A Close Look at the Yankees Post Season Results
- Dusty Writes
- Jul 21
- 4 min read
By Dusty Writes
July 21, 2026
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The Yankees pitching in the postseason from 2010-2025 has often been very good, but the Yankees offense has not generated enough runs to win a World Series during this span.
In the 2011 ALDS, the Yankees lost a best of 5 series to the Tigers, 3 games to 2. In the 2 Yankees wins, they blew out Detroit by scores of 9-3, and 10-1. In the 3 losses, the Yankees lost 5-3, 5-4, 3-2. As almost always, in games they have to win, as in game 5 of the 2011 ALDS vs Detroit, the Yankees offense produced only 2 runs. The "run differential," very often a misleading stat, has the Yankees outscoring Detroit 28-17 in this series.
In the 2012 vs Detroit, the Tigers swept the Yankees 4 straight games. In 2 of those games, the Yankees pitching was very good, losing 3-0, and 2-1. The Tigers pitching completely dominated the Yankees lineup as the Yankees scored only 6 runs in the 4-game sweep !
In the 2015 ALWC game, the Yankees pitching only allowed 3 runs, but Houston shutout the Yankees 3-0 .
In the 2017 ALCS, the Yankees lost the first two games by the score of 2-1. They pitched great those two games and yet failed to win any of those games. In games 6 and 7, the Yankees scored 1 and 0 runs, as they lost both games and failed to win the pennant. They lost game 7 by a score of 4-0.
In the 2018 ALDS vs Boston, the Yankees lost Game 1 by a 5-4 score. In Game 4, in which they were eliminated, the Yankees lost 4-3.
In the 2019 ALCS vs Houston, the Yankees lost game 2 in 11 innings, 3-2.
In the 2020 ALDS vs Tampa Bay, as usual, in the 2 Yankees wins, they blew out the Rays by scores of 9-3, and 5-1. As usual, in their 3 losses, they lost close games, 7-5, and in the last game of the series (Game 5), they lost 2-1.
In a one -game 2021 ALWC vs Boston, once again the Yankees offense failed to come through, losing 6-2.
In the 2022 ALCS vs the Astros, the Astros swept the Yankees 4 straight games. The Yankees lost by scores of 4-2, 3-2, 6-5.
In the 2024 World Series vs the Dodgers, the Yankees lost 6-3 in 10 innings in Game 1, lost Games 2 and 3 by the score of 4-2. They lost Game 5 by a 7-6 score. The one game the Yankees won, they won 11-4.
The Yankees consistently blow out their opponents in their postseason wins but constantly lose the close games to the elite teams. This indicates a tremendous lack of fundamentals, situational baseball and managerial moves which often don't work out.
Whenever the Yankees are playing an elimination game or a chance to eliminate their opponents, their offense gets completely shut down almost all the time. Here is a recap of the above examples:
In the 2011 ALDS Game 5 vs Detroit, the Yankees scored only two runs and lost 3-2.
In Game 4 of the 2012 ALCS vs Detroit, in which they were eliminated, they lost 8-1.
In the one-game 2015 ALWC vs Houston they got shutout 3-0.
In the 2017 ALCS vs Houston, needing to win just one more game to win the pennant, the Yankees offense once again disappears, losing 7-1 in Game 6, and 4-0 in Game 7. Houston shutout the Yankees offense twice in a winner-take all game (in the 2015 and 2017 Game 7 postseason).
Needing to win Game 4 of the 2018 ALDS vs Boston to avoid elimination, the Yankees lose 4-3. Once again, the Yankees offense failed to come through in these games.
In the 2019 ALCS vs Houston, after winning Game 1 in Houston 7-0, the Yankees could have taken a commanding 2-0 lead. However, in Game 2, the Yankees lost 3-2 in 11 innings.
The Yankees continually follow the same pattern in the postseason. They win blowouts games, like the 7-0 win vs Houston, but usually lose the close games vs the better teams.
In the 2020 ALDS vs Tampa Bay, the Yankees lost the series 3 games to 2. Of course, they won easily in Game 1 by a 9-3 score, and Game 4 by a 5-1 score. As usual, they lost the close games such as 7-5 in Game 2, and in the deciding Game 5, they lost 2-1.
In the one -game 2021 ALWC vs Boston, once again the Yankees offense scored only 2 runs as Boston eliminated the Yankees 6-2.
In the 2022 ALCS in which the Astros swept the Yankees, the Yankees lost 3 close games by the scores of 4-2, 3-2, 6-5.
In the 2024 World Series vs the Dodgers, the Yankees lost 4 games by close scores of 6-3 in 10 innings, and 4-2, 4-2, 7-6.
The run differential once again is misleading as the Yankees won their only game by a huge 11-4 margin.
In the 2010 ALCS vs Texas and in last season's postseason vs Toronto, the Yankees pitching was terrible and even if the Yankees lineup in those 2- playoff series consisted of Ruth and Gehrig, the Yankees probably don't win those series as the Yankees E.R.A. in those 2 series were 6.58 and 8.47 !
Please see the following three charts:
3 Comments
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Thanks for this breakdown, Dusty, great work.
In the 12 lost series, the pitching was a fault in 5 (basically, if you give up >4.5 runs/game, you should lose; <4, you should win; and 4.0 to 4.5, you should break even). In the 11 series they won, they gave up 4 or fewer runs/game in all but one, so the pitching carried them. So this and Dusty's prior analysis shows that the hitters really have been the greater problem in the post-season. Of course, as Alan points out, pitching overall is better in the playoffs, so there's less margin for error with your own pitchers (and thus you certainly can't be giving up 6+ runs a game as the Yank…
Everyone pitches in the post-season or you don't win. No one is going to lose in the post-season regularly on the wrong end of a 9-7 score, but teams can lose regularly 2-1, 3-2. Look at the hitting. You hit and don't strike out, you gotta a better chance of winning.