As Max Fried fired the primary pitch in Sport 1 of Tuesday’s Wild Card matchup between the Yankees and Pink Sox, a faint chill and thunderous eruptions signaled postseason baseball and a brand new chapter within the sport’s most storied rivalry had been about to start within the Bronx.
Aaron Decide had simply heard MVP chants throughout pregame introductions. Boston’s Alex Cora and Alex Bregman had been jeered with out mercy. Fan favourite Willie Randolph threw out the primary pitch earlier than an easily-excitable crowd. Hopes had been excessive for a Yankees group — recent off an uneven season and a failed try at a division title that may have secured a coveted bye — searching for its first World Sequence championship since 2009.
“This is my seventh postseason,” Aaron Boone stated earlier than the sport. “I think at this point where we are as a club is the best group we’ve gone in with. I like the way we’re playing.”
He then added, “Hopefully we get it done.”
For some time, it appeared just like the Yankees would on Tuesday, as Anthony Volpe smoked a solo shot off Pink Sox ace Garrett Crochet within the second inning, sparking cheers for a hometown product who was booed all through the common season. Fried, pursued by Boston earlier than signing a record-setting contract with the Yankees over the winter, did his half, shoving for six.1 scoreless innings and 102 pitches.
Alas, that was not sufficient, because the Yankees fell, 3-1, after being dissatisfied by their offense and turning to a bullpen that has let the group down time and time once more this 12 months. Now the membership’s season is hanging within the stability, as yet another Wild Card loss will put a nail within the Yankees’ coffin.
“We’ve won a lot of series [where] we’ve dropped the first one and been able to win the next two,” Fried stated. “So it’s nothing new. We’ve got a lot of guys that believe in each other in here.”
“We’re confident,” Volpe added. “We gotta win two games.”
Luke Weaver, inconsistent at finest since getting back from a hamstring pressure in June, did the aid injury on Tuesday, issuing an 11-pitch stroll to Ceddanne Rafaela with one out within the seventh. Nick Sogard — operating on a sleeping Decide — adopted with a hustle double.
Pinch-hitter Masataka Yoshida then grounded a two-run single to heart, giving the noticeable pro-Pink Sox contingent in attendance one thing to clap for.
“I know there’s a lot of disappointed people, including myself,” Weaver stated, “but I just gotta be better.”
Crochet additionally happy the Boston devoted in his first postseason begin, as he retired 17 straight batters between Volpe’s house run and an eighth-inning single from the shortstop. Former Yankee Aroldis Chapman, whose final act with the group noticed him skip out on a pre-postseason exercise in 2022, then put a dagger in his former employer, escaping a bases-loaded, nobody-out jam within the ninth to file a four-out save.
Chapman’s shaky effort, which noticed Giancarlo Stanton and Trent Grisham strike out within the ninth, additionally overlapped with an insurance coverage run-scoring double from Bregman, who bought to Yankees nearer David Bednar within the prime of the ninth.
“We couldn’t pull away with one there, and it took two to tie it, but I like us getting a little chance to see Chapman there,” Decide stated after going 2-for-4. “We’ll see him over the next two days, that’s for sure.”
With their bullpen nonetheless untrustworthy — no impediment loomed bigger over Boone’s squad heading into postseason play — and their league-leading offense stifled by a Cy Younger contender, the Yankees now discover their backs firmly in opposition to the wall.
With the playoffs nonetheless of their infancy, one other loss within the best-of-three Wild Card Sequence would make for a brutal blow to a corporation making an attempt to avenge final 12 months’s World Sequence loss to the Dodgers, a sloppy displaying that had the backend of Los Angeles’ roster mocking the Yanks all through the offseason.
Nevertheless, the Yankees have already overcome adversity this 12 months, enjoying a few of their finest baseball down the stretch after a months-long summer season swoon took them out of first place within the American League East.
Nonetheless hopeful, they consider these lows can serve them now.
“We’ve been doing it all year,” Decide stated of the Yankees defeating the percentages, as each group that has misplaced the primary sport of the Wild Card Sequence has gone on to lose the set beneath the present playoff format.
The captain added that the group’s plethora of veterans and gamers with postseason expertise offers him religion on this membership.
Going through elimination, the Yankees will flip to Carlos Rodón in Sport 2 on Wednesday. He’s coming off his finest season in New York, although the lefty has not been notably efficient in opposition to Boston this 12 months.
Standing within the Yankees’ approach shall be Brayan Bello. The younger righty has dominated the pinstripers all through his profession and this season, however the Bombers’ bats must bounce again in opposition to Bello and Boston’s pitching workers in the event that they hope to play in additional than simply two postseason video games.
“We are going to show up tomorrow,” Boone stated, “and I expect us to do pretty well.”
Initially Revealed: September 30, 2025 at 9:26 PM EDT
