4 Players Who Completely Choked Away the ALCS for the Yankees
By Ryan Flores
The Houston Astros walked it off against the New York Yankees on Saturday night and advanced to their second World Series in the last three seasons. The Yankees have no one to blame but themselves, as so many players failed to show up and deliver over the course of the six games.
Who's to blame the most? Here are four Yankees that contributed most to the team's downfall.
4. Aaron Judge
Coming into the series, Yankees fans had some seriously high expectations for their star slugger, and rightfully so. In just 378 regular-season at-bats, Judge had 27 home runs, which is incredible. However, that power just didn't translate to the postseason as he managed to slug just one home run in the ALCS, hit an uninspiring .240 in the series with an OPS under .700, and failed to deliver in numerous big spots, striking out 10 times in 28 plate appearances. Judge's performance will likely haunt him for a while.
3. Chad Green
Green flopped big time. In a pivotal Game 6, he allowed a three-run homer to Yuli Gurriel in the opening frame, giving the Astros a strong lead that they held for most of the game. This wasn't the only bad outing for Green, as he also served up a three-run dinger to Carlos Correa in Game 4 that opened the floodgates to make it 6-1. Green is definitely going to have a hard time forgetting this series
2. Edwin Encarnacion
After his huge ALDS performance, many fans thought Encarnacion would play a crucial role for the Yankees in the ALCS. Those fans couldn't have been more wrong. In 18 ALCS at-bats, Encarnacion managed just one hit and struck out a whopping 11 times. He had plenty of chances to help the Yankees when they had runners in scoring position, but time after time he just couldn't produce. Yes, most Yankees players couldn't hit the Astros, but a veteran hitter like Encarnacion should've done better than one measly hit.
1. Gary Sanchez
Terrible defense. Terrible situational hitting. Downright bad at-bats. The only player worse than Sanchez was Encarnacion, but the veteran catcher has to take the cake for his defensive woes as well. El Gary hit just .130 with a .428 OPS in 23 at-bats, with his one big hit (a two-run homer in Game 4), coming after the Yankees were already down five runs. It's safe to say fans are NOT pleased with him.