Juan Soto sends the Yankees to the World Series for the first time in 15 years

The New York Yankees are going to the World Series for the first time since Obama’s first year in office.

Juan Soto hit a three-run home run on Saturday to bring the American League pennant back to the Bronx for the first time since 2009. The 25-year-old superstar outfielder worked seven pitches against Cleveland Guardians pitcher Hunter Gaddis and with two batting, he hit a high, fast ball to center field. He watched with an unsteady expression as he let go of the staff, seeing how far it would go.

And then it landed on the center field fence. The Yankees won 5–2 in Game 5 of the American League Championship series to secure a 4–1 series victory.

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The crowd in Cleveland was three-quarters stunned silence and one-quarter the Yankees’ relentless chants. Traveling Yankees fans kept the Progressive Field crowd loud and boisterous long after the final, as chants of “Let’s Go Yankees!” echoed through a silent town far from Lake Erie, Ohio.

For Cleveland, it’s yet another chapter in an infamous list of heartbreaking moments and a continuing trend of October defeat for the evil empire.

Cleveland has lost four postseason series to the Yankees since 2017, Aaron Judge’s rookie season. That year, Cleveland was coming off its own American League pennant, a 102-win season and had the longest winning streak in American League history. But then, with a 2-0 series lead in the ALDS, Cleveland let the wild-card Yankees win three in a row.

The team hasn’t been the same since. The Yankees beat Cleveland again in the 2020 wild card series, the 2022 divisional series, and have now denied the city a World Series appearance. The franchise literally hasn’t been the same, brand-wise, as it was forced to change its name back then as well.

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But for the Yankees, Saturday’s victory marks just another step in a high-stakes quest to win their 28th championship.

Soto, the hero of the night, was traded last offseason with just one year left on his contract. Soto has proven to transform the power of the Yankees’ lineup this year, batting alongside Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. But the Yankees and general manager Brian Cashman knew they needed to win this year to make the trade worth it.

There is no guarantee that Soto will be back.

He could command the richest contract in MLB history this upcoming offseason. He could have gotten that kind of contract before he even hit that home run on Saturday. Now, the price could be even higher. His agent is infamous baseball super-negotiator Scott Boras, who has a history of yielding oversized contracts for his top clients.

There will be plenty of seats at the table for Soto’s winter services, and the bidding war will be fierce.

But before that, Soto and the Yankees have a World Series to play. They must now await the winner of the National League Championship series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets.

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The Dodgers lead the series 3-2 and can punch their ticket to the 12th World Series against the Yankees in their shared history with another home victory. The Mets would need to win two straight on the road to face their hometown rival in the first Subway Series since 2000.

No matter who the Yankees play, the expectations will be the same. But they hope this time they actually live up to the expectations of the Yankee brand for the first time in a long time.

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