The Yankees have won the ALDS!

 

            Finally! After a long and grueling series with the pesky Cleveland Guardians, the Yankees have finally clinched their ticket to Houston to go play for the American League title in the ALCS. After two rainouts in the series with the Guardians, it finally ends a day after expected and the Yanks go into Houston with no days off. 

            The Guardians were definitely a surprise to this Yanks team as they totally play such a different style of baseball than the Yanks do. The Guardians look for base hits, good base running, great pitching, and small plays to go their way, while the Yanks solely focus on the long ball to get the job done for them.

            At some points in this series, home runs were hard to come by because of how dominant Cleveland pitching was. Lots of bloop hits falling in for the Guardians really frustrated the Yanks, but even though it was frustrating, they still won the series. 

            After the game 3 walkout when the Yanks were up by 2 runs coming into the bottom of the ninth, I lost all hope. The team look like it just hit rock bottom after suffering this terrible loss on a couple of weak hit balls that somehow fell in the outfield. But you pay your ace $324 million for a reason as he anchored the ship in game 4 and Nasty Nestor cleaned it up in game 5 to clinch the series.

            Another tough task ahead of the Yankees is their next matchup now with the Houston Astros. The Astros as we all know have dominated the Yanks in the postseason, and Yankees fans and players are fueled with anger against them after what they did in previous seasons with their cheating scandal. 

            Some say and I believe the Astros cheating in 2017 took away the chance for the Yanks to play for the World Series and potentially lock up number 28. Nobody will ever forget that the Houston Astros were the ones that cheated their way to a World Series victory and certainly not the Yankees.

            However, aside from the cheating, the Astros are a much different team than the Guardians. Most MLB teams nowadays do not have a style of play similar to the Guardians, but the Astros do pose as a bigger offensive threat with great pitching as well.

            The Yanks certainly come into this series as the underdog with no days off in between the ALDS and ALCS coming into Houston. It's going to be an uphill battle the entire way through but the Yanks can definitely handle the adversity come their way. They are more than capable of finally getting over the hump and beating this Astros team and if this is finally the year, then so be it. Let's go Yankees and the chase for 28 continues!