TAMPA — It was the latest maddening, infuriating end to another season for the Yankees and for Yankees fans, but this one has accompanied them to George M. Steinbrenner Field and will come north with them when they begin stalking that elusive 28th World Series championship for the 14th consecutive season.
It has been more than three months since the Astros slapped the Yankees silly and danced on their Yankee Stadium grave the minute the four-game ALCS sweep ended.
Time heals all wounds, but this one hasn’t healed yet, and the Yankees are OK with that because they say now that the memory of such an ignominious Rocktober Bottom has lit a fire inside them and made them more sick and tired of being sick and tired than ever before.
“That was my first time feeling that type of pain in the big leagues,” Isiah Kiner-Falefa told The Post. “You feel that in high school and coming up, but this was my first taste of how bad it actually hurts in the big leagues. You get that far, you come so close with a team, and to get kind of embarrassed the way we did, it didn’t feel good, and I think in a way it was an opportunity for us to go into the offseason with a different mentality, a little more urgency in the offseason. Everybody seems like they made big strides in the offseason because it hurt so bad last year. So I’m just hoping that we can stay healthy all the way through the season and see those guys again, or whoever it may be. But I think it left a sour taste in everyone’s mouth, and we’re ready to redeem ourselves.”
Redeem Team, anyone?
Michael King said the Yankees’ loss to the Astros in last year’s playoffs is driving this year’s team to be better.Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post“I think it’s still in back of a lot of minds here,” Clay Holmes said. “It’s something that I think drives us, especially coming in here this spring.”
Ace reliever Michael King was relegated to cheerleader following his July elbow stress fracture.
“The way that we meshed and vibed was something that I haven’t felt in my four years here,” King said. “I felt like last year was the best team that we put on the field in terms of chemistry and talent. We always talk about the teams that get hot in the playoffs are the teams that have that magic. And I felt like we never fully got to that magic point.
“But the attitude coming in here is like we can’t just be complacent with being the best team in baseball in the regular season, or winning the AL East, we can’t be complacent that way.”
The Yankees aren’t supposed to merely knock on the World Series door. It is past time for them to kick the door down, and they all know it, from Hank Steinbrenner to Brian Cashman to Aaron Boone to Captain Aaron Judge on down.
“I know that resonates all the way to the front office in terms of offseason moves, ’cause they see the same thing,” King said. “There’s just like a different attitude after a loss like that. Coming back in here obviously it’s great to see everybody, but you know that we all have one goal in mind, and it adds fuel to the fire.”
Aaron Judge, signing autographs for Yankees fans before their spring training game against the Pirates, said last year’s playoff loss to the Astros still stings.Getty ImagesThe Astros won Game 7 in Houston to beat the Yankees in the 2017 ALCS and Game 6 in Houston to beat them in the 2019 ALCS. Then came Rocktober Bottom.
“I think anytime you lose, especially at home, it stings with you,” Judge said. “I even go back to losing the ALDS to the Red Sox in 2018 when they beat us on our field [in Game 4] and eventually went on to win the World Series. They all sting, I wouldn’t say any one more than the other just because a loss is a loss.”
Asked if he watched the Astros fill the Bronx night with whooping and hollering, Judge said: “I was the last batter, so I kinda grabbed my stuff and headed out.”
His historic 62-home run season over.
“It was incredibly painful,” Nestor Cortes said. “It’s the team that’s beat us every time we’ve got into the LCS. I feel like we gotta get over that hump to get there. Them celebrating and sweeping us in four games was like a dagger, so hopefully we can change that around this year.”
Holmes watched the Astros beat the Phillies in the World Series.
“Obviously you sit there and imagine if we were there how things would be,” he said. “I just kept envisioning myself, ‘I should be in this moment, what would I do if I’m in this moment?’ That’s obviously where we wanted to be, and I think our minds were all there in some capacity.”
All well and good that their minds are all there in March. Better that their minds are all there in October.
“When you get swept at home, it’s never a good feeling,” Clarke Schmidt said. “It leaves a sour taste in your mouth for sure. It puts a little bit of hunger in your butt and makes you want to put a lot of work in to come back there and be able to come back the next year and do it to them. It definitely motivates us a lot.”
King briefly watched the Astros’ Yankee Stadium party.
“It’s good to see,” he said. “Sucks to see, but it’s good to have that motivation. But I don’t want to see it for more than a couple of seconds. I watched a little bit of it, and then was back in the clubhouse.”
Rocktober Bottom.
