Max Fried Leads New York Yankees Against Boston Red Sox In Game 1

Max Fried was pumped up for the Yankees to start game 1 in the Wild Card round at home against the Boston Red Sox and Garrett Crochet. Fried vowed to “empty the tank” in the game. However, the Yankees lost the game 3-1, even though Fried did not allow any runs. No team in baseball history has lost Game 1 in a three-game series and gone on to win that series. Fried started the game by throwing strikes to the first seven batters; he got four ground ball outs. Who do you think will win this series?

Lineups: Supporting Max Fried In the Wild Card

The Boston Red Sox had Rob Refsnyder (the former Yankee) leading off, and he was the designated hitter. Masataka Yoshida pinch-hit for him in the seventh inning. Trevor Story was the shortstop and batted second. Alex Bregman was the third baseman and batted third. Romy Gonzalez was the first baseman and batted fourth.  Nathaniel Lowe pinch-hit for him in the seventh inning and stayed in to play first base.

Carlos Narváez was the catcher and batted fifth. Nate Eaton was the right fielder and batted sixth. Wilyer Abreu pinch-hit for him in the seventh inning. Jarren Duran was the right fielder and batted seventh. Ceddanne Rafaela was the center fielder and batted eighth. Nick Sogard was the second baseman and batted ninth.

For the Yankees, Paul Goldschmidt played first base and led off. Aaron Judge was the right fielder and batted second. Cody Bellinger was the left fielder and batted third. Giancarlo Stanton was the designated hitter and batted fourth. Amed Rosario was the second baseman and batted fifth. Jazz Chisholm Jr. came in to play second base in the eighth inning. Trent Grisham was the center fielder and batted sixth. Anthony Volpe was the shortstop and batted in the seventh spot. Austin Wells was the catcher and batted eighth. Jose Caballero was the third baseman and batted ninth. 

News and Notes

For all of his great performances in the regular season, Judge may win the American League Most Valuable Player for the second consecutive season this year, but he has been bad in the postseason. A huge question entering the game was whether Judge could get the monkey off his back and generate some run support for Fried.

There were some surprises on and off the Yankees’ postseason roster for the wild-card round. J.C. Escarra, Paul Blackburn, and Will Warren made the roster. Luis Gil was left off the roster.

Game Reaction

With two left-handed pitchers in Fried and Crochet starting the game, both teams started right-handed hitting lineups. The Yankees, in particular, had an odd alignment with Rosario playing second base and Caballero at third base.

Volpe hit a second-inning home run against Crochet. He has been much-maligned this season for his hitting and defense. Yankee fans were happy for him. Crochet was awesome in this game, pitching 7.2 innings and retiring 17 in a row at one point. He threw a career-high 117 pitches. The Red Sox did a good job in going from Crochet to Aroldis Chapman. The combination of left-handed pitchers kept the Yankee left-handed hitters, like Ben Rice, on the bench.

Scoring Summary

In the second inning, Volpe hit a solo home run. It was 1-0 Yankees. In the seventh inning, Yoshida singled, and Rafela and Sogard both scored. The Red Sox led 2-1. In the ninth inning, Bregman doubled, and Story scored. That made the score 3-1 Red Sox.

Conclusion

Fried has been good for the Yankees most of the year. His pitching matchup with Crochet tonight was great. One could make the argument that the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox are two of the best teams in baseball. There was some feeling before the game that the Yankees’ home crowd would be decisive in this matchup of fairly evenly matched teams. The Red Sox have a big advantage with Alex Cora over Aaron Boone. The Yankees and Red Sox play again tomorrow at 6:08 p.m.