Even with a pep talk from the grand old man of the mound, there is no way to simulate how a playoff game really feels. C.C. Sabathia tried to warn James Paxton during the regular season, tried to tell his new teammate that October baseball is no different.
“It’s the same game, just bigger stakes,” Sabathia told him, but Paxton’s first taste was too much. In his postseason debut this month, Paxton could not complete five innings.
“I couldn’t feel my body the entire time,” he said. “It was just numb.”
His next start was even worse. Paxton failed to last three innings on Sunday during Game 1 in Houston, and on Friday the Yankees had no more time to wait. Facing elimination in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series — matched against the active pitcher with the most wins in the majors now that Sabathia’s career has ended — Paxton delivered.
The Yankees rode an early outburst against Justin Verlander and six steely innings from Paxton to a 4-1 victory in the Bronx. The teams will decide the A.L. pennant this weekend at Minute Maid Park, with a matchup of bullpens in Game 6 on Saturday and the Yankees’ Luis Severino facing the Astros’ Gerrit Cole in Game 7, if necessary, on Sunday.
Paxton has earned a chance to rest. With sharp command of his high fastball, he fired a season-high 112 pitches on Friday, allowing four hits and a run and striking out nine against the best contact-hitting offense in the majors. He handled the pressure the way ace pitchers do — with the confidence that comes from dominant stuff.
“Nerves were huge, but that’s all part of it,” Paxton said. “My goal was to go out there and give it everything I had for my team. I wasn’t ready to go home yet.”
If the Yankees reach the World Series, they will do so with the fewest rotation innings ever for a pennant-winning team in a non-strike season. They often used an opener, and otherwise leaned into the modern style of pitching: Go as hard as you can until an army of power relievers takes over.
But less was not more. The Yankees starters ranked 26th in the majors in innings but just 15th in earned run average, at 4.51. It was the worst starters’ E.R.A. among the 10 postseason teams. The Astros, it seemed, had hoarded all the aces.
Paxton filled that role for the Yankees. He averaged just five innings per start in the regular season, but went 10-0 with a 2.25 E.R.A. in his last 10 starts before a final-weekend tuneup ahead of the postseason. The Yankees hoped it would be his springboard to October stardom — and on Friday, it was.
“He was attacking the zone, and that’s what you need to do against hitters like this,” said Aaron Hicks, who homered off the right field foul pole in the first inning to drive in three runs and give the Yankees their margin of victory. “He was pitching in, he was pitching effectively, and he was getting strikeouts when he needed it. That’s extremely awesome to see.”
If the Yankees survive the weekend, they will host the World Series opener next Tuesday, ending their 10-year absence from baseball’s biggest stage. Their 2009 championship immediately followed an investment in two top free agent starters, Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, who both won critical games that postseason.
In the last few years, the Yankees had not been nearly as aggressive in seeking top starters. The Astros, in contrast, traded for Verlander in 2017, Cole in 2018 and Zack Greinke this summer. The Boston Red Sox also added aces — at exorbitant prices — to help them win the World Series last fall.
In Paxton, the Yankees found a pitcher who fit their newly preferred model: not many innings, but lots of strikeouts and a reasonable salary. They traded a top pitching prospect, Justus Sheffield, and two others to the Seattle Mariners for Paxton, dreaming of nights like Friday. He did, too.
“When you think of the Yankees, you think of the postseason,” Paxton said. “They pride themselves on winning, and that’s what we do here. I knew that I’d probably get an opportunity to pitch in the postseason, and that’s what I wanted to do.”
He nearly squandered his latest chance. Paxton wobbled in the first inning of Game 5, letting George Springer’s infield single skip under his glove, then watching Springer advance on a passed ball and groundout, then score on a wild pitch.
But after Hicks’s homer gave him a 4-1 lead, Paxton knew he could pitch more aggressively. When Manager Aaron Boone came to the mound in the sixth, with two outs, one on and Robinson Chirinos coming up, Paxton told his manager, “I want this.”
Chirinos had struck out twice, but he drove Paxton’s first pitch — a fastball down and in — high and deep to left.
“I felt like the matchup was right,” Boone said. “But definitely when it first left the bat: ‘Oh, no.’”
There was no reason to worry. Brett Gardner caught the ball at the wall. Tommy Kahnle, Zack Britton and Aroldis Chapman collected the last nine outs.
Boone had talked before the game about hopeful examples of playoff comebacks that tormented him as a boy. Twice in the 1980s, the California Angels — with his father, Bob, as catcher — lost three A.L.C.S. games in a row to blow the pennant. Boone remembers crying on the family couch after Game 7 in 1986.
“Not just our sport, but all kinds of sports are littered with stories of comebacks,” Boone said. “So we know we’re certainly capable of that. We have a tough task against a great team and a great pitcher, and we’ll look forward to going out and hopefully grabbing one and getting on a plane.”
Paxton put the Yankees back on a plane late Friday night. They hope to come back with a pennant.