New York Yankees Enjoy Surviving ALDS With An Eye Towards Getting Past The Houston Astros

The music was loud, the plastic covering was on the spacious carpeting, the champagne and Bud Light flowed from one player to another.

In the hour after the Yankees completed the ALDS with their 5-1 win that seemed more like a formality once they took a three-run lead about 15 minutes in, it was a somewhat modest one on the celebration scale, especially compared to some of the others to take place by them and other teams.

The celebration had all the usual components of winning a postseason series, but it was more a theme of taking care of business in a series that felt more like the extended nature of an NBA best-of-seven first round series.

After eight days where there nearly were more days off than actual games, the Yankees won a pair of elimination games and enjoyed their first playoff series clincher at home since CC Sabathia’s 121-pitch complete game in Game 5 of the 2012 ALDS against Baltimore.

Then they got ready to take their bus to the airport for their next order of business – a third ALCS against the Houston Astros.

“If you’re stuck in the past, you’re not going to go anywhere,” said Aaron Judge, who was entering his final season at Fresno State when the Yankees escaped a tough five-game series with Baltimore. “I’m going to treat it like any other series. We’ll go there with our A game and take care of business.”

The narrative of the Yankees against the Astros is finally here and whether it was the combination of not having a day off in between the ALDS and ALCS or the recent history, the celebration was more of a loud toast with an eye towards hopefully using the more expensive champagne such as winning a pennant or a World Series like they did exactly 44 years ago in Reggie Jackson’s three-homer game over the Dodgers.

The celebration was also not like the 2001 version when the Yankees somberly clinched the AL East in their first home game following the Sept. 11 attacks on Sept. 25, 2001. It paled in comparison to ones as recently as Oct. 9 when the Padres toasted often with Brut 1818 Champagne after eliminating the Mets in Game 3 of the wild-card round in a game that was highlighted by Joe Musgrove’s futile ear check as he dominated the Mets and could hardly compete with the party going on footsteps from their large clubhouse under the elevated tracks on River Avenue.

It had the touches of a raucous celebration, especially since you could hear someone yell “Who’s Your Daddy” in reference to the Josh Naylor celebration he displayed while connecting in Game 4 off ace Gerrit Cole, who was so locked in he hardly paid attention to it.

“Yeah, whatever. It’s cute,” Cole said Sunday with the look of someone still locked in while speaking at the podium in Cleveland. “It wouldn’t have bothered me in the moment and it just is kind of funny.”

Naylor’s celebration is officially called “Rock the Baby” and it annoyed Yankee fans when it was unveiled against Cole Sunday, the same way it irked White Sox fans in Chicago when he hit a grand slam earlier this season.

By the time Tuesday afternoon arrived, fans were well-versed in this and yelled “Who’s Your Daddy” every time Naylor batted. And when Wandy Peralta (in his fifth straight game) recorded the final out, Gleyber Torres perhaps showed how the Yankees truly felt.

Torres recorded the final putout when he completed the force play from Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Then after stepping on second base, Torres swung his arms back and forth four times while throwing a steely glare at Naylor in the Cleveland dugout although later on in a somber clubhouse the first baseman said he was honored at being recognized in the form of a chant.

“We got our revenge. We’re happy to beat those guys. Now they can watch on TV the next series for us,” Torres said “It’s nothing personal. Just a little thing about revenge.”

The Yankee celebration was modest with more talk about what lies next, Round 3 with the Houston Astros. The Astros won the first two rounds of the looming trilogy and as it became apparent what was on the horizon some fans could be heard chanting their favorite four-letter word before the name “Altuve.”

Altuve ended the last meeting between the teams with his famous homer off Aroldis Chapman, who was following the ALDS win from his home base in Miami after being instructed to stay away by the Yankees. In the month after Altuve’s game-ending homer, the details of Houston’s cheating scandal emerged with details about what they did during the seven-game ALCS over the Yankees in 2017 when the home team won every game.

Those revelations further fueled the fire and even in limited capacity due to the COVD-19 pandemic in May 2021 it was clearly evident.

Full-capacity Astros-Yankees games returned in June when a combined 180,703 fans spent a portion of their weekend watching a compelling four-game series. Over the course of 13 hours, 28 minutes, the Yankees wound getting two wins on game-ending hits in games they did not lead, got no-hit (to the delight of some people there) and got dominated by Future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander.

“We’ve seen each other a lot in years past in the postseason,” Judge said nearly four months ago. “Anytime we play, it’s always gonna be a good ballgame. I think the fans anticipate that and they bring their energy from the first pitch on. That’s what you love, you look forward to playing good teams, and seeing where you stack up in the AL.”

Now after their somewhat subdued celebration, seeing where they stack up in the AL is here for the Yankees.

“We know what we’re going up against,” Nestor Cortes said. “We’ve just going to battle it out. It’s going to be a tough series for both of us. Let the best team win.”