NEW YORK — After nine taut innings of epic playoff baseball and one wild sprint around the basepaths, the New York Yankees survived to play a winner-take-all game against their bitterest rivals.
Jazz Chisholm scored the go-ahead run all the way from first base on Austin Wells’ single to shallow right field, and the Yankees finally cracked the code against an indomitable Boston Red Sox bullpen to claim Game 2 of the wild card series with a 4-3 victory at Yankee Stadium Oct. 1.
No, it doesn’t quite have the same ring as Game 7. But Game 3 of this sprint of a playoff series – winner goes to Toronto, loser chooses between 3-wood and driver – should make for delicious theater when the two meet Oct. 2 in the Bronx.
Yet it’s a tall order to live up to the first two games of this donnybrook.
In Game 2, it was Chisholm who saved the Yankees on both sides of the ball.
With the score tied 3-3, two men on and Game 1 hero Masataka Yoshida looking to repeat his pinch-hitting heroics from a night before, Chisholm ranged up the middle, dove and gloved Yoshida’s grounder by the thinnest of margins. No, he could not throw him out at first, but the Gold Glove-caliber play kept the game level and the bases loaded.
Barely: Trevor Story, whose RBI single and two-run single accounted for all of Boston’s runs, nearly sent the Red Sox to the ALDS with a 393-foot, 102-mph drive to center. But that’s where balls go to die in Yankee Stadium. Inning over.
After starter Brayan Bello was lifted after 2 1/3 innings, five Boston relievers held the Yankees to one run, on an Aaron Judge RBI single that was dropped by left fielder Jarren Duran.
But manager Alex Cora hoped to get two innings out of set-up ace Garrett Whitlock. He fell one out shy of pulling it off.
Whitlock issued a two-out walk to Chisholm and then engaged Wells in a full-count battle. Wells prevailed, lining a pitch just down the first base line. It trickled off the slanted side wall in short right field and back toward the infield.
Chisholm did not break stride, capping his 270-foot journey with a long headfirst slide into home ahead of Nate Eaton’s throw and Carlos Narváez’s tag.
The Stadium erupted. David Bednar worked a tireless ninth, and the stakes were set:
Yankees-Red Sox. Loser goes home.
– Gabe Lacques
Yankees use clutch two-out hit to take lead
In the bottom of the eighth with two outs, Boston reliever Garrett Whitlock walked Jazz Chisholm, then Austin Wells laced a single to right field, and Chisholm scored all the way from first, just beating the tag at home plate with a head-first slide to give New York a 4-3 lead and leaving them three outs away from tying up the best-of-three wild card series.
Carlos Rodon finished after 6 innings; Yankees escape bases loaded jam
Rodon is finished after 91 pitches in six innings. He gave up three runs on four hits, walking three and striking out six. He was relieved in the top of the seventh by Fernando Cruz after Nate Eaton walked and advanced to second on a wild pitch and hitting Jarren Duran with a pitch.
Cruz escaped the damage by retiring Ceddanne Rafaela and Nick Sogard, but Masataka Yoshida, pinch-hitting for Rob Refsnyder, had an infield single to load the bases before Trevor Story flied out to deep center to end the inning.
Red Sox tie score on Trevor Story home run
The Red Sox won’t go away, tying up the score at 3 when Trevor Story sent a 2-0 slider from Carlos Rodon 381 feet in the left field seats for his second career postseason homer. Alex Bregman walked, but was erased when Romy Gonzalez grounded into an inning-ending double play.
Aaron Judge gives Yankees fifth-inning lead
After Anthony Volpe flied out to center and Ryan McMahon grounded out to the pitcher to start the fifth inning, Trent Grisham worked a walk and advanced to second on Justin Slaten’s wild pitch. Reigning AL MVP Aaron Judge then singled to right, scoring Grisham to give New York the lead back 3-2.
Bello gets early hook
Boston starter Brayan Bello was replaced with one out in the third by left-hander Justin Wilson. Bello threw 28 pitches, allowing two earned runs on four hits, walking one, and didn’t strike out a batter. Wilson got the final two outs of the frame, leaving Yankees stranded on 2nd and 3rd.
Boston gets equalizer on Story’s single
Carlos Rodon’s smooth ride through the Boston lineup ended in the third. After needing six pitches to get through the second, Rodon allowed a single to Jarren Duran, walked Ceddanne Rafaela, and his errant throw to first on Nick Sogard’s sacrifice loaded the bases. Rob Refsnyder struck out swinging before Trevor Story’s single plated Boston’s first two runs.
Ben Rice home run strikes first for Yankees
After getting the first two batters with only five pitches, Brayan Bello allowed a single to Cody Bellinger and then served up a 95 mph sinker that didn’t sink to Ben Rice, who put it over the right field porch to give New York the early lead.
Red Sox get nothing in 1st
Carlos Rodon is dealing early, striking out Rob Refsnyder and Trevor Story swinging before Alex Bregman flied out to left to end the inning. Rodon needed only 15 pitches to get through the first; 11 were strikes.
Boone comments on Jazz Chisholm being back in lineup
NEW YORK – Chisholm is back in the starting lineup and batting sixth for the must-win Game 2 wild card against the Red Sox. Yankees manager Aaron Boone said he saw Chisholm’s reaction after the Game 1 loss when he spoke to reporters.
‘Every player is not going to agree with every decision that I make,’ Boone said. ‘I try and help make them understand my thought process and what I am thinking.
‘I did that with Jazz. He is a guy who wears his emotions on his sleeve. So, it 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.’
Yankees lineup today
- Trent Grisham (L) CF
- Aaron Judge (R) RF
- Cody Bellinger (L) LF
- Ben Rice (L) 1B
- Giancarlo Stanton (R) DH
- Jazz Chisholm Jr. (L) 2B
- Austin Wells (L) C
- Anthony Volpe (R) SS
- Ryan McMahon (L) 3B
Red Sox lineup today
- Rob Refsnyder (R) DH
- Trevor Story (R) SS
- Alex Bregman (R) 3B
- Romy Gonzalez (R) 1B
- Carlos Narváez (R) C
- Nate Eaton (R) RF
- Jarren Duran (L) LF
- Ceddanne Rafaela (R) CF
- Nick Sogard (S) 2B