Because of their failure to win the American League Eastern Division title, they were set up in the AL Wild Card Series with their most hated enemy, the Boston Red Sox.
Starting with Game 4 of the 2004 AL Championship Series, the Sox had found various ways to cheat, and had beaten the Yankees in the postseason in 2004, 2018 and 2022; and had won the World Series in 2004, 2007, 2013 and 2018. And after Game 1 of this series, despite all games being set for Yankee Stadium II, it looked like they would again.
Max Fried started Game 1 against the other leading contender for this season's AL Cy Young Award, Boston's Garrett Crochet. Fried did his job, going 6 1/3rd innings, allowing 4 hits and 3 walks, striking out 6. When he took the mound to start the top of the 7th, he got a standing ovation.
And after getting a groundout, manager Aaron Boone took him out. Fried had thrown 102 pitches. That's the only reason. Boone got booed when he came out, because the fans knew. But Fried got another standing ovation.
Boone brought in Luke Weaver. He pitched to the minimum 3 batters. He walked Ceddanne Rafaela. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you. He gave up a double to Nick Sogard. Then he gave up a single to Masataka Yoshida, driving in both runs. 2-0 Boston. Boone took him out, and replaced him with Fernando Cruz, who stopped the bleeding.
Boone had started Amed Rosario at 2nd base, and put him in the 5th spot in the rotation. And he started José Caballero at 3rd base, batting him 9th. Why Rosario instead of Chisholm? Why Caballero instead of Ryan McMahon? Because Crochet is a lefthander who has been very effective against the Yankees, and Chisholm and McMahon are lefthanders, and Rosario and Caballero are righthanders. Boone had also started Paul Goldschmidt at 1st base and Austin Wells at catcher, and not Ben Rice at either position. Goldschmidt went 2-for-4, but, between them, Rosario, Caballero and Wells went 0-for-9.
The Sox scored another run in the top of the 9th, making it 3-0. Here's how the bottom of the 9th began for the Yankees: Former Yankee Aroldis Chapman, known for choking under pressure, was pitching for the Red Sox. Goldschmidt singled to right. Aaron Judge singled to center. Cody Bellinger singled to center. Goldschmidt is not a good runner, and had to hold at 3rd.
Bases loaded, nobody out, against a pitcher known for 2 pitches: A 100-MPH fastball nowhere near the strike zone, and a 100-MPH fastball right over the plate that can be hit for a home run. And the next 3 batters were Giancarlo Stanton, Chisholm (who had replaced Rosario) and Trent Grisham.
Stanton struck out swinging. Chisholm flew out to right. Grisham struck out swinging. Game over. The Yankees became the 1st team in MLB postseason history to load the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the 9th inning and not score any runs.
Now, their backs were to the wall, and they'd already used their best available starting pitcher. Against their arch-enemies.
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Carlos Rodón started Game 2. He did not do as well was Fried, going 6 innings, allowing 3 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks, striking out 6. This time, though, with the Sox starting righthander Brayan Bello, Boone started Rice at 1st and batting 4th, Chisholm at 2nd and batting 6th, and McMahon at 3rd and batting 9th. And Rice hit a 2-run homer in the 1st inning to stake Rodón to a 2-0 lead.
Judge added an RBI single, but Trevor Story drove in 3 runs with a single and a homer, so it was 3-3 with 2 outs in the bottom of the 8th, and the fans in Yankee Stadium were losing hope. But Chisholm drew a walk, and Wells dropped a hit just inside the right-field line. Chisholm scored all the way from 1st. Wells only got to 1st base.
Scoring all the way from 1st on a single is what made Enos Slaughter of the St. Louis Cardinals, eventually a Yankee, famous in Game 7 of the 1946 World Series -- against the Red Sox, although the player who hit what's remembered as a single, Harry Walker, actually made it to 2nd base. So what Chisholm did is already being called what Slaughter's run has always been called: "The Mad Dash."
Volpe singled, and McMahon walked to load the bases, but Grisham grounded out, so it remained 4-3. But Bednar pitched a 1-2-3 9th, and the series was tied.
