Payton Tolle (#70, 23, LHP, 9-6, 3.03) vs. Cam Schlittler (#31, 25, RHP, 14-6, 1.95)
RED SOX
DH R. Anthony L
C A. Rutschman S
1B W. Contreras R
RF Wilyer Abreu L
CF C. Rafaela R
2B Nick Sogard S
LF Jarren Duran L
SS Trevor Story R
3B Caleb Durbin R
YANKEES
1B P. Goldschmidt R
DH Ben Rice L
RF Heliot Ramos R
LF C. Bellinger L
SS G. Lombard R
3B Amed Rosario R
2B A. Volpe R
CF S. Jones L
C Austin Wells L
It is SHOCKING how bad of a lineup the Yankees are running out there in a fucking PLAYOFF GAME.
Anthony Volpe is starting in a playff game. Jazz must be fuming. Judge must also be fuming that he’s not on the roster.
Oh well, this season will probably be over with soon enough.
About the Author
Tolle has a reverse to no split so Boone constructed a batting order meant to combat a LHP worth a big split.
Outcomes based stats don’t matter in Cashman’s world because the playoffs are a crapshoot.
vj – those are regular season stats and this is the postseason.
hth
Aaron Boone is 25-27 in playoff games as Yankee manager. Can he get to 500?
Only if the Yankees sweep, which is hard to see.
I honestly feel pretty good about the 2027 Yankees (assuming that there is a season). A full year of Jones, a full year of Lombard, possibly a full year of Judge, a full year of Garcia, a strong rotation, and presumably Bednar back to close (Schmidt should be back for the bullpen, too). Grisham and Jazz will be gone, and they MIGHT pick up a third baseman and just cut McMahon (Rosario and Goldy are likely gone, too). Maybe they try Garcia at third during the offseason? He’s looked so good at first that I think he might be able to cover the hot corner.
I DON’T feel particularly good about the 2026 Yankees, however.
Another year of Boone and a bad bench thanks to Cashman.
Your confidence in the front office is delightful.
They don’t score for Cam, so why will tonight be any different?
Boone looking for a sweep, a Bosox sweep.
Will Tolle have the Power of Now?
Don’t know how I’d ever missed this classic essay from Moe Berg. No wonder he made it as a spy. So much here on strategy, deception, sign-stealing. Hopefully this gift link gets past the paywall:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1941/09/pitchers-and-catchers/589858/?gift=rZjToifJRgieCBpQX4ZotiP6m43gfiiedvWHhj3gXcQ&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
Tolle 0.69 era vs Yankees this season, 13ip, 18Ks.
We play today we … eh, who cares, whatever.
That’s pretty much exactly my approach to this series. Whatever. They don’t have Aaron freakin’ Judge. How excited can I possibly get?
Hey, Cam, how about you fucking just put away this guy?
Well, that was pretty much terrible. A 10-pitch single. What the fuck, Cam?
Fifteen pitches, 1 out, 2 on base. Need a DP.
EDIT: Only 1 on base.
2 on base?
Opps, my bad, 1 on base.
I thought you were ahead of me and I was missing something. I was freaked.
Twenty-two pitches are too many.
You can’t get TOO pissed about that inning. The reason Rutschman was batting second was specifically BECAUSE he is such a pest. He took care of the other batters with not a lot of pitches.
This jabroni’s mustache irritates me. Time to put in a new facial hair policy for the away team.
I look at this lineup and I’m reminded of the classic Jack Clark quote:
“Are we trying to win?”
No one cares that these guys are from Massachusetts.
Great double, though, Rice!
I believe you can use that against them in arbitration.
Boy, Ramos sure looked overmatched, huh?
Man, he had a 3-1 count and Tolle had to throw it down the middle, and he did…and it was right past Belli. Ugh.
At least it wasn’t, like, an 8-pitch first or anything like that.
The trouble with playing Boston is I’d enjoy beating Toronto or Houston just as much but losing to Boston would suck more. At least it’s not at Fenway.
