The Boston Red Sox have taken Game one of the wild card round with a final score of 3-1 against the New York Yankees. In the battle of two of the best pitchers in the American League, Garrett Crochet triumphed over Max Fried.
Crochet was a man on a mission in his first playoff game. He finished with four hits allowed, one earned run, no walks allowed, and eleven strikeouts across seven and two-thirds innings pitched. In his performance, Crochet also tied the franchise record for most strikeouts in a Red Sox pitcher’s playoff debut, joining Smoky Joe Wood (1912), and Bill Dinneen (1903). Fried had pitched an incredible game as well, allowing four hits, no runs, three walks, and six strikeouts over six and one-third innings.
Runs were hard to come by in this pitchers’ duel, as the two aces were making few mistakes. However, Crochet hung a sinker, high and away in the strike zone, and Yankees’ shortstop Anthony Volpe capitalized, hitting a solo home run to right field with two outs in the bottom of the second inning.
The Red Sox also got two base runners on Fried in the fourth and fifth innings, but failed to score and left the runners stranded. This was a common theme throughout the regular season, as Boston had the fifth-highest average number of runners left on base per game at 6.96. It wasn’t until the top of the seventh inning that Boston’s offense woke up.
Fried had gotten outfielder Jarren Duran to ground out, but at 102 pitches thrown, Yankees Manager Aaron Boone made the call to the bullpen to bring out relief pitcher Luke Weaver. The Red Sox jumped on Weaver immediately, as outfielder Ceddanne Rafaela walked and infielder Nick Sogard doubled. On the first pitch of his at bat, outfielder Masataka Yoshida lined a ball into center field to score both runners, making the score 2-1 for the Red Sox.
Even as his own pitch count was creeping higher, Red Sox manager Alex Cora kept his ace out there and had full confidence that he could keep dominating. The bottom of the seventh inning to the bottom of the eighth was much of the same game as it had been, with both teams failing to get their offenses going.
Looking to add another insurance run, shortstop Trevor Story was able to single to left field and then swipe second base to put himself in scoring position. All-Star third baseman Alex Bregman was able to bring him home on a double towards left field again, which set up closing pitcher and former New York Yankee Aroldis Chapman to begin the ninth inning.
Chapman has been lights out for the Red Sox this season, but has struggled in the playoffs before, giving up an infamous walk-off homerun to Astros second baseman Jose Altuve in Game six of the 2019 ALCS. At the beginning of the inning, Chapman was playing like that version of himself. Three straight singles to first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, and outfielders Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger. Little hope was left for Boston, as it appeared that New York was going to steal the game back after they had surmounted a strong comeback. However, the city of Boston and its teams don’t know how to quit.
With all the pressure on him, Chapman got the next three batters out. Outfielder Giancarlo Stanton struck out on a high splitter, second baseman Jazz Chisholm flew out to right field, and outfielder Trent Grisham struck out on a 101 mile per hour fastball.
Fans had their picks for their key moments of the game, from Sogard hustling in for his double, the Yoshida single, or Chapman’s ninth inning heroics, but Emerson baseball senior Charlie Coors had a different pick.
“I liked seeing Volpe having the game he did, providing the Yankees with a lot of their offense considering the rough season he’s had,” said Coors. “Yankees fans love to trash on him, even though he’s still a major league baseball player. It was cool to see him hit that home run in front of the home fans.”
Emerson freshman pitcher Sam Ravela, who was at Yankee Stadium watching Game one, described what it was like watching the action up close. “The atmosphere was amazing to watch a playoff game in that environment,” said Ravela. “The Red Sox were trying to get early swings off Fried which I wasn’t a fan of, but they were able to run his pitch count up and make some great plays.”
There were plenty of instant reactions during and after the game, and fans haven’t been mincing their words, especially when it comes to the playoffs.
“Why would you pull him out there? He was cruising,” said Emerson senior infielder Justin Fields, talking about the decision by Boone to pull Fried out of the game. “The Yankees bullpen has always been pretty up and down this season. I think you had to do what the Red Sox did with Crochet and keep seeing how he’s holding up with each batter.”
Since the changes to the wild card format in 2022, every team that has won the first game in the series, besides the 2025 Detroit Tigers and San Diego Padres, has gone on to win Game two. The Red Sox and Yankees will duke it out tonight at 6 p.m. again on ESPN. Boston will send out Brayan Bello to start, who historically plays well against New York, and the Yankees send Carlos Rodón to the bump.
Going into Game two, fans on both sides of sport’s greatest rivalry know what their team needs to do to either advance or make history and force the first Game three in wildcard history.
“We need Judge and Stanton to step up and hit a bomb or two. We need home runs. That’s what the Yankees do,” said Fields. “The Red Sox are really good at just playing their game, and I think the Yankees have a better roster, so we just need to copy them and play our game.”
“The Sox have to do what they did last night with Fried and get Rodón’s pitch count up early,” said Ravela. “The Yankees bullpen sucks. They’re terrible. Luke Weaver is washed. David Bednar is washed, and so is Devin Williams. They just need to get to the bullpen early.”
“The Red Sox aren’t going to win a home run derby against the Yankees when they have Judge and Stanton,” said junior Tyler Metcalf. “If they play the way they did offensively like last night with doubles and singles with good baserunning, it’s tough seeing New York winning.”
