The 27 time world champions are in the race again looking for another World Series title. The captain Derek Jeter is waiting for his 6 World Series ring. The New York Yankees are in the playoffs; but this time they are coming out of the Wild Card spot. The Wild Card is a standing that you can win if you don’t win your division, if you win the Wild Card you could play in the playoffs. The Yankees are in the Wild Card because the Tampa Bay Rays have a better record than the Yankees in the American League East Division. The Yankees have never won a playoff series coming from the Wild Card, can they break the streak? The Yankees have done it! The Yankees swept the Minnesota Twins in 3 games and are going to face the Texas Rangers.

The Yankees are using a 3 man pitching rotation in the playoffs, but usually in the regular season all teams use a 5 man pitching rotation. The Yankees number 1 pitcher or best pitcher is C.C Sabathia. C.C is also a CY Young candidate for the American League. Sabathia lead the American League in wins with 21. The number 2 pitcher is the lefty Andy Pettitte. Pettitte had a regular season record of 11 wins and 3 losses. The last pitcher in the Yankees playoff rotation is Phil Hughes. Hughes came in second place on the team in wins with 18. A.J Burnett is usually the Yankees number 2 but he is really struggling. Burnett has an ERA of over 5.0. The Yankees don’t want to take the chance of losing.

The third baseman Alex Rodriguez lead the team in runs batted in or a.k.a RBI with 125. The first baseman Mark Texiera has 33 home runs, which leads the team. The Yankees batting has been excellent all season. Even though their captain Derek Jeter is having a down year for his career. The second baseman Robinson Cano took charge and had an excellent year batting. He had a .319 batting average, 29 home runs, and 109 RBI’S and also he made the AL all-star team! The Yankees helped their batting by acquiring new players like Lance Berkman and Austin Kearns.

Lance came to the Yankees right before the trade deadline. He bats both ways, which means he is a switch hitter. He also plays first base. Austin Kearns was acquired from the Arizona Diamondbacks. He is a righty batter and plays the corner outfield position.

The new York Yankees are a minimum 4 games away from the World Series, if they win them all against the Texas Rangers in the American League Championship Series or a.k.a ALCS. The Rangers are a good match up against the Yankees because they are very similar. They both have good pitching, hitting, and defense. If the Yankees get past the Rangers they have a good chance of winning the World Series back to back.

In the National League the Philadelphia Phillies and San Francisco Giants are battling it out to go to the World Series from the other side. If the baseball’s analyst’s predictions become reality it will be a rematch of the last World Series. In last year’s World Series the Yankees defeated the Phillies in 6 games and analysts predict the same thing this year! Go Yankees!!!