5 reasons Indians should be very worried about a Yankees upset in ALDS

4. New York proved it can handle adversity

Why it matters: As a Pittsburgh Pirates fan, I can tell you that when your team gets down early in the Wild Card game, it sucks the wind out of the ballpark. The Pirates lost two separate Wild Card games to the San Francisco Giants and the Chicago Cubs in part because they went down early. The home fans get nervous. You can feel the atmosphere shift immediately.

A one-run lead feels like three or four, and it feels like your team won’t be able to mount a comeback.

The Yankees took a sucker punch right on the chin, and then calmly went about playing the rest of the game. They were already down 3-0 and starter Luis Severino had just been pulled with two runners on base. Things seemed pretty dire, and a lesser team might have packed it in and lost its mentality.

However, New York got out of that jam and then answered quickly. Anytime a team doesn’t get rattled in an elimination game, it shows they won’t be rattled by much. It would have been easy to fold after Minnesota jumped out to a big lead right away. This Yankee squad has some serious fight in it and won’t roll over for Cleveland.