Yankees Staring At Unsettling Red Sox Reality With Season On Brink
Mike Vaccaro, Post
In an eyeblink, they are toe-tips-to-the-brink. In an eyeblink, the Yankees are looking at the potential of a postseason run that could be over after about 27 hours or so. In an eyeblink, the stubborn goblins that haunted them all season — bullpen, clutch hitting, second-guessable decisions — threaten to reduce this whole New York baseball season to a vapor trail.
Once upon a time, the Yankees defeated the Red Sox 19-8 in Game 3 of the 2004 ALCS. . . . [F]rom that moment until 9:15 or so Tuesday night, the teams have played 10 postseason games. The Red Sox have won nine of them.
This latest one was a 3-1 final . . . in which the Red Sox all but threw a kegger the moment Aaron Boone hopped out of the dugout to remove Max Fried with one out in the bottom of the seventh. Fried was brilliant and he had a lead.
There were 47,027 people inside Yankee Stadium. What you heard in that moment were 47,027 lending their voices to one collective groan. It was as if they could see what was coming. Probably because they'd seen it so many times before. They absolutely saw what was coming.
"I felt like we were lined up," Boone said. . . .
Here came Luke Weaver, jogging in from the bullpen with a 1-0 lead. He allowed a walk to Ceddanne Rafaela, a double to Nick Sogard and a single to Masataka Yoshida.
Weaver walked off trailing 2-1. And the Yankees soon followed. . . .
The Yankees had a chance to dent Garrett Crochet early and drub Aroldis Chapman late. They got their first two runners of the game on base, and their first three in the ninth inning, too.
None of them scored. When the Yankees do not hit home runs, that has been a chronic issue all season. . . .
And in the ninth, with those 47,027 on their feet and screaming themselves silly, with Chapman helpfully recalling an October time or three when he was wearing a Yankees uniform and serving up tasty meatballs, Giancarlo Stanton struck out, Jazz Chisholm Jr. flied out and Trent Grisham struck out. . . .
"We've been playing these tight games for a while now," said Boone . . . "We've been playing with a lot on the line seemingly every single day. . . . We'll be ready to go. . . . We're going to show up. I expect us to do pretty well."
Aaron Boone May Have Cost Yankees Their Season With Fateful Max Fried Decision
Joel Sherman, Post
Game 1 of this Wild Card Series pivoted on these decisions:
Red Sox manager Alex Cora entrusted his ace, Garrett Crochet, to throw a career-high 117 pitches.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone pulled his ace, Max Fried, after 102.
It was not the only reason the Yankees lost 3-1 on Tuesday night. It was not the lone area of condemnation or concern that immediately put their 2025 season on life support. But it was the most glaring element in why the Yankees need a two-game winning streak against the Red Sox or their season ends and the question if they can ever beat another heavyweight in October continues.
But Boone watched Fried and thought Luke Weaver was a better option in the seventh inning. And Cora watched Crochet and trusted him to work into the eighth and hand the ball to closer Aroldis Chapman. In the ninth inning, Paul Goldschmidt, Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger opened with consecutive singles off Chapman. Bases loaded no outs. The Yankees did not score.
There was something familiar here. The Yankees got their run on a homer . . . And no runs otherwise when the ball did not go over the fence.
[Fried] breezed through three innings on 37 pitches, but worked hard to get through two-on, two-out situations in both the fourth and fifth. Weaver was warming when Carlos Narváez . . . instead drew an exhausting nine-pitch walk.
Boone at that point decided that this would be Fried's last inning . . . But [Nate] Eaton hit into an inning-ending double play. So Boone decided to send Fried back out for the seventh for [Jarren] Duran, who was 0-for-12 in his career against the lefty.
Fried made an athletic play [for the first out] . . . Fried was at 102 pitches. He had thrown as many as 111 this year. . . . Fried said he had plenty left and would have been happy to go forward. But Boone was preprogrammed, feeling Fried had exerted heavily the previous three innings.
Boone said this was the lane he wanted for Weaver. . . . This felt like one of those decisions solidified five hours before a game rather than letting the game dictate this. Why not just tell Fried he had at least Duran and then go a batter at a time and see if Fried — the best the Yankees have — could finish seven? . . .
Cora and Boone were hired into these positions in 2018. This is their third playoff series against each other. Boston has won the previous two, and went on to win the championship in 2018. Boone's team has played five series against weak AL Central foes and has won all five with a 15-4 record. They have played seven other series, advanced once by beating the overmatched A's and otherwise lost the other six with a combined 7-19 record. Now, it is 0-1 versus Cora's Red Sox in 2025.
Yankees' Bullpen Fails Max Fried In Crushing Game 1 Loss To Red Sox
Greg Joyce, Post
No matter how good Yankees relievers looked down the stretch, they had inflicted enough pain during the course of the regular season to induce nightmares about what might happen in the playoffs.
