only two Yankees with a hit off Houston starter Javier, and in theory, Boone could use two of the three on the left side and sit Josh Donaldson – but that doesn’t seem to be considered despite Donaldson being 5-for-22 with 11 strikeouts and a couple of bad mistakes on the bases in the postseason.
“As we struggle for offense, period, it's interesting that everyone jumps on him. I mean, he's got on at a 40 percent clip in the postseason so far, and for all his quote-unquote struggles, we need him to do something big within this series,” Boone said. “We need to get that rolling, but that's with everyone. We're up against a great pitching staff top to bottom and we got to find ways to score runs, and that comes in obviously the ability to get on base, also a big hit, and also when we get that mistake really sticking it.”
Despite the postseason OBP, Donaldson has struggled all year, but Boone is seeing enough from the veteran to keep him in there.
“I think different teams have pitched him differently all year, and I think at times when he struggled, he's been a little bit of that in between where you're trying to cover a couple different speeds, so you're a little in between with your timing,” Boone said. “I think that's probably been the biggest thing from a consistency standpoint that he's struggled with. But he's also gotten a lot of big hits for us, and we got to continue to trust that he's going to, he's got a chance to change a game for us and really produce one of those heavy at-bats in what we hope is a long line of those.”
Once Boone figures out who’s in left, who’s at short, and maybe who is the DH (Matt Carpenter’s lefty bat could play, despite him being 0-for-7 with seven strikeouts this postseason), it will be time for Boone to put together a lineup – and that may once again begin with Harrison Bader, who leads the team in homers this postseason but was the leadoff hitter in Game 2.
“Yeah, it's definitely something I'm considering as we try and find a way to score some runs,” Boone said. “Obviously he's putting together good at-bats, had a couple more good at-bats getting on base last night.
So, yeah, that's something that I'm probably leaning that way.”
And as far as the bullpen goes, well, Lou Trivino has been used sparingly – just 1 2/3 innings over three games – but according to Boone, everything is fine.
“Yeah, Lou's great. At the end of the season he had a couple days where his back locked up on him where he didn't pitch a couple days, but, yeah, he's good to go,” Boone said.
And, while the Yankees may not even get that far, Boone did say it would “hard to envision” someone other than Jameson Taillon pitching Game 5, meaning that it looks like the rotation for the three “if necessary” games will be Taillon, Luis Severino in Game 6, and Gerrit Cole on short rest in Game 7.
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