While the Yankees attempted to get past the AL wild card for the second consecutive season Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium, there was a whiff of finality and reality joining the charged atmosphere on a pleasant Bronx evening.
The Yankees had spent many hours planning for the A’s, hoping they could survive the loser-goes-home wild card, exhale and start the best-of-five ALDS against the Red Sox in Fenway Park on Friday night.
And yet it was impossible to ignore the feeling that several important Yankees could have been playing or watching their final nine innings in pinstripes.