Yankees road to an ALDS comeback will take a village and a cleaner effort

In theory, for a team that needs to win three straight games to extend its season, the Yankees should have a shot with Max Fried, Carlos Rodón and Cam Schlittler in line to start. Except there are two ways to sabotage the strong pitching the Yankees pinned their October hopes on, and they have shown both through the first two games of the ALDS: horrific defense and a disappearing lineup.  Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.And so, the Yankees returned home on the brink of elimination, needing to find their gloves and their bats starting in Game 3 on Wednesday against the Rays to avoid another early start to the offseason. “I feel like this group has done a really good job all year of bouncing back [from] a tough game, through some tough moments in the season and handled it all very well,” manager Aaron Boone said Tuesday.

“So that’s my expectation this time.It has to be.

Obviously we’re completely up against it now. “So we got to bring it on [Wednesday] night.But we also got to — it’s that level of focus with some calm to the whole situation, too, because you don’t want to get in a situation where you’re pressing out there, trying to do more than you’re capable of.

It’s about doing your job right now.” The Yankees will try to become the first team to come back from a 2-0 deficit in a best-of-five series since they did it in the 2017 ALDS against Cleveland. Boone said he was considering lineup changes for Game 3 against Rays right-hander Nick Martinez after using the same batting order for the first two games.Ben Rice and Austin Wells are a combined 4-for-12 with two home runs, two doubles and a walk, but the rest of the lineup is just 1-for-46 with two walks. “The rest of us got to step up a little bit more,” said Ryan McMahon, who could be replaced by José Caballero at third base, with his bat not offering much and his...