The one matchup the New York Yankees won’t want to see this October
The New York Yankees are one of the best teams in the league. They're led by two of the best players in the entire sport, making them one of the more dangerous teams to come across this October.
Aaron Judge has been the most dominant player in baseball this year. The only person that has been close to his level of dominance has been Shohei Ohtani, but Judge leads Ohtani is just about every stat except for stolen bases.
Juan Soto and Gerrit Cole are also two of the better players in the league. Nobody wants to pitch to Soto and nobody wants to hit off of Cole with the season on the line, that's pretty obvious at this point.
Nobody wants to play the Bronx Bombers in October. But who do the Yankees not want to see in the other dugout?
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The Yankees don't want to play the Astros this October
The answer to this question should be quite obvious, especially to Yankees fans.
The New York Yankees don't want to meet the Houston Astros in October.
For the last eight or nine years, the Astros have been the Yankees' kryptonite in the postseason. New York hasn't been able to make it out of the American League and into the World Series since Jose Altuve joined Major League Baseball.
Since Judge played his first full season in 2017, the Astros have ended the Yankees season in three of the six times that Judge and the Yankees have made the postseason (2017, 2019, 2022). Houston ended Joe Girardi's career as the team's manager in 2017 en route to a World Series victory.
It's like Judge and the Yankees just haven't been able to figure them out, no matter who is on each team.
In seven games against the Astros this year, Judge is slashing .250.333/.571 with two home runs though. The Yankees also have Juan Soto, Jazz Chisholm, Austin Wells and a ton of other talent that haven't been on the Yankees teams that have lost to the Astros in the postseason before.
But the answer to this question is still simple. Ask any Yankees fan and they would probably say the same. The Yankees would be better off if the Astros could just lose before the two teams have to cross paths.