2018 American League Wild Card Game

The 2018 American League Wild Card Game was a play-in game during Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2018 postseason contested between the American League's (AL) two wild card teams, the New York Yankees and the Oakland Athletics.^[1] The game took place at Yankee Stadium on October 3, starting at 8:08 pm EDT.^[2] The Yankees won, 7–2, and advanced to face the Boston Red Sox in the American League Division Series.^[3]

2018 American League Wild Card Game

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Oakland Athletics 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 4 0 New York Yankees 2 0 0 0 0 4 0 1 x 7 7 1
Date	October 3, 2018
Venue	Yankee Stadium
City	The Bronx, New York
Managers	Bob Melvin (Oakland Athletics) Aaron Boone (New York Yankees)
Umpires	HP: Jim Wolf 1B: Greg Gibson 2B: Gerry Davis (crew chief) 3B: Alan Porter LF: Will Little RF: Pat Hoberg
Attendance	49,620
Television	TBS
TV announcers	Brian Anderson, Ron Darling, Dennis Eckersley, and Lauren Shehadi
Radio	ESPN
Radio announcers	Jon Sciambi and Eduardo Pérez
← 2017 ALWC 2019 →

This game started a part of the postseason where TBS broadcast postseason games because of the Fox's contract holdout with Optimum. Said holdout would continue until the 2018 World Series.

Background

Main articles: 2018 New York Yankees season and 2018 Oakland Athletics season

New York entered the game with a 100–62 record, while Oakland was 97–65. They met six times during the regular season, with each team winning three times.^[4]

This was New York's seventh playoff appearance as a wild card team. Since MLB's addition of a second wild card team in 2012, the Yankees had previously appeared in two Wild Card Games, a loss in 2015 and a win in 2017. The Yankees' appearance represented the first time a 100-win team played in a Wild Card Game. The most recent time that a 100-win team had not won their division was the 2001 Athletics.^[5]

This was Oakland's third playoff appearance as a wild card team. They had previously appeared in one Wild Card Game, a loss in 2014.

Further information: List of American League Wild Card winners

This was the fourth time the Yankees and A's met in postseason play—the Yankees had won the three prior meetings: the 1981 ALCS (3–0), 2000 ALDS (3–2), and 2001 ALDS (3–2).^[6]

Game results

Aaron Judge hit a two-run home run in the first inning.

Line score

Wednesday, October 3, 2018 8:08 pm (EDT) at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York, 70 °F (21 °C), partly cloudy

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Oakland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	2	4	0
New York	2	0	0	0	0	4	0	1	X	7	7	1
WP: Dellin Betances (1–0)   LP: Liam Hendriks (0–1) Home runs: OAK: Khris Davis (1) NYY: Aaron Judge (1), Giancarlo Stanton (1) Attendance: 49,620 Boxscore

Luis Severino was the starting pitcher for the Yankees, while the Athletics used Liam Hendriks as an opener.^[7] The Yankees scored two runs in the first inning, as Aaron Judge hit a two-run homer off of Hendriks. The Yankees added four runs in the sixth, on back-to-back doubles by Judge and Aaron Hicks, followed by a walk to Giancarlo Stanton and a triple by Luke Voit. In the eighth inning, Khris Davis hit a two-run home run for Oakland and Stanton hit a home run for New York.