Yankees Max Fried says he may have pitched for a long time in a Game 1 loss to Boston
Yankees starter Max Freed tells the media about more left in the tank when manager Aaron Boone lifts him up in Game 1 with the Red Sox.
Sports Pulse
- The Red Sox won 3-1 in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series at Yankee Stadium.
- Boston manager Alex Cora pressed all the right buttons later in the innings.
- The Red Sox are looking to win their fourth straight postseason series vs. rival Yankees.
New York – The Bronx still has issues with the Boston Red Sox. And that won’t go away, at least as long as Alex Cora hosts the Boston dugout.
Certainly, has it been 20 years since the Red Sox completed their biggest playoff comeback in baseball history? -This is enough time to reunion, documentaries and seem like yesterday.
But forget about the idiot. This is about Kora and his management counterpart Aaron Boone, and three playoff meetings in eight years, all of which have left decisively in favor of Boston.
In Game 1 of the American League Wildcard Series on September 30th, Kora and Boone tried to solve the same problem. He is the dominant left-hander of the other mounds.
They loaded the lineup along with right-handed batters. Preparing to stretch the ace, Garrett Cloche and Max Fly are a little longer than they were comfortable, calling only the best saviors.
All textbooks for playoff baseball, 21st– Century Style.
But once again, it all worked out for Cora – Boone contemplated What-if and Whys, suddenly staring at his 94-win team.
The Yankees have won more than five games this season than the Red Sox, giving them the right to host the series. However, postseason baseball was collage time, and he got Boone better as the Red Sox gathered in the seventh inning to score a spectacular spot in this 3-1 victory and the driver’s seat in this best sprint.
No one has returned from a 1-0 deficit to win one of the 12 wildcard series in three seasons of this format. On the surface, the Yankees have a slight edge in Game 2.
But they also need to make up for it by shifting it with the dugout, which cements his reputation as one of the greatest things ever.
Definitely: Crochet played a much greater role than the person who presses the button. At the start of his first playoffs, the 6-7 sidewinding left-hander threw a career-high 117 pitch and glanced back at the scoreboard to see that he still blew 100 mph of heat when he blew Austin Wells on the final pitch in the eighth innings.
“He’s the best pitcher in the game,” admitted Yankees slugger Judge Aaron. This is a somewhat controversial but completely acceptable point regarding the man who hit the Major League High 255 and retired the 16 straight Yankees after Anthony Volpe’s second homer.
That’s a great thing for Croche, who founded the postseason beachhead in Boston, following Cora-Era Aces such as Chris Sale, David Price, and Nathan Eovaldi.
Still, let’s think about what Cora did and what he did in Game 1.
This guy is currently 18-8 as postseason manager. I am mostly grateful that the club won the World Series title in 2018.
And against the Yankees?
He is now 5-1 in three postseasons, with both Cora and Boone being rookie managers, and both the Red Sox are clearly good teams, 5-1 in three postseasons when he did a quick job at New York with the ALDS.
However, the 2021 wild card game coincided with Eobaldi with Yankee Ace Gerit Cole, and the Red Sox were caught up in a six-game ALCS loss to the ultimate champion Houston Astros team.
Fast forward to Game 1 in 2025 and consider the results produced by both skippers.
The presence of crochet forced him to bench among the 30-30 Jazz Chisholm and first bass man/catcher Ven Rice – the hottest hitters of left-handed swingers and Yankees.
Kora decided to keep them there.
He pushed the crochet to the brink and handed the ball directly to Aroldis Chapman, who was close to his left hand in the eighth. Chapman had to survive the situation mounted on the ninth base, but Kora’s aggression served that purpose.
Yes, he skipped Garrett Whitlock, the dominant set-up guy. But what do you guess? At least Chisholm and Rice didn’t move until Chisholm’s left-to-left pinch appeared in Chapman. And the Yankees managed just seven hits (one for extra bass) and one hit.
“Rice was there. It’s not that I don’t trust Whitlock against him, but I trust Chappie against the right,” says Kora.
“That’s what we prepared and talked about before the game. Hey, our left-handers are really good (Justin) Wilson and Chapman, and (Steven) Mads. If we can keep the right wing in the lineup and take the chance, we’re going to do that.”
Has Max Freed become deeper?
Now consider that Yankees’ season may have died in last year’s Yankees savior, Luke Weaver, rather than the close-deep-fried David Bedner on the mound.
Kora faced the same lineup problems as Boone: left-handed sluggers Masataka Yoshida, Nathaniel Lowe and Wily Abreu were reduced to the audience, while the Red Sox had no blackmail judge or Giancarlo Stanton on the roster.
Nate Eaton (one home run), Rob Levsnider, Romy Gonzalez (9 each), Carlos Narvaès (15), Julen Duran and Ceddan Rafaela (16 each) created soft pockets throughout the Red Sox lineup.
But Boone invited them – and Boston attacked.
Protecting the 1-0 lead, Boone decided to fry on 102 pitches, once seventh, with practical modern baseball moves like the Yankees pay Boone to run. Freed’s fourth and sixth pitch of 24 and 20th pitches – covered in double plays – suggested that his gas tank was empty.
“I came to the dugout and Booney looked at me and said, ‘How’s your mood?’ Freed said as he watched the seventh innings about the aftermath of the sixth innings. “He said, ‘Have you been enough for Duran?’ And I said, yeah, whatever you needed.
“I was clearly clear enough with him and with him what they needed me, I’m pleased.”
Boone of the sequence states:
Instead, it all got it all out.
Weaver couldn’t finish Rafaela. Rafaela went for one walk, with the appearance of an 11-pitch plate. Soguard then plunged the ball into the gap in the middle field on the right, squeezing out the judge’s breached throwing arm and exploiting the double of hustle.
Suddenly, the Red Sox had a victory and victory tied together in a scoring position. And Cora was forced by the minimum of three batters, facing another man, and finally had the advantage of a platoon.
Yoshida is a holdover from the previous Red Sox administration who signed a $90 million contract added to both injured and inactive performances until a medium-resurgence this season. This was his moment, he capitalized and sent home a mess of running as he pushed the weaver’s fastball up into the center field in the zone.
Suddenly, the 1-0 Yankees were turned over in a fuss courtesy of Boston, both on the scoreboard and perhaps the series. And yet another shaming for modern baseball orthodoxy, Kora sent Crochet and his 100 pitches for the eighth time.
“We wanted to respect that decision,” Crochet says. “I felt like he had a lot of faith in me this year, and I haven’t disappointed him yet.
“So I was going to be sure this wasn’t the first time.”
That wasn’t the case. He handed Chapman the fourth Trent Grisham strikeout of Grisham’s night and a well around Volpe’s single. The 9th four outs and three yankee singles – later the Red Sox paved the way to victory.
And the Yankees were left to turn history.
Rice and Chisholm should be back in Game 2. However, Bello is on track with a 1.44 ERA with five career starts at Yankee Stadium. The Red Sox now have an overwhelming history of wildcard series.
In addition to what appears to be a growing advantage in a dugout.
“He’s also an incredible coach, and I think they take on his character and I think they’re playing hard for him,” Boone said of Kora before Game 1.
“It’s a homage to who he is and how he runs things.”
And so far, Cola has been running the Yankees another early winter.
