Yanks top A’s for right to play Red Sox

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Aaron Judge got the party started with a two-run homer nine pitches in. Luis Severino let out a primal scream after escaping a bases-loaded jam with 100 mph heat. Giancarlo Stanton capped the mauling with monstrous drive.

From the first inning on, there was little doubt. Next stop for the Yankees: Fenway Park and the rival Red Sox.

Going ahead quickly against reliever-turned-starter Liam Hendriks, the Yankees pounded the Oakland Athletics 7-2 Wednesday night to win their second straight AL wild-card game.

Severino atoned for flopping in his postseason debut last year, and late-season spark Luke Voit added a two-run triple off Blake Treinen in a four-run sixth, missing a home run by inches. Stanton added 443-foot drive off the Oakland closer in the eighth that landed in left field’s second deck, completing a power show by the team that set a record for most home runs in a season.

After one of those boisterous Bronx celebrations that used to be an October staple, the Yankees will take a train to Boston for a best-of-five Division Series starting Friday, a matchup of 100-win heavyweights. By the late innings, the crowd was chanting “We want Boston!”

The Red Sox went 10-9 against the Yankees this year.

For Oakland, it the latest disappointing defeat in what has stretched into decades of disappointment. The A’s have lost eight straight winner-take-all postseason games since beating Willie Mays and the New York Mets in Game 7 of the 1973 World Series, and dropped all four of their postseason matchups against the Yankees.

Jonathan Lucroy and Nick Martini singled leading off the fifth, and Boone signaled for Dellin Betances to relieve.

This time, he had a no decision to savor.

Betances retired Matt Chapman on a liner to right and Jed Lowrie on a fly to center, then struck out big league home run champion Khris Davis with a slider. Betances gleefully backpedaled off the mound.

New York opened a 6-0 lead in the bottom half. Judge started it with a double — his grounder hit about a foot foul just beyond the batter’s box, then twisted fair down the line. Aaron Hicks followed with another doubles off Fernando Rodney.

Betances (the winner) pitched a perfect sixth and David Robertson a 1-2-3 seventh. Davis hit a two-run homer off Zach Britton in the eighth, and Aroldis Chapman finished the five-hitter.

Short on options, A’s managed Bob Melvin opted for baseball’s latest fad: starting a reliever.

Hendriks (the loser), coming off seven straight shutout starts of one inning in September following his return from the minor leagues, walked Andrew McCutchen leading off, and Judge drove a fastball over the left-field scoreboard.