The Regular Season Ends, and the Yankees’ Long Wait Begins

ARLINGTON, Texas — The Yankees’ eventful 2022 regular season ended on Wednesday evening with a 4-2 loss to the Texas Rangers. After a charmed first half and troublesome second half, the Yankees finished with a 99-63 record, their highest win total since 2019.

While some Yankees had strong individual seasons, like pitchers Gerrit Cole and Nestor Cortes Jr., the regular season will likely be remembered most for the superstar outfielder Aaron Judge’s historic season. He dazzled teammates, opponents and fans alike with stellar hitting that came close to winning a triple crown and on Tuesday set a new American League single-season home run record with 62.

Having secured one of the A.L.’s top two seeds, the A.L. East-winning Yankees earned the luxury of a first-round bye in the postseason. So while the best-of-three wild-card round plays out this weekend, the Yankees will be resting tired limbs, practicing, debating roster composition, and watching and strategizing for their potential opponent. They won’t play a game, though, until Tuesday, the day of their first scheduled game of their A.L. division series against the winner between Cleveland and Tampa Bay.

The last time the Yankees had five days without a game was in mid March, when their spring training exhibition schedule began. (The Yankees’ All-Star break in mid July was only three days.) Baseball is a sport that is played nearly every day for months. The 162-game regular season began on April 7 and the World Series, should it go the maximum seven games, is scheduled to conclude on Nov. 5.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/05/sports/baseball/yankees-division-series-wait.html