NEW YORK — The New York Yankees face potential elimination Wednesday, and manager Aaron Boone had to explain a pair of decisions that factored into ending up there.
The main question: Why pull starting pitcher Max Fried with one out in the seventh inning for inconsistent reliever Luke Weaver, who melted down en route to a 3-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox in Game 1 of the best-of-three American League Wild Card Series at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night?
The other concern: Why sit two of the Yankees’ best overall hitters, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Ben Rice? Despite a righty-heavy lineup, Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet dominated, allowing only one run — on an Anthony Volpe solo homer — over 7 2/3 innings.
“We are going to show up tomorrow,” Boone said, “and I expect us to do pretty well.”
They wished they had done much better Tuesday.
Fried threw 6 1/3 scoreless innings with six strikeouts, four hits and three walks. Boone ended his night after he got No. 7 hitter Jarren Duran to ground out to start the seventh. Boone replaced Fried with Weaver, who immediately surrendered a walk to Ceddanne Rafaela despite getting ahead of him 0-2; a double to Nick Sogard; and a two-run single to Masataka Yoshida to give the Red Sox a 2-1 lead.
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At the time, Fried was at 102 pitches, and he hadn’t thrown more than 111 pitches in a single outing all season. Red Sox manager Alex Cora, meanwhile, let Crochet throw 117 pitches — the most in the postseason since Stephen Strasburg also threw 117 in Game 3 of the 2019 NL Championship Series.
Fried didn’t feel like he had run out of gas.
“I definitely felt good,” he said. “Whatever the team needed.”
He sidestepped whether he agreed with the decision, saying, “I want to pitch as long as I can, and when the ball gets taken out of my hands, that’s what it is.”
“We’re trying to win games,” Fried said. “It doesn’t matter about pitches or pitch counts and all that stuff now. If I’m effective, it doesn’t matter if it’s 50 or whatever it is. I just want to be an effective pitcher out there.”
Boone said he thought Fried “had to work pretty hard” the previous few innings. (He needed 20 pitches to get through the sixth and 24 in the fourth.) He added that Fried’s “command was not as good.”
“Look,” Boone said, “he gave us what we needed, and (we) felt really good about the outing he put forth.”
Weaver ended up being the wrong choice. Rafaela entered the night 2-for-6 in his career against Weaver with a walk and three strikeouts. Both of his hits were home runs. He has also been a much better hitter versus righties in his career (.701 OPS) than against lefties (.642).
Yet Boone said he liked the matchup anyway.
“I felt good about him going through there,” Boone said.
Weaver said he knew about Rafaela’s history against him but liked his chances.
“We’ve had some really strong at-bats in the past,” he said. “It’s gone both ways. That’s a real tough one to swallow when you know you had him in an advantage count. He did a really good job of spoiling some pitches (over the 11-pitch at-bat), taking some shots, and next thing you know, he’s 3-2. … From there, the momentum just kind of switched a little bit.”
He added that he felt good on the mound.
“I felt like my outing overall was competitive,” said Weaver, who didn’t record an out.
Weaver hadn’t given up an earned run in any of his final six appearances of the regular season. But he also finished the year with a 3.62 ERA —and was far from the dominant righty bullpen arm who emerged last season for the Yankees and served as their closer en route to the World Series.
“I know there’s a lot of disappointed people,” Weaver said, “including myself. Just got to be better.”
Manager Aaron Boone takes the ball from Luke Weaver after the reliever gave up the lead in the seventh. (Brad Penner / Imagn Images)
The Yankees’ lineup also featured three righty hitters playing over lefties: Amed Rosario at second base over Chisholm; Paul Goldschmidt at first base over Ben Rice; and José Caballero at third base over Ryan McMahon.
Rosario had been 6-for-9 with a home run in his career against Crochet but went 0-for-3 Tuesday. Goldschmidt had a hit apiece off Crochet and lefty closer Aroldis Chapman. Caballero went hitless in three at-bats.
Perhaps the biggest surprise was keeping Chisholm on the bench. Boone could have started Chisholm at second base and Rosario at third. Boone said soreness in Chisholm’s forearm after getting hit by a pitch Saturday didn’t contribute to his decision. Chisholm finished the season with 31 home runs and 31 stolen bases, and he had a respectable .733 OPS versus lefties.
“I wanted to get (Rosario) in there,” Boone said. “This is obviously one of the game’s great lefties, and he’s especially tough. So I just wanted to get another righty presence. (Rosario) has had success against him.”
(Top photo: Daniel Shirey / MLB Photos via Getty Images)
