NEW YORK — There are a couple of mild surprises on the Yankees ’ 26-man roster for this week’s best-of-three Wild Card Series against the Red Sox.

The Yankees are going with 14 position players and 12 pitchers instead of 13 and 13, which they had throughout the regular season.

Righty Paul Blackburn was picked to be in the bullpen over left-hander Ryan Yarbrough.

Two players from their expanded Sept. 28-man roster had to be dropped: the Yankees chose starting pitcher Luis Gil and outfielder Austin Slater.

The Yankees kept Blackburn over Yarbrough because they’ll use extra starter Will Warren as their long man in the bullpen.

Warren was more suited to pitch in relief than Gil.

The Yankees like Slater’s right-handed bat against left-handed pitching, but they opted for two other right

See Full Page