Juan Soto, Giancarlo Stanton power Yankees’ long-awaited World Series return

CLEVELAND — As George Springer settled under a Greg Bird flyball to end Game 7 of the 2017 ALCS, Minute Maid Park began to roar.

Without a soul near him, the Astros’ center fielder demonstratively waved off his fellow outfielders, raised his glove, caught the ball, and pointed toward the sky with his bare hand. With a pennant secured, Lance McCullers Jr. and Brian McCann embraced on the mound as teammates rushed to join them. Meanwhile, a mosh pit formed in Houston’s dugout.

On the other side of the field, some New York Yankees watched in sorrow as the Houston Astros – who eventually won a scandal-stained championship – celebrated a trip to the World Series. Others slowly filed into the visiting clubhouse with blank stares and hung heads after losing a series that they led, 3-2, before a return to Texas.

“It’s a tough situation being up a game and coming here just one win away,” Aaron Judge said that night before turning the page. “We’re all excited for next year and what it holds for us.”

There were plenty of reasons to be excited. Not only for 2018, but the foreseeable future.

With Judge, fresh off a 52-homer, Rookie of the Year campaign, leading a young core known as the Baby Bombers, the Yankees blossomed ahead of schedule in 2017. Expectations only increased when Aaron Boone replaced Joe Girardi and Giancarlo Stanton, the reigning National League MVP, arrived in a blockbuster deal that winter.

A 100-win season followed, along with one postseason disappointment after another.

ALDS exits in 2018 and 2020. A Wild Card embarrassment in 2021. Two more ALCS losses to Houston in 2019 and 2022. A failure to even make the playoffs in 2023.

After last season, fans wanted heads to roll. The Yankees ultimately kept key figures in place, but they met early in their offseason to evaluate their processes. At times, the conversations grew “heated,” Hal Steinbrenner said roughly a year ago.

“It was a soul-searching winter as an organization,” Aaron Boone added Thursday from the visiting manager’s office at Progressive Field. “We challenged each other and met and talked department to department just to make sure we’re on the same page.”

Several pages later, the Yankees have themselves a story that could end in fairytale fashion.

After beating the Cleveland Guardians, 5-2, after 10 innings in Game 5 of the ALCS on Saturday, the pinstripers are pennant winners. Now they’re heading to the World Series for the first time since 2009.

“That’s what we play for, that’s what we came for since day one,” Juan Soto said after the win. “We grind every day, we’re here, and we’ve got confidence.”

“We had unfinished business because we thought last year’s team was championship caliber, and we flopped,” Brian Cashman said before the victory. “This year’s team knew the window isn’t always open all the time, so they wanted to make sure they took advantage of it.”

Cashman noted how numerous players put extra work in over the winter, arriving early to the Yankees’ Tampa complex or revamping their offseason routines after injuries and poor performances doomed the team in 2023.

“They showed up this spring with a different mindset,” the general manager continued.

One particular example, Stanton, played a pivotal role in the Yankees’ series-ending win on Saturday.

The designated hitter, who reported to spring training with a new-look body after Cashman said injuries were part of his game last offseason, smoked a game-tying, two-run homer off Tanner Bibee in the sixth inning.

The blast further cemented Stanton’s status as an all-time postseason slugger, as he now has five homers this October and 16 for his playoff career.

Later, in the 10th, Soto punched the Yankees’ World Series ticket when he took Hunter Gaddis deep to center for a three-run homer. The go-ahead dinger was the result of a seven-pitch at-bat in which Soto fouled off four straight pitches before going deep. It also followed a Brayan Rocchio error earlier in the inning.