Yanks miss playoffs: A lot ‘that needs to be fixed’
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Coley Harvey, ESPN Staff Writer
NEW YORK — The end has officially arrived for this year’s New York Yankees.
While a bevy of key injuries and a season’s worth of offensive struggles long made it seem that their run of six straight postseason appearances was likely going to be halted, that conclusion mercifully and officially arrived on a soggy Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.
Under a steady, relentless rainfall and amid powerful, gusty winds brought on by nearby Tropical Storm Ophelia, the Yankees lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks 7-1, falling out of contention for the American League’s final wild-card spot.
“It sucks,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “That’s what you work hard toward all year round — the wintertime, spring training, on through the season — for an opportunity to play in October and compete for a championship.
“So the reality of that not being in play sucks.”
Yankees captain and outfielder Aaron Judge said he plans to take a vocal and proactive role this offseason in ensuring the organization trends back to where it was prior to this season.
“It’s not going to happen overnight,” Judge said. “So we got to hit the ground running, especially when the season ends. We’ve got a lot to work on, a lot of things to change and a lot of stuff going on around here that needs to be fixed.”
Asked what some of those things were, Judge declined to answer, saying they’d stay “in-house.” He added that he has some ideas of changes that need to come, and he plans to work with key decision-makers throughout the major and minor league parts of the organization to ensure they take hold.
With regard to the AL wild-card race, now that the Yankees are out of the picture, the final spot remains a toss-up between the Toronto Blue Jays, Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners.
In the National League, the Diamondbacks still hold a one-game lead over the Chicago Cubs for that league’s final wild card.
Sunday’s loss also dropped the Yankees to 78-77, as they continue flirting with the possibility of being the first set of Bronx Bombers since 1992 to finish a season with a losing record.
“I feel like this club right here can win,” starting pitcher Carlos Rodon said. “It’s kind of one of those things where we have to turn the page and move on. Obviously, we have like six or seven games left, and so we have to finish strong with those and show what we can do on the field and move on from there, and look forward to next year.”
Infielder DJ LeMahieu, a veteran who has played for the Yankees the past five seasons, said improvements he has seen in recent weeks by many of the team’s young call-ups give him belief in what the organization’s future can be.
“The most frustrating part of this year is we know we’re good enough to be where we want to be, we just haven’t done it,” LeMahieu said. “[But] overall, there’s definitely a lot to look forward to. But we know this year’s not good enough.”
Before this season, 2016 was the last time the Yankees missed the playoffs. It was a similarly underperforming team, one that featured the likes of aging All-Stars Alex Rodriguez, Brian McCann and Carlos Beltran.
But following that year’s disappointing finish, New York made postseason appearances annually from 2017 to 2022, including three trips to the American League Championship Series.
It was a run powered by a team of younger, up-and-coming stars. It was paced by the likes of Judge, who won American League Rookie of the Year honors in 2017.
This year’s Yankees have seven games remaining, including a make-up against Arizona on Monday that was scheduled after Saturday’s game was rained out.
Judge, who has been playing the past two months through a toe injury that landed him on the injured list for 51 midseason games, still plans to stay in the lineup often this final week.
“There was talks of stuff getting shut down, but I’ve got to be out there,” Judge said. “I’m a leader on this team, and especially with the young guys we’ve got coming up — you got to show them that you got to post, even if you’re not feeling good, not feeling great. You’ve got to be out there every single day for your teammates.
“So I’m going to be out there.”
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Greg Wyshynski
After making NHL history during the regular season, Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin made some personal history in his team’s Game 1 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Monday.
Ovechkin scored the first playoff overtime goal of his career to propel the Capitals to a series-opening 3-2 victory at home in his 152nd career postseason game.
“A goal is a goal,” Ovechkin said after the victory. “Good things happen when you go to the net.”
Ovechkin is the all-time leader in regular-season overtime goals with 27 in 1,491 games. They’re part of his career total of 897 goals, having broken Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record of 894 goals this season.
“The guy’s the best player in the world. What else can you say?” said Capitals goaltender Logan Thompson, who made 33 saves in the win. “He comes in clutch. All game. It’s a privilege to be his teammate.”
After an icing call, Capitals forward Dylan Strome won a faceoff, with Montreal forwards Patrik Laine and Ivan Demidov failing to clear the puck. Winger Anthony Beauvillier collected the puck for a shot on goal and then tracked down his own rebound to Montreal goalie Sam Montembeault‘s right. Montreal’s Alex Newhook and Kaiden Guhle went to defend Beauvillier, who slid a pass to an open Ovechkin on the doorstep for the goal at 2:26 of overtime.
The overtime tally completed a monster night for Ovechkin.
He opened the scoring on the power play at 18:34 of the first period and then assisted on Beauvillier’s second-period goal to make it 2-0 before finishing off the pesky Canadiens in overtime. It was the 37th multipoint performance and 10th multigoal game of Ovechkin’s playoff career.
Ovechkin also had seven hits in the game to lead all skaters.
Ovechkin is the oldest skater in Stanley Cup playoff history to factor in all of his team’s goals in a game. He also became the fourth-oldest player in Cup playoff history to score an overtime goal at 39 years and 216 days. Detroit’s Igor Larionov was 41 years old when he scored a triple-overtime goal in Game 3 of the 2002 Stanley Cup Final against the Carolina Hurricanes.
With his first goal, Ovechkin passed Patrick Marleau and Esa Tikkanen (72) and tied Dino Ciccarelli (73) for the 14th-most playoff goals in NHL history. Ovechkin’s 74th career playoff goal put him in a tie with Joe Pavelski for the 13th-most career playoff goals.
The captain’s overtime heroism rescued Game 1 for the Capitals. The top seed in the Eastern Conference watched the Canadiens rally in the third period on goals by Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki 5:13 apart to send the game to overtime.
“You can see why they made the playoffs. That team doesn’t quit,” Thompson said. “In the third, they didn’t go away. We’ve got to respect them. They took it to us in the third.”
But rather than give Montreal some much-needed confidence and a series lead in its upset bid, Ovechkin shut the door in overtime.
“He played a hell of game tonight,” Beauvillier said.
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