What do we say to the God of Death?
In an absolute classic, the Yankees and Red Sox went to war in a game that would’ve fit right in to the theatrics of 2003 and 2004. With the Yankees’ season on the line, in Yankee Stadium, against their hated rivals, navigating a shaky bullpen, they were able to live to see another day.
Carlos Rodón delivered an up-and-down quality start, Ben Rice smacked an early home run, and Austin Wells, in the midst of a frustrating offensive campaign, got the big hit late, as the bullpen delivered nine outs and the Yankees forced Game 3 with a 4-3 win. The man who scored the winning run? Jazz Chisholm Jr., one day after making headlines for his discontent with being out of the Game 1 lineup.
It was Rodón who would look to set the tone for this one, one year after his Yankee playoff debut started strong but fell apart in an eventual loss to the Royals. In the first inning that day, Rodón fed off the environment in an electric first inning. In the midst of striking out the side, he seemed overly amped up. Overexerting energy early in a playoff start is a serious no-no, and Rodón would learn his lesson after the Royals jumped him for four runs in the fourth. Today, he was cool, calm, and collected early, as he struck out Rob Refsnyder and Trevor Story, while inducing a flyout of Alex Bregman in a clean 15-pitch, 1-2-3 inning.
Brayan Bello looked to answer for Boston, and while he retired Grisham and Judge to start the inning, he gave up a single to Bellinger before facing Ben Rice. The Massachusetts kid, who grew up a Yankee fan in hostile territory, got to make his first playoff start against Boston. On the very first pitch he’s ever seen playing October baseball, Rice smashed a cutter down the pipe 106.6 mph into the short porch to give the Yankees a quick 2-0 lead and ignite the crowd at Yankee Stadium.
A shutdown inning is very critical in baseball, especially in the playoffs. Rodón didn’t mess around after being spotted a pair of runs, retiring the side in the second on just six pitches, including a strikeout of Nate Eaton. Austin Wells worked a one-out walk-off Bello in the bottom half, but was quickly erased on a Volpe double play.
The third inning did not go well. Jarren Duran led off with a single, Ceddanne Rafaela continued to see the ball well against the Yankees with a walk, and a brutal Nick Sogard bunt attempt turned into an E1, as Rodón bounced an inaccurate throw to a covering Chisholm. Two terrible mistakes, one to walk a free-swinger with a miserably bad chase rate, and another to throw away a gifted out. Trevor Story followed a strikeout with a two-run single to tie the game, but a nifty 4-6-3 was turned by Jazz and Volpe with Bregman up to limit the damage. Boston tied the game, but it could’ve been much worse.
In the bottom half, Ryan McMahon ripped a 112-mph single in his Yankee playoff debut, but was erased on a forceout. Judge hit a jamshot single and, shockingly, that was it for Bello. He recorded just seven outs in his postseason debut, with Alex Cora aggressively managing to avoid a Game 3. A gamble, to say the least.
With former Yankee Justin Wilson in, Grisham got a great jump and stole third, with Judge backing him up after Carlos Narvaez bobbled it on the transfer. Despite having second and third, nobody out, the Yankees didn’t score. Bellinger scooped a two-strike pitch to left for a shallow flyout, and Rice smacked a 109-mph lineout to right field. The bad luck cannot escape him, even with a clean slate.
Rodón went back to work and pitched around a two-out single by Eaton to get through the fourth. Wilson went back out there for Boston, and despite falling behind Stanton and Chisholm 3-1 and 3-0, he retired both and then induced a groundout to end the inning. The Yankees’ southpaw continued to settle in after his rough third inning by retiring the side in order in the fifth, including a filthy backdoor slider to strike out Rafaela on three pitches.
Justin Slaten got the ball in the bottom of the fifth for Boston and got the first two quickly before walking Grisham to bring up Judge. He whiffed at a sweeper that Slaten left right down Broadway to start, and fell behind 0-2. Back-to-back pitches in the dirt led to a wild pitch that advanced Grisham. That proved costly, as Judge lifted a ball to shallow left that hung in the air for what seemed like forever, only for it to hit off the glove of Jarren Duran and fall for an RBI single to make it 3-2 Yankees.
