ALCS: Inevitability Delayed

By Game 4, this series was over. So the fact that it lasted two more games and an extra half-inning is damn near insane on the part of the Yankees.

Game 5 was good enough, on the strength of Aaron Hicks and James Paxton alone. That was strong enough by them, even if they couldn't get past Verlander the rest of the day. And then once Game 6 started and they were already down from a Yuli Gurriel homer, the upward fight had to continue. Sanchez had an RBI, then Urshela had a solo home run, and then FINALLY DJ LeMahieu had a homer to tie it in the ninth, off Roberto Osuna.

The next bit was kind of inevitable. So the fact that they could do everything to that point, and fight back against the toughest team in baseball, is reward in itself. Yes, the Yankees lost. They tend to do this in October this decade. But this season is FAR from a failure for the Yankees, regardless of what Aaron Judge seems to think. This season could have been over in May when everyone got injured, but thanks to people like Urshela, Cameron Maybin, LeMahieu, Mike Tauchman, Brett Gardner, and especially Aaron Boone for keeping everything together.

Yes, we lost in the ALCS again. But we're certainly not done fighting.

Still, the Astros deserved the hell out of this win, even if it was probably gonna happen no matter who they faced. They're an insanely strong team, and they can go against the best of them. The Nationals have had a few days to rest, but they're still 100% starting Scherzer on Monday.

Game 1 of the World Series will be Max Scherzer vs. Gerrit Cole. And my god, is this World Series gonna be a pitching battle. Y'all better brace yourselves, cause we're looking at either a blowout or a fight til the bitter end.