Is it just me or has Rosario looked a lot less shitty at third in the last month or so?
Well he’s not Hector whatapairofhands Lopez
Yes it’s hard to win 15in a row but Chad Tracy had very little to do with it. It’s just one of those statistically freaking things. It’s like when Rob Thompson took over in Philadelphia, they got hot, two years later he was gone.
Yeah, I found it hilarious how Thompson got all of that credit, and then the same exact thing happened to him this season.
You can’t point to that hit as an example of Lombard being “hot.” Come on. Glad he got the hit, though, of course!
They all look like a LD in the box score.
Rosario is such a waste out there.
Rosario in the lineup just for moments like this.
What a play by Raffaela to hold Lombard to just one base!
71% challenge approval rate doesn’t mean much if you don’t challenge all of the correct challenges.
I think we all knew Austin Wells was going to come through with a hit there. Totally. 100%. No doubt.
What an awful fucking throw by Abreu.
A run, yay.
Love the run, but they really probably should have had Lombard there with a good throw.
Boone barely played Rosario down the stretch. He started 8 games over the last month, wasn’t hittingLHPs this season. Why tonight?
Especially when Volpe could just play third, right?
This is the best bad idea we have, sir.
Wasn’t Roman Anthony, just like The Martian, supposed to be a superstar?
Kalshi does what parimutuel betting has been doing for years.
Oh, it’s way dirtier than that.
They keep talking about how much fun Tolle is having out there, and he just looks like a regular dude. It’s so weird.
Everybody was predicting low scoring, O/U was 6.5.
The Yankees average 3.2 runs per game for Cam, so no surprise.
I gotta say, putting the ball in play goes a lot farther than striking out.
Edit: okay, not *that* much farther.
Not a fan of that pathetic 1-2-3 inning.
Red Sox love a staple of baseball broadcasting. Is JBJ in the HOF yet? No he’s playing Banana Ball.
“Look at the way he treated the foul line like a force field like a goofball,” and he’s just not going for a ball because it’s clearly a foul ball. It’s SO odd.
We all knew the Yankees can’t hit. We all knew Schlittler is great. Something’s gotta give.
I just don’t get his approach to Rutschman. You were ahead of him 0-2, just go at him!
And there he did. Phew.
So many pitches.
3-2. Why, Cam, why?
Contreras looking mighty foolish there
Yeah, that part was good.
Cam only about six pitches behind schedule for him to be able to go seven. I can live with that.
It would be better if they, you know, gave him some fucking run support so that he could leave the game earlier.
Run support against a good LHP?
Run support?
rosario could have done that
Shouldn’t you know if Rosario can bunt?
It wasn’t even CLOSE, dude. What the fuck, blue?
That was clear.
That’s why you put Rosario in baby!
Seven man bench but only two catchers. Stupid suggestion.
Yeah, that made no sense.
Ready for more RISP Fail. Volpe is the first.
Now Spencer with a LD DP.
Good ol’ fashioned shitty Yankee baserunning.
Unlucky
Durbin made up for his error. Great play Durbin. Brooks Robinson could never have made that play. Yada, yada, yada,
It was so weird, because it was just bad baserunning/bad luck, right? Who DOESN’T make that play?
Girardo: “It wasn’t bad baserunning.” Well that explains a lot.
I was gonna say that should be it for Rosario.
“One nothing doesn’t feel warm and fuzzy.” WHAT!
Red Sox were 21-21 in one run games, Yankees were 17-22. What are these guys talking about.
Walking Duran is ungood. At 85 pitches and counting.
What now Rodon for 6-7 or 6-7-8?
I imagine Cam for the 6th and batter to batter in the seventh, and then Rodon for the rest of the 7th and then the 8th.
Yankees quietly 1-7 RISP.
Why should they change who they are now?
Wells was .122/.192/.244 in 99 PA vs. LHP on the season.
That’s why a third catcher might’ve been an idea.
The ballgargling for Tolle in this game is reminiscent of Tim McCarver waxing rhapsodic about Nomar.