Steven Matz came in and fell behind Bellinger 3-0, but rebounded to get him out. The Yankees led baseball in pitches per plate appearance and walk rate in the regular season, but have been quite antsy with three balls all series. The missed opportunities reared their ugly head for the Yankees, as it didn’t take long for Story to bite them again with a solo shot to tie it at three in the sixth:
Story hit .294 with an .847 OPS against the Yankees in the regular season and continued to torture them tonight. Rodón walked Bregman on four pitches before Aaron Boone threatened to bring the hook with him, but he decided to leave Rodón in. Is this possibly reactive to the decision to yank Fried mid-inning last night? Possibly. The decision paid off, however, as Rodón induced a pop-out from Romy Gonzalez and a 5-4-3 double play out of Narvaez to end the sixth.
Rice, known for his brutal luck at the plate, had lady luck shine on him to start the bottom half with a cue shot infield single. Stanton just missed a low changeup that led to a routine fly ball, Jazz struck out, and Wells ripped a single through the left side to chase Matz. Zack Kelly came on to face Volpe with two on and two out and fell behind 3-0. Unlike many of his teammates in this series, he elected to watch the next two pitches, but both were strikes. On 3-2, Kelly ripped a nasty 97-mph heater down and in to get a whiff out of Volpe.
Ródon started the seventh. In theory, this isn’t a terrible idea with his pitch count in control and the current state of the bullpen. The problem was that the warning signs that led to Fried’s departure last night were there with Rodón. The move to trust the veteran lefty didn’t work, as a walk and a hit batsmen that was basically a walk chased Rodón for Fernando Cruz with first and second, nobody out.
Cruz induced a bunt pop-out from Rafaela with his signature splitter and got Sogard to hit a fly ball to left. After falling behind Masataka Yoshida 3-0, Cruz got it to 3-2, where he induced a ground ball that Jazz was able to smother, but was unable to get an out. He saved a run, but the inning continued. Story got ahead in the count and lifted a long fly ball to center. As tens of thousands in the stadium, as well as millions on TV, held their breath, it innocently fell into the glove of Grisham to end the inning. Phew. Cruz was pumped, to say the least.
Garrett Whitlock came in for Boston after the seventh-inning stretch and struck out McMahon to start it off, but gave up a one-out double to Grisham. Judge got another chance with a runner on base (4-for-4 until this point), but was sent back to the dugout on three pitches. Bellinger stranded Grisham to end the inning, getting under a poorly located slider.
Devin Williams got the eighth. Bregman worked a long at-bat before lining a single to left. The pinch-hitting Nathaniel Lowe chopped the ball back to the mound, but right into the glove of Williams, who turned a 1-6-3 double play, albeit on a high throw. A strikeout of the former Yankee farmhand Narvaez got him through the inning.
Whitlock stayed out there for the eighth and was ground down by every hitter that came to the plate. With two out, Jazz drew a gritty walk after a rough day to that point. With Chisholm on first and in a long, tense, seven-pitch at-bat, Wells ripped a ball down the first-base line that just stayed fair. Eaton got to the ball quickly, but with Jazz running on 3-2, he motored around the bases to score the go-ahead run.
Cora tried badly to get Whitlock through the eighth, but a single by Volpe and a walk by McMahon chased the former Rule 5 pick on 47 pitches, a season-high. The rookie Payton Tolle surprisingly got the ball to face Grisham with the bases loaded. Another tense at-bat had the rookie one pitch away from walking in a run, but he got Grisham to ground out. Time for the ninth. Time for David Bednar.
Bednar fell behind Wilyer Abreu, but unleashed 97-mph up to strike him out on 3-2. He got ahead of Duran, but once again got in a full count. He once again went fastball, this time freezing him up-and-in. He got ahead 0-2 on Rafaela and tried to go with a high fastball for strike three, but didn’t get the rise on it. As a result, it floated over the middle and Rafaela put a good swing on it to the opposite field. Just like the Story fly ball, this one had everyone holding their breath. There’s just no way he went deep, right?
He didn’t. It fell into the glove of Judge. Ballgame. Exhale. Bednar gets his first playoff save. Devin gets the win, Whitlock the loss.
That means we get winner-take-all tomorrow. It’ll be a battle of rookies, as Cam Schlittler gets the ball for his first career playoff start and the first against his hometown team. It’ll most likely be Connelly Early for Boston, who gambled by completely burning their bullpen today and now might have to ride him for longer. Buckle up.
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