The New York Yankees advanced to the World Series after defeating the Cleveland Guardians in the American League Championship.
Yankee Stadium is known for its short porch in right field, and the Yankees tend to load up on left-handed power hitters to take advantage of it.
Tigers manager AJ Hinch revealed his thoughts on facing this Yankees lineup and described the lineup’s danger zone.
“One of the things about beating the Yankees is you can just control the wrapped bat,” Hinch said.
AJ Hinch talked about facing the Yankees at Yankee Stadium and the danger zone in their lineup. pic.twitter.com/Iq1tS0A8Te
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) October 21, 2024
Hinch goes on to explain that if you can keep the back end of the Yankees’ lineup off the bases, including Gleyber Torres up top, you can avoid any major damage to Juan Soto and Aaron Judge.
He goes on to express that when Giancarlo Stanton is as hot as he is, it just extends the streak’s average danger zone.
Most teams will focus on keeping Soto and Judge out of the two and three spots in the lineup, but with Stanton hitting four home runs in the ALCS, he adds another name to worry about.
The Yankees have top-to-bottom home run power, as shown by their major league baseball-leading 237 home runs during the regular season.
Hinch seems to believe the home runs will come no matter what, but limiting the home runs to single home runs could be the difference between a game and an entire series.
The Dodgers and manager Dave Roberts will be tasked with coming up with a game plan that will contain these three power hitters in the middle of this Yankees lineup.
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Aaron Judge makes a big announcement about Shohei Ohtani
