NEW YORK — The Yankees play their biggest games of the season this week and their focus isn’t entirely on beating the Royals to win their Division Series.

Not even close.

Aaron Judge, DJ LeMahieu, Gleyber Torres, Austin Wells and other Yankees have homes in Tampa. Owner Hal Steinbrenner is also located there.

They’re all concerned about Hurricane Milton, a Category 4 storm with a 10-foot wave that is expected to pound the Tampa Bay region before midnight Wednesday and last into the wee hours of Thursday morning.

“When you’re in the thick of the playoffs and everything we play for, there’s always a dose of perspective that comes in and that’s what Yankees manager Aaron Boone said before Wednesday night’s Game 3 at Kauffman Stadium. “Anyone who knows that we have a handful of guys that obviously have a place there or are based there and it’s an uncertain time.”

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Pitchers Marcus Stroman and Clayton Beeter and others hoping to be back on the Yankees’ active roster for the ALCS and World Series were in Tampa throwing at the spring training facility on Tuesday before moving to safer ground by flying to New York to take.

The Yankees are using Steinbrenner Field, their spring training field, as a shelter “for our employees there and their families,” said VP Jason Zillo, vice president of media.

Hurricane Milton is expected to be the region’s worst in perhaps 100 years.

The center of the storm is expected to impact 60 miles south of Tampa, near Sarasota, Florida. More than 6.5 Floridians in the Tampa Bay area were reportedly evacuated Wednesday.

“Historic, catastrophic, life-threatening – all these words sum up the situation,” National Weather Service forecaster Austen Flannery in Tampa told USA Today.

Many Yankees are very concerned. They’ll look to tackle what awaits them this week in their best of five ALDS, which was tied 1-1 heading into Game 3, and then keep an eye on what happens in Tampa.

“We just have to pray for the best and hope for people’s safety,” Boone said.

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Randy Miller can be reached at [email protected].