The Yankees could not wake up from such a night terror on Tuesday . . .
After Max Fried carried a shutout into the seventh inning, hanging on to a one-run lead, Aaron Boone called on Luke Weaver and he quickly flushed it away . . .
Weaver had no room for error because Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet was in the midst of a dominant night, throwing 7.2 innings of one-run ball while striking out 11.
"We are going to show up [Wednesday], and I expect us to do pretty well," manager Aaron Boone said.
They will have to fare better against Brayan Bello, who has mostly had their number [this season] than they did against Crochet. After giving up a solo home run to Anthony Volpe in the second inning, the lefty retired 17 straight Yankees . . .
"He's the best pitcher in the game," Judge said. . . .
Fried, who had escaped jams in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings . . . record[ed] the first out of the seventh inning, then walked off the mound to a standing ovation. . . .
Weaver entered and quickly got ahead of Ceddanne Rafaela 0-2 before the Red Sox center fielder — who had the lowest walk rate on his team during the regular season — fought back for an 11-pitch walk.
No. 9 hitter Nick Sogard followed with a hustle double to right-center field — seemingly testing and taking advantage of Judge's injured arm — to put two runners in scoring position. The Red Sox then sent up pinch-hitter Masataka Yoshida, who pounced on the first pitch he saw and drilled it to center field to score both runs for the 2-1 lead. . . .
By the end of the night, the Yankees had their backs against the wall, just one game into the postseason.
Yankees' All-Or-Nothing Problem Rears Ugly Head Again In Loss That Puts Season In Peril
Jon Heyman, Post
As we all know, to be the best you need to beat the best (or second best), and they couldn't beat either Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet or star closer Aroldis Chapman, the ex-Yankee who's never a help to the Yankees, whether he was with them or against them.
The Yankees' 3-1 Game 1 wild-card loss to their reviled rival at The Stadium dropped them to 30-36 against teams that are still playing. . . . [T]hey haven't showed they can beat the better teams. . . .
[T]hey are short of expert at manufacturing runs. They started the first inning with two straight hits off Crochet (who should be close behind Tarik Skubal for Cy Young honors) and didn't score. . . .
The Yankees all-or-nothing approach topped that in the ninth inning, failing to score after starting with three straight hits, by Paul Goldschmidt, Judge and Bellinger. . . . Chapman got three outs to end the game and put the Yankees on the brink of elimination before they technically even got to October. . . .
"I feel great about our team," [Boone] told us before the game. "I think at this point, where we are as a club, this is the best group we've gone in with." . . .
There was a lot to lament afterward.
The Red Sox . . . no longer have power guys Rafael Devers (traded), Triston Casas (hurt) and Roman Anthony (hurt), but they manage to scratch out runs. Their lineup is more anonymous and less accomplished. But they do enough.
They may also have benefited from a quick hook of Fried . . .
Boone said later he felt Fried was finding more trouble in his last few innings, and figured he had his best three relievers — Luke Weaver, Devin Williams and David Bednar — "set up." But three batters into Weaver's outing — an 11-pitch walk, a double and a single — and the Red Sox had a 2-1 lead.
"How in the world do you take Fried out?" wondered one American League scout. "It made zero sense."
Luke Weaver Can't Replicate Previous Playoff Magic As Yankees Bullpen Flops In Loss To Red Sox
Dan Martin, Post
This was not the postseason debut the Yankees bullpen was looking for.
From Luke Weaver blowing a one-run lead in the seventh, to David Bednar allowing an insurance run in the ninth, Yankees relievers weren't as sharp as they'd been down the stretch — or enough to beat the Red Sox on Tuesday . . .
Weaver entered with one out in the top of the seventh, with the Yankees up 1-0. . . . [He] faced Ceddanne Rafaela, who's given Weaver fits in the past. In seven plate appearances against Weaver, Rafaela was 2-for-6 with a pair of homers, a walk and three strikeouts.
But Aaron Boone went to Weaver against the bottom of the lineup and after Weaver got ahead 0-2, he ended up walking the center fielder after Rafaela fouled off five pitches in the 11-pitch plate appearance. . . .
In the biggest spot, though, Rafaela won — and the Yankees were on their way to a loss. . . .
[A]fter the walk, Weaver said, "The momentum kind of switched."
Nick Sogard followed with a double that sent Rafaela to third, before pinch-hitter Masataka Yoshida changed the game with a two-run single to end Weaver's rough night.
Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s Postgame Body Language Says It All After Sitting Yankees' Game 1 Loss
Greg Joyce, Post
Jazz Chisholm Jr. never said he was upset about the decision to keep him out of the Yankees' lineup to start Game 1 . . .
His body language said it all, as Chisholm conducted a brief interview with reporters, spent mostly with his back towards the cameras as he rummaged through the hangers in his locker, as if he was searching for answers to the questions coming his way.
