BRONX, NY — A decisive Game 3 is as good as a Game 7. The Red Sox and Yankees won’t have seven games to decide who advances to the best-of-five ALDS and three is good enough. The Yankees assured on the first day of October they would play on.
It was a 4-3 win for the Yanks Wednesday evening in the Bronx, a thriller or classic as all Red Sox-Yankees encounters are in the postseason. So its winner takes all Thursday evening. The Yankees got there with starter Carlos Rodón and reliever Fernando Cruz in the seventh inning out of the pen, ending a Red Sox bases-loaded threat.
Carlos Rodón recorded six strikeouts across six innings of three-run ball Wednesday night in Game 2 of the AL Wild Card Series while Fernando Cruz, first out of the pen, escaped a seventh inning bases loaded jam – Image Credit: Bill Menzel/Latino Sports
Ben Rice and Jazz Chisholm Jr. returned to the lineup and they were instrumental. Austin Wells and his eighth inning single sent Chisholm home from first base with the go-ahead run. As Chisholm said about the win, “It was a lot of fun.”
Different tune from Game 1 Tuesday night, Chisholm not in the lineup and talk about dissension with manager Aaron Boone but as always in Yankees country, a win will calm the storm. Chisholm turned his back on the media Tuesday, he was all talk and joking about playing the popular video game, “MLB The Show” stating, “I mercy-ruled someone, it’s true.”
Jazz Chisholm Jr. did not start in Game 1 of the AL Wild Card Series, a 3-1 loss – Image Credit: Bill Menzel/Latino Sports
But the Yankees and Red Sox never have to play a ballgame with mercy rules in this storied rivalry and in the postseason. This one was close with a sequence of the Yankees taking the lead, blew it, took the lead again, blew the lead, finally retained and got the win.
“What a game. I mean, it has been two great games,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone. “These first two you know, a lot of big plays on both sides. You know, I thought our defense tonight was really, really good. Turned a couple big-time double plays, did some good things on the bases, a homer by Benny (Rice) to get us rolling. And then the bullpen closing it down after Rodo (Rodón) gave us enough there, even though he struggled a little bit in the seventh to get us through 6, set us up and able to hang on.”
“That was playoff baseball for sure,” said Wells. “Both sides just scrapping at it. It was awesome.”
Austin Wells recorded the game-winning hit in the bottom of the eighth inning of Game 2 of the AL Wild Card Series Wednesday night in the Bronx – Image Credit: Bill Menzel/Latino Sports
It was the first postseason career home run for Rice, a two-run homer off Brayan Bello in the first inning. That set the tone before an electric crowd of nearly 48,000 that did not want to see the Red Sox advance on their home turf. That would have been another downer in the Bronx after the Dodgers’ World Series win at Yankee Stadium last October.
“Felt amazing,” said Rice. “Felt really good. Obviously coming off of a loss yesterday too, to kind of set the tone for us in the first inning to get us out to a lead felt really good. I know my role, and yesterday my role was to, you know, be ready for a big at-bat off the bench, and today I was starting. The approach doesn’t change. I mean, I am just going to be prepared for every at-bat I get and every chance I get.”
Ben Rice put the Yankees on the board first in Game 2 of the AL Wild Card Series with a two-run blast in the home half of the first – Image Credit: Bill Menzel/Latino Sports
Rice, though, became a proficient home run hitter in the lineup down the stretch and during a gauntlet of Yankees games. He hit close to .400 in the last 16 games. The homegrown prospect got significant playing time and has become a cog in the lineup. Rice became the seventh Yankee in franchise history to hit a home run in his first postseason plate appearance.
Boone, though, was asked about Chisholm and Rice. The questions of a lineup that lacked home run production from Rice or Chisholm in Game 1 to supplement more right hand presence. Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton have yet to hit the ball out of the ballpark in the first two games for a Yankees team that led MLB by a wide margin with the home run ball.
Aaron Judge has gone 4-8 (0 HR) with two strikeouts so far in the first two games of the AL Wild Card Series vs. Boston with one RBI – Image Credit: Bill Menzel/Latino Sports
“I did that with Jazz,” Boone said. “He is a guy that wears his emotions on his sleeve. So wasn’t necessarily how I handled it, but I don’t need him to put a happy face on. I need him to go out and play his butt off for us tonight. That’s what I expect to happen. Every player is not going to agree with every decision that I make. I try and help make them understand my thought process and what I am thinking.”
On the other side, it was Red Sox manager Alex Cora who was questioned about his stunning move to remove his starter Bello after 28 pitches with one out in the bottom of the third and the game tied at two. It caused Cora to use his bullpen often and that could have an impact in the all-hands-on-deck third and deciding game.
Brayan Bello, throwing 28 pitches across 2.1 innings, was removed of Wednesday night’s affair after allowing two earned runs on four hits (1 HR) and a walk – Image Credit: Bill Menzel/Latino Sports
“It was a tough lineup,” Cora said. “A lot of lefties. The at-bats were getting better with the lefties and we had a bunch in the bullpen. I felt like at that point we had to do this. It doesn’t feel good because you want the kid to go out there and get his experience and pitch deep into the game. I felt at that moment we needed to.”
But the strategy backfield and Cora used Garrett Whitlock, the setup man for closer Aroldis Chapman who threw a season-high 47 pitches. A scoreless seventh inning and retiring the first two Yankees in the eighth. Then the Chisholm walk and Wells hitting the RBI single into the corner in right.
The Red Sox could not force a tie, Chapman did not get a chance to close it out. For sure though, Chapman will be ready to throw multiple innings when the call comes Thursday night. Cora, though, will be facing the music from Red Sox fans if indeed his team fails to advance and meet Toronto in the ALDS that begins Saturday across the border.
A must-watch matchup in the Bronx is all set for Thursday night with Alex Cora and the Red Sox facing Aaron Boone and the Yankees in a winner take all game (First pitch at 8:08 PM ET/5:08 PM PT on ESPN) – Image Credit: Bill Menzel/Latino Sports
“We always put everything out there and on the line, especially in the playoffs,” Chisholm said. “You don’t want to have any space or give another team a little bit of an edge. Obviously I think it was a must win.”
Indeed a must win in the Bronx. A decisive game three as good as one that goes seven. And of course, it’s the Red Sox and Yankees in the postseason.
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Rich Mancuso is a senior writer and columnist at LatinoSports.com – X: @Ring786, Facebook.com/Rich Mancuso
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