MLB | Bryan Hoch: This won’t come as a surprise to anyone who watched the Yankees play Kansas City, but the New York bullpen was devastatingly good. Historically speaking, even. Her 15.2 innings without an earned run in the series is the third-most such innings in a single playoff series. Hoch reports on how Captain Aaron Boone manages and deploys his support staff. Left unsaid is how nice it will be to get the win in Game 4 and give these guys some rest as they prepare for Cleveland.

MLB | Brent Maguire: Speaking of Cleveland, Maguire takes a look at five possible X-factors for the Yankees in the upcoming ALCS. Three of the names are players who performed extremely well against Kansas City, while the other two dueled with the Royals. At the top of the list? Giancarlo Stanton, who hit another push-up for the Yankees in the playoffs. Here’s hoping he gets more out of where that came from.

ESPN: With the field set, two of ESPN’s top baseball writers, Jeff Passan and David Schoenfield, weigh in. The two talk about the most surprising turn of events for the Yankees so far and what needs to happen for the Bronx Bombers to move on. and identify the players most important to the Yanks’ return to the World Series for the first time in 15 years.

The Athlete | Tyler Kepner ($): We know the Final Four. It’s not hard to imagine every possible World Series. Kepner decided to rank them from most interesting to least interesting. Given the two remaining NL teams, it’s perhaps not surprising that the Yankees are among the two most interesting possibilities. At two: the Subway Series, where the Yankees and Mets faced off in the playoffs for only the second time. First: a resumption of a historic Dodgers rivalry made even more acute by the presence of each league’s presumptive MVPs, both of whom would be making their Fall Classic debuts.