ALWC 1: Red Sox 3, Yankees 1

Red Sox - 000 000 201 - 3  8  0
Yankees - 010 000 000 - 1  7  0

Nick Sogard sprinted from first to second base in the top of the seventh inning as Aaron Judge ho-hummed the ball back to the infield. That explosive hustle (which Sogard had shown back in the third when he tagged and took second on a fly to center) put Boston runners at second and third, with one out. Pinch-hitter Masataka Yoshida singled to center on the first pitch he saw. Two runs scored and the Yankees' 1-0 lead was gone.

That rally had begun (in part) because MFY manager Aaron Boone took lefty Max Fried (6.1-4-0-3-6, 102) out of the game after he retired the first batter of the inning. (Good move, Boone-y!) Luke Weaver got ahead of Ceddanne Rafaela 0-2, but Rafaela made him work after that, fouling off five pitches and taking a couple of very close balls (that many shittier umpires would have mistakenly called strikes), and earning an 11-pitch walk. Sogard then doubled to right-center. ESPN's Karl Ravech noted that the hit came on a changeup, which he said "had been his pitch all night", apparently thinking that Fried was still in the game. (Ravech had more than a few cringe-inducing moments behind the mic. More later.)

Sogard was clocked at 7.9 seconds from second to home, which ESPN told us was the fastest second-to-home sprint of his career!. Okay, so Sogard's career consists of only 61 games. I do not know how many of the 26 runs he has scored were second-to-home and how many of those required him to sprint the entire way, but this was the perfect time for him to be the speediest he can be.

[By the way, I'll pay $50 to hear the whole fuckin story of that woman's evening.]

Boone has been roasted for his poor and questionable decisions in recent postseasons. He won't escape angry MFY fans this year, either, because he chose not to give Fried a third trip through the lineup. Fried had allowed five baserunners in the previous three innings (single, double, three walks), but when he was pulled (after 25 batters), Boston's 8-9 batters were next. Boone couldn't have known Weaver would immediately shit the bed (lol), but if Fried had been allowed to finish the seventh, who knows? [This post might have started off something like this: "Only one game into the 2025 postseason and the Red Sox's backs are already against the wall."] (P.S.: Fried had a 1.55 ERA over his last seven regular season starts, five of which were seven innings in length. Just sayin'.)

Boston's acquisition of Aroldis Chapman last winter (after doing some due diligence) annoyed me. It's an odd feeling hoping players you dislike do well or having to rely on relievers whose performance in past postseasons is (at best) undeniably shaky (hey, Kenley). I should fuckin love the guy for how he ruined the Yankees' postseason chances in 2019 (!!) and 2020, but that's not how it works. Well, it turns out Chapman is still fuckin with the MFY!

Garrett Crochet (7.2-4-1-0-11, 116) gave the Red Sox the masterful performance necessary in Game 1 of a best-of-three series. He stumbled a bit out of the gate, putting runners on first and second after only four pitches. But a strikeout of Cody Bellinger and a Giancarlo Stanton GIDP took care of that. Anthony Volpe lined a hone run to right-center in the second to give New York a 1-0 lead. 

After that, Crochet was nearly perfect. He retired the next 17 batters, including striking out the side in the fifth and zipping through the seventh on five pitches. Manager Alex Cora had Garrett Whitlock and Chapman warming up in the pen in the seventh inning, but he didn't give Crochet the hook until there were two outs in the eighth. Crochet needed eight pitches to retire his final batter, Austin Wells, on a full-count fastball at 100 mph, his fastest pitch of the game.

Cora called on Chapman with the potential tying run on first (Volpe singled). Right away, Chapman starting behaving like the Chapman I feared I'd see. He made two throws to first and had a 2-2 count on Caballlero -- and then he threw over to first again. Which is now against the fuckin rules -- and so Volpe skipped over to second on what GDGD called a "disengagement violation" (also scored as a balk).

Caballero then lined a shot to right center -- it was hard to tell if it would fall in for a hit. Rafaela moved over and braced for a two-handed catch, but Wilyer Abreu came sprinting over from right and caught the ball mere inches from Rafaela's glove, while also coming alarmingly close to colliding with him. 

That inning-ending out gave Red Sox fans a sudden heart attack. They would experience a slow motion heart attack in the following inning. Thankfully, Boston added an insurance run. With two outs, Trevor Story singled to left, stole second and scored on Alex Bregman's one-hop double to left. Chapman had a two-run lead and needed only three outs. That shouldn't be too difficult, right?

The Yankees had the top of the order up in the bottom of the ninth. Every customer in the park was also standing. And this unfolded:

Paul Goldschmidt: ball, foul, single (sliced to right)
Judge: single (hard grounder up the middle)
Bellinger: single (dropped into left-center)

Bases loaded. Three baserunners on three consecutive pitches. No outs. Boston still led 3-1, but Chapman was now drenched in (flop?) sweat and there were tumbleweeds blowing through the bullpen. Whitlock was nowhere to be seen. Stanton was up. It looks like Chapman had a good season -- he pitched 11 near-perfect innings in August, retiring 33 of 34 batters (12 games, 11-0-0-1-14) -- and he decided to show me what he could do.

Stanton fouled a pitch off (100 mph), chased a fastball up (100), fouled off another (101). Chapman then took a little off, getting Stanton to fan on a splitter at 92. Chapman got ahead of Jazz Chisholm: foul ball (100), called strike (101). [Laura and I were watching the game, side by side on the couch. Me: "'Gotta make it interesting.'" L: "I was just about to say that!!" She couldn't remember the exact details, so I rattled them off. "Theo said that Clark's at-bat was for him the most terrifying moment of that entire series." (At the moment I cannot remember who interviewed Foulke for DLUWT. Was it me? What did he say about those moments? I'll have to check.)]

