From Bryan Hoch:
Backed into a corner and staring down elimination, the Yankees refused to let their season end quietly, coming out swinging to knock the Red Sox flat and keep their October dream alive.
Austin Wells ripped an eighth-inning single that sent Jazz Chisholm Jr. racing home with the go-ahead run as the defending American League champions stormed past the Red Sox with a 4-3 victory in Wednesday’s Game 2 of the AL Wild Card Series at Yankee Stadium, forcing a decisive showdown between the historic rivals on Thursday evening.
Wells connected with a 3-2 Garrett Whitlock changeup, lining the seventh pitch of his at-bat onto the grass in right field, where it landed just fair. Chisholm — clearly miffed after not being in the Game 1 lineup — was running on the pitch from first and charged around the bases at full speed, losing his helmet near third base and beating the throw to catcher Carlos Narváez with a headfirst slide.
“I mean, it was a lot of fun,” said Chisholm. “It came down to the wire, last pitch, last batter. We just kept on fighting and we prevailed.”
Well, THAT was nice and unexpected!
A tremendous win by the Yankees, and it was especially nice because Alex Cora decided to go ALL in on winning this series in two games (and, let’s be honest, it was probably the correct risk to take), and now the Red Sox pitching staff is in a bit of a state of disarray headed to Game 3, as I doubt Garrett Whitlock is available after throwing 44 pitches in this one.
It’ll be a battle of rookies, as both Yankee starter Cam Schlittler and Red Sox starter Connor Early will be making their first start against their team’s longtime rival…in a winner take all playoff game. CRAZY!
Luis Gil has pitched so well against the Red Sox, I really thought he had a chance to get the start, but Schlittler has just been pitching SO well lately that I guess I understand the logic of going with the rookie. I sure hope the nerves don’t get to him. We’ll know in the first inning, I imagine.
Anyhow, great win, and what a play by Jazz to score from first on a SINGLE. He deservedly gets the featured image.
They get to lose in three instead of two. It’s SOMEthing.
Thursday’s game changed from a 6:08 PM start to an 8:08 PM start, per MLB.
They could have lost or won either of these games – you have to win some of those, so great to see them win this one!
Thinking about how utterly statistically meaningless such a short series is between teams this closely matched. It becomes a matter sheerly of accident and heroics.
So the Yankees will be facing a pitcher they’ve never seen before. That always works out well.
It’s bizarre how I have NO idea what to expect for either Schlittler OR Early tonight.
We have Warren just in case.
.
I can’t remember the specific game, but there was a Yankees playoff game started by a hot Yankee pitcher and he preceded to get dog walked in the first and never made it out of there. Fortunately, the Yankees came back to win it.
Schlittler feels like that, but he could also be perfect through 8.
ETA: I think it was this one with Severino against the Twins: https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA201710030.shtml
NYY -160
BOS +140
(I’m showing NYY -120)
I’ve never understood what this means.
You bet $160 on the Yankees to win $100 if they win?
You bet $100 on the Red Sox to win $140 in they win?
correct
Kyle Tucker, in an injury-plagued season where he was playing with a fucking broken hand for a month, ended up with a .377 OBP.
Belli was .334, Grisham was .348.
I love Belli, but Tucker would be transformational on this team.
I’d probably just lead Tucker off.
Tucker LF
Judge RF
Rice 1B/C
Stanton DH
Chisholm 2B
Dominguez CF
Volpe SS
Wells C
McMahon 3B
You can even MAYBE afford to re-sign Grisham, too, and sign Tucker (but probably not). You could go out and sign a RHH 1B to platoon with Rice and Wells (with Rice catching on days he doesn’t play first).
I want Belli over Grish I think, but Tucker first of course
Oh sure, but I don’t think you can sign Tucker AND re-sign Belli. With Grisham, there would be at least a theoretical possibility of resigning him.
Boone undecided on catcher and first base tonight.
I have a decision for him: PLAY BEN RICE. What a moron.
Could play Ben Rice and PGold.
The fear is that the Sox will run wild on Rice, but honestly, his bat is so much better than anyone else not named Judge right now and Schlittler is pretty good at limiting baserunners (a sub 1 WHiP over his last 4 games and that INCLUDES a 5 BB walk game against Minny).
I’d roll out the same lineup as last night.
Boomer (why we would take any of his thoughts on BASEBALL seriously) suggests playing Rice and sitting Big G.
I can’t get behind that with a lefty out there. I’d just sit Goldy.
Goldschmidt is a better defender at 1B (probably marginally) and deadly against LHP.
