They didn’t start the season healthy and they will finish it with important players on the injured list.
Yet, when the Yankees face the Twins in Game 1 of the ALDS Friday night at what is expected to be a raucous Yankee Stadium, they will have two powerful right-handed bats who suffered injuries on Sept. 12 that put their postseason availability in question.
Gary Sanchez (strained left groin) and Edwin Encarnacion (left oblique strain) went down together during a doubleheader in Detroit, but the Yankees hope they provide right-handed power starting Friday night.
Unlike Sanchez, who played in two of the final three regular-season games in Texas, Encarnacion will see a big league pitcher for the first time since the fifth inning of that doubleheader’s first game against the Tigers.