Chisholm lifted a fly ball to right. Ordinary distance, maybe a bit shallow. Abrue has a good arm -- Goldschmidt stayed where he was. Two outs. And Chapman had throw no balls to those two batters: eight pitches, all strikes. 

Trent Grisham was 0-for-3 with three strikeouts against Crochet. Chapman missed a bit high at 101 for a ball. A foul ball and other 101 heater at the top of the zone. But it, too, was called a ball by umpire Junior Valentine. [Never heard of him, but he debuted in 2020 and has worked full-time since 2023. His first name might really be Junior. He lives in Tennessee. (Does he have a farm?)] Chapman fired a slider (moseying along at an relatively arthritic 87) and Grisham took it for strike two. Then it was back to the fuckin gas, up and in, Grisham had no chance. Strike three. Red Sox win 3-1.

That was a classic (and ultimately extremely satisfying) example of the ol' Allow-Yankee-Fans-To-Believe-Their-Team-Is-Rallying-To-Win-In-The-Ninth-Inning-And-Get-Them-Anticipating-The-Inevitable-Victory-As-A-Sure-Fuckin-Thing-Because-They-Are-The-YANKEES-After-All-But-Then-Slamming-The-Door-In-Their-Faces-Making-Them-Come-Sooooooooooo-Close-To-Winning-But-Handing-Them-A-Loss-That-Feels-Ten-Times-Worse-Than-A-Regular-Loss-With-No-Failed-Rally (hereinafter, "AYFTBTTIRTWITNIAGTATIVAASFTBTATYAABTSTDITFMTCSCTWBHTALTFTTWTARLWNFR").

The first six innings were frustrating as hell. Bregman had a two-out single in the first and Sogard was left at second in the second. Carlos Narváez (who played six games with the Yankees in 2024) walked with two down in the third and raced to third when Nate Eaton flaired a double down the right field line. Jarren Duran got ahead 3-0 but Fried got two called strikes, the first in the lower half of the zone, the second in the upper half of the zone, and then he went slightly above the zone and Duran chased it for strike three.

Boston got two runners on in the fifth, as well, also after two outs. Rob Refsnyder walked and Story singled, but Bregman grounded to third. Narváez walked with one out in the sixth, before Eaton grounded into a 4U-3 double play.

Isn't Karl Ravech a Red Sox fan? In the bottom of the sixth, Caballero hit a 2-0 pitch to straight-away center. Ravech's voice rose in pitch and volume as if the ball was going to sail well over the outfielder's head and over the fence. But Rafaela caught it, with minimal effort, right where the outfield grass becomes the warning track. And then -- only three pitches later -- he truped himself again! Goldschmidt lined a ball to left. Duran moved to his right and close to the track and reached up and snared the ball, which was in no danger of landing among the equally-fooled rabble beyond the field of play. Judge stepped in and I feared Ravech might hurt his vocal chords if Judge got one in the air anywhere. But he chased a cutter up and away for a strikeout. 

During Rafaela's 11-pitch plate appearance in the seventh, Ravech made an offhand comment about how the postseason was "where Yankees become legends". David Cone and Edwardo Perez were the other two guys in the booth. Both of them were not needed, as Ravech was also providing "color". Early in the game, Perez referred to Stanton as "G" and pointed out that when Judge is at bat, he's already in "scoring position". [Actually, every single major league batter than has ever played the game has been in scoring position when he steps into the batter's box. Every single one. Even the guys who are not as eye-poppingly as tall as Judge. Man, he's so fuckin tall. The Yankees have to ship a special bed for him on road trips. And he can't find pants that fit, anything he wears looks like shorts. He's always arguing at fancy restaurants: "No, I am wearing pants, but because I make Paul Bunyan look like Danny DeVito, they just look like shorts."

In the fourth, Cone said that with a 3-2 count on Duran, Fried "needs to get the pitch in the strike zone". And then he repeated it, in case (I guess) some of the viewers missed that key nugget of inside knowledge from a fellow moundsman.

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To All Fascists: Fuck off and fuck you!

Welcome to Stade Fasciste, the battleground of the Red Sox-Yankees best-of-three AL Wild Card series, beginning this evening.

The Red Sox went 9-4 against the Yankees this season. Fun Fact: The last time the Red Sox lost a postseason series to the MFY, Boston pitchers Garrett Crochet and Brayan Bello were too young for kindergarden -- they were both four years old.

Game 1 starters Crochet and Max Fried travelled similar paths in 2025. Boston traded for Crochet the day after the Yankees signed Fried to a sizeable 8/218 contract. Crochet led MLB with 255 strikeouts . He also topped the AL with 205.1 innings; Fried was tied for second with 195.1. They each made 32 starts this season and they finished 3-4 in AL ERA (Crochet 2.59, Fried 2.86). They also had similar records: (Crochet 18-5, Fried 19-5).

Crochet started four games against the Yankees this year. The Red Sox won them all.

Bello will start Game 2 on Wednesday. Lucas Giolito, the probable starter for Game 3, will not be available because of "elbow issues". Connolly Early is a likely replacement

The three other Wild Card series:

Tigers at Guardians
Padres at Cubs
Reds at Dodgers

Everything Trump touches dies. Let's hope that continues.