Wells is not much of a hitter this season and although he is better defensively than Rice, it’s not THAT awful depending on the defensive metric.
Total Zone (BBRef) has Wells at +7 runs and Rice at -2, per year, Wells is +8 and Rice is -11.
DRS has Wells at -7 and Rice at -3 and Wells at -8 and Rice at -16 per year and -16 runs over 135 games is 0.1 runs per game.
So the question is, is Rice’s bat worth more than 0.1 runs per game? Rice is +19.5 wRAA and Wells is -3.9
Also, too, Rice is probably equivalent to a top-20 hitter in the game right now over the last 2 months. (Per fangraphs’ WRC+, Rice is 17th in baseball since 1 August and Wells is 129th).
Big G is reminding us that all playoffs are SSS. And right now the SSS indicates he stinks.
It’s probably going to turn into a bullpen game so just start your best lineup.
Exactly. And yet, I have zero confidence in Boone NOT trying to play matchups early on, only to handicap himself later in the game.
“You could go out and sign a RHH 1B to platoon with Rice”
I presume you mean not turning Rice into a platoon player, but having a guy to play 1b when Rice is catching?
He’s your best young hitter, have him work on the side he’s batting worse against.
Yes, have Rice catch, and play the righthanded first baseman.
Also, MAN Jazz is fast. You read about it being one of the fastest 1st-to-3rd times this year, but look at the replay – he doesn’t look like he’s particularly running hard. He’s looking around, like he’s jogging.
I saw someone have a good line about how Boone manages reactively. He got burned for pulling Fried too early, so he kept Rodon in too long. He sat Jazz, and now he won’t sit Jazz. It’s pretty pathetic, really.
By the way, with the way that this Boston bullpen is FULL of lefties, you really probably DO have to go righty/lefty to keep Cora form having that advantage.
So I guess I’d do
Grisham
Judge
Bellinger
Stanton
Rice
Rosario
Chisholm
Volpe
Wells
Holy shit, Boone followed my exact lineup idea to the tee! I think that must mean that I’m a moron.
Brian, I’m so sorry.
My condolences.
Lineup
https://x.com/yankees/status/1973840420556914985?s=61&t=fhOaqwtc8q2TMSXUDRjPeg
I can live with that.
Let’s win this thing.
Well, I can’t really critique Boone’s lineup today, I guess. I’m sure he’ll provide plenty of fodder during the game, though.
Which former Yankee (that played a goodly chunk of their career in New York, so no answers of, like, Kenny Lofton, or Andruw Jones) not in the Hall of Fame is the most deserving of BEING in the Hall of Fame?
My gut, first instinct, is Willie. I checked his BBref page and ~65 WAR is a great total for a middle infielder. He was never MVP or a league leader in offensive categories. There a few guys around him that probably should be in there as well (Whitaker for sure).
I think Posada, Bernie, and Pettitte all had better arguments than some people in the HOF.
Craig Nettles.
Just one illustrative year: 1976. Nettles was 16th in the MVP voting that year, which basically meant he was given no credit. What was his year like? Well, his OPS+ was 135, which led… all of baseball. Of course, no one knew what OPS was yet.
That’s without counting his defense. Defensive statistics were largely unknown, but they can be reconstructed for that period – in short, he was always among the greatest defenders in the sport. At least, Brooks Robinson thought so. He said this: “When I think of Graig Nettles, I think of one of the best who ever played third base. Maybe the best. If you watched him play day in and day out you could make a case for him as the greatest fielding third baseman ever.” He won only 2 Gold Gloves, but all that says is they got that dead wrong, because they gave it to who they were used to giving it to – in the early part of his career, that was Brooks Robinson – and they did that kind of thing all the time.
That dominant performance on both sides of the ball and yet finishing 16th says a ton about why Nettles could be the best answer to your question while not even being on anyone’s radar.
Per Baseball Reference, Nettles’ career WAR is 68.0. Among third basemen, that’s the 10th best in baseball history. Every third baseman with more is in the Hall.
Finally, anyone who watched knew what he meant to the team in terms of intangibles.
My first thought was also Nettles, and I agree he and Randolph should both be in. But thinking about the question a bit more – are we automatically disqualifying documented PED users? Because if we’re not, then Alex Rodriguez is the top choice, and Robinson Cano is also a good answer. And if 6 years out of 24 counts as “a goodly chunk”, then Roger Clemens would be a great choice too.
It’s odd to watch a Yankees-Red-Sox game and root for a guy named Rice.
I don’t have much faith in this team, but please, for the love of all things holy, beat the Red Sox.
And the Indian’s historic comeback from an unmatched deficit comes to a quick and mundane demise.