ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Numbers are the coldest facts in baseball and never lie. They can be massaged to benefit an opinion, but scores, batting averages, standings and ERA are always straight shooters.
And that meant, heading into the Yankees-Rays game Wednesday night in Tropicana Field, the likelihood of the Yanks facing the Twins in the upcoming ALDS was strong.
The AL East champion Yankees trailed the AL West champion Astros by 1 ½ lengths for the prize of having home-field advantage, if each were to advance to the best-of-seven ALCS for the second time in three years.