Yanks end regular season in much the same way they’ve concluded the majority of their games of late; loss to Boston drops Bombers to Wild Card

The 2010 Yankees certainly had their chances to lock up home field advantage for the first two rounds of the playoffs, but a 13-17 run in September/October to close the season out ensured that that would not be the case. The Yankees in the 162nd and final game of the regular season, falling to 95-67 for the year and assuring the Rays the AL East crown regardless of whether Tampa Bay won or lost their contest with the Royals.

The Yankees will enter the 2010 postseason as the American League Wild Card for the fourth time in the 16 seasons the Wild Card has existed in Major League Baseball — a period of time that has seen the Yankees clinch 15 postseason berths — and will start the American League Division Series this Wednesday at Target Field in Minnesota, start time to be determined.

We’ll have a ton more on the Yankees’ wretched month — their first losing September since 2000 — along with our massive ALDS preview during the next couple of days, but losing two of three this weekend to Boston with a chance to win the AL East definitely stings. In fact, Boston sure seemed to enjoy its spoiler role, taking four of six from the Yanks during the last two weekends of the season, tying the season series at 9-9. Had the Yankees won just one more game against the Sox (or the Rays, or the Blue Jays, for that matter) we might be talking about the Yankees starting the postseason at home against Texas.

While I’m not overly concerned about the idea of starting the playoffs on the road — the Yankees had the second-best road record in the AL, after the Rays — you’d still rather see ALDS Game 1 start at Yankee Stadium, if only for the silly mental aspect of it. Not that anything that happened previously will inform any of the results of the 2010 postseason, but not only have the Yankees never won a postseason series as a Wild Card, the only time they won an ALDS without home field advantage was in 2000 against the A’s.

As for Game 162, was , which means he gave up four runs over five innings, and was , limiting the damage to two earned runs over 7 2/3 innings. hit his 29th home run, and the team once again mounted a too-little too-late ninth inning rally. Also, I know ragging on seems to be a fairly popular pastime of certain Red Sox fans, but all he ever seems to do is get big hits against the Yankees, this time opening the scoring up with a two-run bomb. Drew, and were like a three-man wrecking crew against the Yanks these last two weekends, filling in quite well for what used to be ‘s and ‘s role of getting hits in what felt like every at-bat. Given that there are multiple Sox players every season that always seem to get hits in every at-bat against the Yanks, I wonder who on the Yankees Boston fans feel always kill the Red Sox. I guess and ?

And so the Yankees end a rather frustrating season that saw them go 56-32 in the first half and 39-35 in the second. I find myself surprised to say that I found myself agreeing with Michael Kay in the postgame as far as his assertion that this year’s team could go anywhere from repeating as World Series champs to falling in the first round, and while that’s obviously the easiest prediction in the world to make, it’s pretty apt. The field is incredibly talented, and this Yankee team does not feel like a squad destined to win it all the way last year’s team felt going into it. Perhaps I’ll change my outlook during the next few days as we start to pore over the numbers and analyze the match-ups against the Twins, but right now the path to the AL pennant looks wide open.

Thankfully all of the annoying losses over the last 50 days or so are wiped from the slate starting now, and all that matters is how this Yankee team can operate starting Wednesday night. If they actually play to their abilities, they’re certainly capability of beating any and all comers.