It didn’t take long for Red Sox vs. Yankees to remind New England baseball fans just how great and how intense postseason baseball is.
From the first inning to the white knuckle ninth, Game 1 of the Wild Card Series was a classic. It had all the drama and situational anxiety that defines the best of both this rivalry and October baseball, even if it was only Sept. 30.
Even fans who’d been disillusioned by Red Sox mediocrity for the past four years would have had a hard time not being captivated. At no point did either team feel fully confident or fully out of it. Every pitch mattered. Every decision mattered until Vaughn Grissom struck out with the bases loaded to end Boston’s 3-1 win.
It started with the pitching matchup right out of the gate.
Regular-season dominance often doesn’t carry over into the playoffs. Roger Clemens and Chris Sale were both terrible in their first playoff starts and neither came close to their regular-season dominance in October over the course of their careers.
Clayton Kershaw is headed for the Hall of Fame for what he did from April to September, but the Dodgers’ postseason triumphs came more in spite of him than because of him.
All of that made Garrett Crochet a question mark in Game 1.
He was a Cy Young candidate during the season, but his postseason resumé was just three innings over four appearances, all out of the bullpen for the White Sox.
So while there was obviously considerable reason for Red Sox optimism with Crochet starting Game 1, there was a little nagging uncertainty until he showed he could be the same guy in the postseason.
The Yankees’ two hard singles to start the game were enough to raise some eyebrows, but Crochet got a hard-hit double play to escape the first. He gave up a home run to Anthony Volpe with two outs in the second.
But after that, Crochet was dominant. The big horse set down 17 straight batters, working into the eighth. He struck out 11 and didn’t walk anybody.
“He was aggressive. You could see it in his eyes before the game that he wanted it bad,” Alex Bregman said. “We love going out there and playing defense behind him. Just a performance that big-time pitchers make, and that’s who he is, and I am super proud of him.”
Crochet didn’t necessarily outduel Yankees ace Max Fried, who didn’t give up a run in 6⅓ innings, but he outlasted him, giving the Red Sox a chance to sink the S.S. Yankee by blowing a hole in the hull of its bullpen.
It wasn’t just Crochet who made a name for himself. This is a new era in the rivalry. Only a few guys who have ever impacted Boston vs. New York are left on either side. Rafael Devers is gone. Nate Eovaldi is gone. Gerrit Cole is hurt.
From the teams that met in the 2021 Wild Card game, only Garrett Whitlock is left on the Red Sox postseason roster and only Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton remain on the Yankees. Current Red Sox closer Aroldis Chapman, who was on the Yankees that year, is now on the Red Sox.
There are a lot of guys, especially for Boston, whose postseason slates were blank before Tuesday and several got off to good starts.
Trailing 1-0, free-swinging Ceddanne Rafaela improbably worked an 11-pitch walk to start the seventh inning rally. Nick Sogard, who spent most of the year in Worcester, alertly and aggressively stretched a single into a double, putting him in position to score when Masataka Yoshida stroked a pinch-hit, two-run single that put the Red Sox ahead for good.
“It was great. Nobody tried to do too much. Everybody stayed within themselves, tried to just compete and be in the moment and play their game,” Bregman said. “And I think everyone trusted their own abilities. That’s what we talked about before the game, and I thought the guys did a good job of that.”
Alex Cora, whose postseason managerial wizardry has been wasted in recent years, stayed with Sogard despite having pinch hitters available and turned to Yoshida at the right moment. He was rewarded in both cases.
Most notably, ghosts of Grady Little be damned, he hung with Crochet for 117 pitches until he could turn the ball over to Chapman.
“I wanted to honor that decision. I felt like he’s put a lot of faith in me this year, and I haven’t let him down yet,” Crochet said. “So I was going to be damn sure this wasn’t the first time.”
When Chapman escaped unscored after loading the bases with nobody out to start the ninth, it was a reminder of just how far this rivalry has turned. After decades of the Yankees not only owning the Red Sox but lording that dominance over Boston, the roles have been drastically reversed and the Yankees haven’t handled it well.
Having home-field advantage in the best-of-three series wasn’t enough for New York. The great and mighty Yankees couldn’t risk having Red Sox fans in the faux House that Ruth Built. So they only allowed fans whose credit card addresses were in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, or Pennsylvania to buy tickets.
It was a reminder that for all the majestic history the Yankees pride themselves on, they’re often petty and small.
They’ve become paranoid about the Red Sox. Since Dave Roberts stole second, Boston has won the last three postseason series (including the one-game Wild Card in 2021) between the two tent-pole franchises. Over that time, Boston has four championships to just one for New York, which hasn’t won since 2009.
Playing in the Bronx, which used to be intimidating for the Red Sox, was now just the site of another good memory.
“For sure, it was an unbelievable playoff atmosphere from the first pitch to the end of the game,” Bregman said. “Got to love the game of baseball. That’s what it is all about.”
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