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With their starting rotations besieged by injuries. both teams resorted to rookie for the deciding Game 3. For the Yankees, 24-year-old Cam Schlittler, making his 15th major league appearance. For the Red Sox, 23-year-old Connelly Early, making his 5th.
Early began the season in Class AA, with the Maine-based Portland Sea Dogs, and wasn't called up from the Class AAA Worcester Red Sox until September 9. Schlittler began the 2024 season in Class A, and was called up to the Yankees from the Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders on July 9, when Clarke Schmidt wen down for the season.
It was October 2, the anniversary of the Boston Tie Party, the Bucky Dent Game in 1978. This was the 3rd time they'd brought Dent back to throw out the ceremonial first ball before a win-or-go-home game against the Red Sox. The 1st was Game 7 in 2004. The 2nd was Game 4 in 2018, and I was at that one. The Red Sox won both. So I was nervous.
The game was scoreless going into the bottom of the 4th. Bellinger led off with a double. Stranton drew a walk. Early struck out Rice. But Rosario, starting again because Early is a lefty, repaid Boone's faith (and his apparently already-proven-wrong strategy) but singling Bellinger home. Chisholm singled. Volpe singled Stanton home, leaving the bases loaded. Volpe batted .212 in the regular season, .364 in this series.
Then Wells hit a shot that ricocheted off the glove of Sox 1st baseman Nathaniel Lowe, allowing Rosario and Chisholm to score.. If it wasn't already 2-0, this would be one of those plays that Sox fans would moan about for decades to come. It was now 4-0, and Early was relieved.
The game stayed 4-0 because Schlittler became the 1st pitcher in the history Major League Baseball postseason games to pitch 8 innings, allow no runs, strike out at least 12 batters, and walk none. The 2 biggest standing ovations at Yankee Stadium this season came when Schlittler was allowed to take the mound for the 8th inning, despite having already thrown exactly 100 pitches, and when he got Story to ground out to end that inning.
The 2nd out of that inning was Jarren Duran hitting a foul popup behind 3rd base. McMahon went after it, caught it at the edge of the Red Sox' dugout, and fell over the railing. He was okay. The fans roared for a second, then stopped to see if he was hurt, then, seeing he was okay, roared again.
The play brought up memories of a catch Derek Jeter made against the Oakland Athletics in Game 5 of the 2001 AL Division Series, also a win-or-go-home game. It was also reminiscent of the idea that every no-hitter has at least one spectacular fielding play to save it, to make you think, "If he wasn't going to lose it then, he'd gonna keep it." Schlittler allowed 5 hits, but no walks.
A star has been born, and a Yankee postseason legend as well. Cam had "gone HAM," with the best Yankee pitching performance of the season. And it never would have happened had Gerrit Cole and Clarke Schmidt not both been injured and out for the entire season and the 2nd half of the season, respectively.
Bednar walked Alex Bregman to start the 9th. Uh-oh... No uh-ohs necessary: He got Yoshia to ground into a force play, he struck Raffaela out swinging, and he got Lowe to pop up to McMahon.
As John Sterling would have said, had he not retired from broadcasting: "Ballgame over! American League Wild Card Series over! Boston Red Sox over! Yankees win! Theeeeeeeeeeee Yankees win!"
For the 1st time since 2003 -- 3 rounds, including a 1-9 run of games -- the Yankees had beaten the Red Sox in a postseason round.
So the rest of MLB's postseason looks like this:
* American League Division Series: Yankees vs. Toronto Blue Jays, with the Jays having home-field advantage, in Games 1, 2, and, if necessary, 5.
* ALDS: Detroit Tigers vs. Seattle Mariners, with the M's having HFA. If the Yankees advance, they would have HFA against the Tigers, but not the M's.
* National League Division Series: Chicago Cubs vs. Milwaukee Brewers, with the Brew Crew having HFA.
* NLDS: Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Philadelphia Phillies, with the Phils having HFA.
For now, we enjoy the hardest-fought series, and the most satisfying individual game, of the season.
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