Yankees greats give their blueprint to claw out of 0-2 ALDS hole

The Yankees remain the last team to come back from losing the first two games on the road in the ALDS, when they shook off a bad start in Cleveland in 2017 to win three in a row en route to the ALCS. 

And since the current playoff format was adopted in 1998 — and used every postseason other than 2012 — higher-seeded teams that won the first two games are 31-3, with 20 sweeps. 

But Aaron Judge, who was on that 2017 team, knows the deficit can be overcome — and so do some other Yankees who have accomplished the same thing. 

“Being down 0-2 didn’t faze us at all,” Tino Martinez said by phone on Monday. “We just played like we normally would and thought the other team had everything to lose.”