The New York Yankees will face the Boston Red Sox in the American League Division Series after beating Oakland Athletics 7-2 in their wild card tie.
Luis Severino denied Oakland a single hit until the fifth and the visitors were forced to go seven scoreless innings while the Yankees racked up a six-point lead.
The mighty Aaron Judge opened up a near-immediate two-point advantage for New York with a homer in the first that saw Andrew McCutchen back.
The ball was pitched by Liam Hendricks, a reliever who was controversially re-purposed as a starter after proving formidable in the prior performances.
Oakland prevented their Yankee Stadium hosts adding to their tally for five innings, although it could not last and New York took off in the sixth.
First Postseason game. First Postseason homer. pic.twitter.com/kwIyV5O4B5
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) October 4, 2018
Aaron Hicks struck first in the bottom, a double on a line drive seeing Judge score.
Luke Voit followed with a triple that placed another two points between the Yankees and Athletics.
A sacrifice fly by Didi Gregorius then saw Voit home before the bottom inning was over, placing New York 6-0 ahead.
Oakland finally made it onto the scoreboard in the eighth when Kris Davies fired off a double homer, but it was all the Athletics had.
Giancarlo Stanton’s homer in the bottom of the inning split the gap wider still and the Yankees celebrated their second consecutive AL wild card win.
New York’s best-of-five Division Series against Boston begins on Friday.