"We got to do whatever we got to do to win, right?" the typically talkative Chisholm said . . . "That's how I look at it."
Chisholm did not sound convincing or thrilled by the decision, in which Aaron Boone started the right-handed hitting Amed Rosario at second base against tough left-hander Garrett Crochet, against whom he was 6-for-9 in his career.
Rosario, who went 0-for-3 against Crochet before Chisholm replaced him in the top of the eighth, could have started at third base, except Boone wanted a superior defender there with ground-ball machine Max Fried on the mound, so he started José Caballero (who went 0-for-3 on the night) . . .
Aroldis Chapman narrowly avoids another playoff blowup as he closes out Yankees in Game 1
Mark W. Sanchez, Post
Aroldis Chapman carries an excellent October résumé that nonetheless contains enormous blemishes . . .
In pinstripes, there was the infamous, walk-off home run surrendered to Jose Altuve in Game 6 of the 2019 ALCS. There was the eighth-inning home run slugged by the Rays' Mike Brosseau that largely cost the Yankees the 2020 ALDS. With the Cubs, there was the game-tying home run served up to Rajai Davis in Game 7 of the 2016 World Series.
So as the Yankees loaded the bases without an out in Tuesday's ninth inning . . . the big and strong lefty might have had flashbacks.
If so, he was not about to acknowledge them. . . .
Among pitchers who logged at least 50 innings this season, Chapman's .131 batting average against was the best in the game. And yet Paul Goldschmidt, Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger stacked three straight singles that loaded the bases and put the tying run on second. As Giancarlo Stanton stepped to the plate, Yankee Stadium might have reached its highest decibel level.
"In that moment, you don't hear anything. You don't see anything," Chapman said. "You just kind of 100 percent focus on your catcher and the next pitch."
Perhaps Stanton did not see much, either, fouling off a couple triple-digit fastballs before swinging through a splitter. Jazz Chisholm Jr. followed with a shallow fly out to right field that did not score a run. The Yankees' momentum just about gone, Trent Grisham then whiffed on a 101.2 mph four-seamer. . . .
A player who had a roller-coaster career with the Yankees . . . said there was no extra motivation or satisfaction in putting away his former team.
"The past is the past," Chapman said. "Just happy to be able to close out the game."
Michael Kay Blasts Aaron Boone's Explanation For Pulling Max Fried In Yankees' Game 1 Loss
Andrew Battifarano
Aaron Boone's decision to pull Max Fried before the seventh inning is one of the reasons the Yankees' season is on the brink. . . .
Boone said after the game that he had initially planned to take Fried out after six innings, but after inducing a double play in that frame, the skipper said he wanted the lefty to face Jarren Duran — a left-handed hitter — in the seventh before exiting. Boone added that Fried did not ask to be pulled, but rather that he liked how Luke Weaver matched up against Boston's order — which was sending up the eighth, ninth and leadoff hitters.
Three batters later, the Red Sox had the lead after a walk, double and two-run single.
After watching Boone's comments, Michael Kay — who admitted he was initially OK with Boone's decision — said on YES Network's postgame show that he did not buy into the explanation.
"When I walked into the studio, I was all for the decision," Kay said. "You don't put your guy to where he can't go, and he hasn't gone that far all year. But when you hear Aaron Boone say, you know, after he came in in the sixth inning, just give me one more batter. Well, why? It's the eighth and ninth batters in the lineup. This is your ace. This is the guy you gave an eight-year contract to. That's why you give the guy the money to be that person."
Kay said the decision, after hearing Boone's comments, sounded like it was a "blueprint move."
"To me, that sounds like a blueprint move. That's not the time for Weaver," Kay said. "That's the time to keep in Fried. You keep Fried in until Fried can't go any longer."
Kay is such a tool.
He admits that he supported the move, but then it failed, so it's a terrible decision. Kay says one of the reasons to pull Fried is that he shouldn't be pushed to pitch "where he can't go, and he hasn't gone that far all year". Fried pitched 6.1 innings. So Kay is saying Fried had not pitched deeper into games than that?
Fried had 15 games – almost half of his 32 starts – in which he recorded more outs than he did last night:
7.0 innings on April 9
7.2 on April 20
7.0 on May 2
7.0 on May 7
7.1 on May 24
7.0 on June 10
7.0 on June 15
7.0 on June 25
7.0 on August 27
7.0 on September 2
7.0 on September 7
7.0 on September 18
7.0 on September 24
and
6.2 on April 15 and July 29
Fried faced 25 Red Sox batters. He faced 26+ batters 17 times this season.
Fried threw 102 pitches. He threw 103+ in eight of his starts.
Does Kay have dementia? Seriously.
Fan Comments at the Post:
Bafoone!!!
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