NEW YORK _ For openers, the Yankees were more than ready.
With Luis Severino rewarding his manager's faith and Aaron Judge wrecking Oakland's bullpen strategy nine pitches into the game, the Yankees toppled the A's, 7-2, Wednesday night in the American League wild-card game in front of a noisy crowd at the Stadium that rivaled any that filled the building during last year's playoff run.
The Yankees' second straight wild-card win earned them a trip to Division Series, where they'll take on the Red Sox in a best-of-five. Game 1 is Friday night at Fenway Park.
The Yankees lost the season series to the Red Sox, 10-9, but won four of the last six meetings.
After the Yankees put it away with a four-run sixth, highlighted by late-season phenomenon Luke Voit's two-run triple off the wall in right, "We want Boston!" chants reverberated throughout the Stadium. The sixth broke open what had been a 2-0 game. That lead was provided when Judge took right-hander Liam Hendriks, the A's "opener," deep to left-center in the first.
Severino, Aaron Boone's mildly surprising choice to start the game over J.A. Happ and Masahiro Tanaka, was terrific. He allowed two hits and struck out seven over four innings in which his slider was as good as it's been all season. Severino, who lasted one-third of an inning in last year's wild-card victory over the Twins, walked four.
He departed with two on and none out in the fifth but Dellin Betances took it from there. He escaped that jam, then struck out two in a perfect sixth inning.
With the sellout crowd not yet in their seats, Severino struck out leadoff man Nick Martini on three pitches, the last a called strike on a 98-mph fastball. Matt Chapman bounced to third and Jed Lowrie struck out swinging at a 98-mph fastball to end the 10-pitch inning.
The Yankees quickly went to work on Hendriks, with leadoff man Andrew McCutchen working a five-pitch walk. Hendriks fell behind Judge 2-and-1, then delivered a get-me-over, 96-mph fastball that Judge rocketed to the bleachers in left-center for his fifth postseason homer. His first, a two-run shot, came in last year's wild-card game.
The A's got their first baserunner with one out in the second when Matt Olson worked a walk. Severino struck out Stephen Piscotty looking at a full-count slider and ended the inning by striking out Ramon Laureano swinging at another nasty slider.
Righty Lou Trivino came on for the second and saw two hitters immediately reach, Didi Gregorius on an infield hit and Miguel Andujar on a walk. Sanchez hit into a 6-4-3 double play and Trivino struck out Gleyber Torres to end the threat.
Severino walked Marcus Semien to start the third but retired three straight, getting his sixth strikeout.
The pitcher faced his first real trouble in the fourth as the A's loaded the bases with two outs _ aided by a throwing error by Andujar that Voit couldn't scoop from the dirt _ but Severino struck out Semien swinging at a 99-mph fastball.
Severino came out for the fifth and allowed a leadoff single to Lucroy, Oakland's first hit. He got ahead of Martini 0-and-2 but saw him pound a fastball to right for a single. In came Betances, who had at least one strikeout in 63 of 66 appearances this season, to face Chapman. He flied to Judge for the first out and Lowrie flied to center for the second. Betances struck out Davis to end the threat, giving the A's a small army of seven stranded.
There was no drama in the sixth as Betances struck out two in a perfect inning.
The Yankees tacked on against Fernando Rodney in the bottom half. Judge tomahawked a 0-and-1 fastball down the first-base line for a leadoff double. Hicks followed with a double into the gap in right-center to make it 3-0. A wild pitch, with Stanton at the plate, put Hicks on third. All-Star Blake Treinen came on and walked Stanton, putting runners at the corners for Voit. Stanton stole second and Voit, who hit 10 homers over his last 23 games, nearly had another, settling for a two-run triple. Gregorius' sacrifice fly made it 6-0.
The A's avoided the shutout when Davis hit a 2-run homer in the eighth inning off Zach Britton.
Giancarlo Stanton hit his first postseason homer, a solo shot, in the eighth.
