Around the Empire: Yankees news - 10/6/20

MLB.com: In a surprising turn of events, Yankees manager Aaron Boone announced that rookie Deivi García, who didn’t pitch in the Wild Card round against the Cleveland Indians, will take the ball Tuesday in Game Two versus the Tampa Bay Rays. The pitcher that was widely expected to be on the mound for the second game, Masahiro Tanaka, will instead take care of Game Three on Wednesday.

NJ.com | Mike Rosenstein Despite not being able to secure a top-four seed, the Yankees won’t be playing against the Rays at Tropicana Field per the new MLB playoff format. Instead, all contests will be played at Petco Park in San Diego, which according to former manager Buck Showalter, is welcome news for the Bombers. Speaking with Michael Kay, the former Yankee skipper said: “It weights in the Yankees’ favor to get out of that ballpark. In fact, anything that distances what happened this year and says this is a new, fresh start, whatever happened doesn’t matter, we’re going to a new ballpark, we’re going to a different state, we’re going to a different league, everything’s new. And I think that bodes well for the Yankees because it takes some of those memories away.”

NY Post | Joel Sherman The three AL East managers not on the Yankees or Rays, Charlie Montoyo (Toronto Blue Jays), Ron Roenicke (Boston Red Sox, dismissed at the end of the regular season) and Brandon Hyde (Baltimore Orioles), discussed the Division Series, in an in-depth analysis detailing strengths of each team and potential deciding factors in the best-of-five affair.