The Yankees got everything they hoped for - and expected - from their ace Max Fried in Tuesday’s Wild Card Series opener, but got what many fans have come to expect from their shaky bullpen.
Luke Weaver failed to record an out in relief of Fried in the seventh and immediately coughed up a 1-0 lead, and the Yankee bats couldn’t solve Garrett Crochet and Aroldis Chapman in a 3-1 loss to quickly put New York on the brink of elimination.
Crochet and Fried dueled in a classic battle of aces, with Crochet offering up the only hiccup in the form of an Anthony Volpe solo home run. But the nasty Boston lefty proceeded to retire 14 straight Yankees after the Volpe blast, while the Boston bats went to work on the Bombers’ shaky pen.
Fried was lifted by Aaron Boone with 102 pitches after recording the first out in the seventh inning, and Weaver - after jumping ahead 0-2 on Ceddame Rafaela - surrendered an 11-pitch walk to put the tying run on base. Nick Sogard followed with a base hit to right center that looked like a single, but a heads-up Sogard took off for second and made it safely after testing the weary right arm of Aaron Judge. The Yankee captain, still recovering from the flexor strain that sidelined him for weeks, got off a throw under 75 mph and couldn’t gun down the hustling Sogard.
The play immediately paid off for the Red Sox when pinch hitter Masataka Yoshida lined a single up the middle on the first pitch he saw from Weaver, giving Boston the lead. Weaver’s night was done, a far cry from the shutdown reliever he had become in his breakout 2024 postseason.
The Yanks put the tying run on second in the eighth when Volpe singled up the middle off Crochet to break his flawless stretch, then took second after too many disengagements from Chapman after the former Yankee relieved Crochet. But Jose Caballero flied out to right center to end the threat, and Boston tacked on another in the ninth from an all-too familiar nemesis in Alex Bregman, who doubled into left to make it 3-1, as the Red Sox chased David Bednar out of the game.
The bullpen was the major question heading into the postseason for the Yankees, and that shaky relief core now has them one loss away from a way-too-early playoff exit.
The Yankees had a golden chance for a rally in the ninth when Paul Goldschmidt, Judge, and Bellinger started the inning with three straight singles to load the bases with nobody out, but Chapman responded by striking out Giancarlo Stanton, forcing pinch hitter Jazz Chisholm to pop out, and striking out Trent Grisham, who fanned for the fourth time on the night.