He’s legitimately a good player, but yeah, holy shit, for a dude who didn’t even get through five innings.
Rice!
Kept carrying. I wasn’t sure.
Boone-like strategy result.
Not sure I’m loving the idea of Rodon making his first relief appearance in game one. Shades of Nestor.
Heliot buzz kill.
Alternatives keep Schlittler in? Headrick, Blackburn, Bednar for 4?
Cam, batter to batter.
Why would you wear red themed Yankees gear when they are playing the Red Sox, Spike?
Great 6th by Cam.
Channel your inner Dusty and let him throw 150.
With a two-run lead, I think you “have” to use the normal guys – Headrick for one, Blackburn for one, and Bednar for one.
But I’d prefer they just, you know, SCORE SOME FUCKING RUNS, and then use Yarbs for three.
A walk would’ve been nice.
Yeah, not a good idea to swing at 3-1 there.
What I don’t get about using McMahon for defense so early is that you can’t pinch hit for him, and that would have been a good spot to give Stanton a shot, right?
Whoa! Cam back out.
Not loving it
One out single, Blackburn in,
Too much of the Yankee approach is “Hey, Paul Blackburn, who has never done this before, be perfect or we’re fucked!”
DP, sweet.
Their hard-to-rely-on Blackburn strategy worked there, at least.
Down two, one out 7th, “We could feel the momentum change.”
7th seems like a pretty good lots o’ runs inning.
Or a strand the bases loaded with no out inning.
Should’ve never loaded the bases.
Rice comes through, 3-0.
Hopefully this doesn’t mean Grisham as a defensive replacement.
A DP for another run, 4-0.
What an amazing play by Sogard.
Volpamentals
Oh STFU Merlino
I didn’t know the Red Sox started the season poorly then turned their year around. Good to know.
I like runs.
You and Logan.
Remember when we’re all worrying about Rice? A billion Chinese can’t be wrong.
Rice for the Pythag.
He’s not going to see another strike for the rest of the series.
Okay can we shut the fuck up now about what a great job the Sox are doing getting the Yanks to burn their pen?
Yeah, there are certain themes that they just keep hitting OVER AND OVER tonight.
It’d be fun to read Sons Of Sam Horn but I don’t have the patience to slog through 100 posts.
But the silver lining is that the Yanks needed native Massholes to beat the sawx, so it really was a win.
Schreiber proof?
Might even be Doval-proof. 😎
What a game for Rice.
We beat the Rex Sox but can we beat the Red Sox?
Yay Schlitt. Yay slam. Yay Mo. Yay win.
I hope they didn’t score all the runs they’re gonna score in this series in this one game. The next two games seem portentous.
Yay win! Yay Cam! Yay Ben!
Hopefully this team can foul off a lot of pitches tomorrow and wear Sonny Gray out early.
It’s kind of annoying that Sonny became good and now he is playing against us when he sucked so bad as a Yankee.
It really is SUPER annoying.
I am cautiously optimistic that two runs might be enough to win behind a tandem of Fried (5 innings), Warren (3 innings), and Bednar (1 inning).
My model fairs after game 1, for whatever it’s worth:
Win WC: -356 (78.1%)
Win DS: +148 (40.4%)
Win LCS: +388 (20.5%)
Win WS: +1179 (7.8%)
DraftKings prices (incl. vig):
Win WC: -380
Win DS: N/A
Win LCS: +240
Win WS: +650
Kalshi:
Win WC: 81%
Win DS: 42%
Win LCS: 33%
Win WS: 13.4%
Katherine S
Pitchers in MLB History thru 3 career Postseason games with:
☑️ERA below 1.00
☑️At least 24 K
☑️Fewer than 20 Baserunners Allowed
… Cam Schlittler 😤
Rice and Schlittler. I think Ex and I were following Rice in the minors but I never even heard of Schlittler. I mean Cash called up Alan Winans before Schlittler last year.
Wow. What a game!
And that’s with intentionally tying one hand behind their backs with that ridiculous starting line-up.