1. A little more than three months ago, the Yankees had the opportunity to end the Red Sox’ season during a four-game series at Fenway Park in the last week of June. But instead of burying the then 14-games-under-.500 Red Sox, the Yankees saved their season by getting swept over that that miserable weekend. The reason the Yankees were forced to play in a best-of-3 series for the second straight season began that weekend. The reason their opponent in the Wild Card Series was the Red Sox began that weekend.

A little more than three months later, the Yankees finally finished the job. A night after beating the Red Sox 9-0 in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees ended the Red Sox’ with a second straight rout, winning 9-2. There were limited tense moments on Wednesday, just like there were on Tuesday. Postseason games aren’t supposed to feel mostly carefree. They aren’t supposed to be laughers. But that’s how both games in this short series ended. Best-of-3 series aren’t supposed to feel easy, but that’s how this series felt: extremely easy.

2. Game 2 played out a lot like Game 1. The Yankees scored first in both, both were one-run games in the fifth, the Yankees broke both games open late, the Yankees got dominant starting pitching in both games and Chad Tracy managed in a way that makes me feel proud to have Aaron Boone as my team’s manager.

The Yankees couldn’t lose to former failed Yankees Sonny Gray, Aroldis Chapman, Greg Weissert, Jahmai Jones and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, and they didn’t. They had to beat a Red Sox team that was mediocre at best in the 125 games sandwiched around their historic 32-5 run, and they did. And they didn’t just beat them, they humiliated them.

3. The Yankees outscored the Red Sox 18-2 over the two games. The Red Sox had one baserunner reach second base in Game 1, and in Game 2, they had one baserunner reach second base in the first 5 2/3 innings, and that runner only got to second because Trent Grisham jogged to a shallow fly ball like a valet driver going around the block to get your car. The Red Sox’ starting pitching was OK (aided by a foreign substance on the neck of Gray), their offense was nonexistent, their bullpen was atrocious and their manager was a disaster. The Yankees embarrassed their entire organization and I enjoyed every second of it. It was both beautiful and satisfying.

4. Who was that team wearing pinstripes and making contact and putting the ball in play the last two nights? Because it looked nothing like the Yankees’ offense I watched for 162 games. It looked nothing like every other Yankees’ offensive performance during the Boone era. The Yankees had more walks (five) than strikeouts (four) in Game 1, and then spent Game 2 extending their lead by putting the ball in play and putting pressure on the Red Sox.

5. Before Cody Bellinger put the finishing touch on the Red Sox’ season, the Yankees scored three runs without doing much. Spencer Jones reached first base to lead off the inning after striking out on a wild pitch. Jones took off for second and Adley Rutschman made an errant throw into the outfield to allow Jones to go to third. George Lombard Jr. singled Jones in. Jazz Chisholm followed with a single to move Lombard Jr. to second. Grisham tried to sacrifice both runners over with a bunt, but ended up reaching on a bunt single to load the bases with no outs. Austin Wells (who had as many RBIs in this series as he did in the first month of the regular season) hit a deep fly ball to score Lombard Jr. The Yankees manufactured three runs with really only a pair of singles, simply by running hard, putting the ball in play, putting pressure on the defense and performing good situational hitting. Instead of waiting around for a three-run home run like they have in every other Boone era postseason, they built runs by simply playing good baseball. And then they were rewarded with the three-run home run to end the game.

6. The Yankees went 12-for-32 with five walks and four strikeouts in Game 1 and every starter other than Heliot Ramos reached base safely. In Game 2, the Yankees went 14-for-36 with three walks and 10 strikeouts and every starter had at least one hit. This certainly isn’t the offense Yankees fans watched all season and it’s certainly not the postseason offense Yankees fans have grown accustomed to. The last two nights felt like I was watching a completely different version of the 2026 Yankees’ offense. The offense looked like the type of offense I always want the Yankees to have, but they never do.

7. It’s not like the Yankees were playing the Astros or White Sox either. They faced two of the best starting pitchers in the majors and the bullpen with the lowest ERA in the majors, and they pummeled them. The offense got to the Red Sox’ talented rookie and chased their superb veteran. They rocked their big deadline acquisition, torched their middle relief and even beat up on their elite setup man. It all seemed too good to be true.

8. And maybe it was. While every Yankees fan should celebrate on Thursday and Friday, it’s highly unlikely that what we all watched the last two nights at the Stadium is going to take place in the next round beginning on Saturday in Tampa. The Rays aren’t the Red Sox. They earned a first-round bye by winning the division and holding off the Yankees. Each time the Yankees got within striking distance of the Rays this summer, the Rays ripped off a winning streak to push them away. They won the season series over the Yankees despite treating the last two games of the season series like spring training games in early March. They play in a venue the Yankees have had a hard time winning in and they play a brand of baseball that combats what the Yankees do well, and they boast the best manager in the sport, who won’t make even one of the countless mistakes Chad Tracy made in the Wild Card Series. Beating the crap out of the Red Sox was fun, but playing the Rays won’t be.

9. For a team that had to play a best-of-3 series for their season, the Yankees are set up as well as a wild-card team could possibly be. Aside from the scary setting of a best-of-3 that could end your season and not having home-field advantage in the ALDS, the Yankees are in a good spot. Their offense is humming, they only had to use two starters, their bullpen is rested and even their manager is managing in a way he never has before (though I’m going to need much more than a two-game sample size against a shitty opponent to believe it’s for real). Because of the day off between Games 1 and 2 of the ALDS, the Yankees have the ability to start Cam Schlittler in Games 2 and 5, on the road where he had a 1.16 ERA in 17 starts.

10. I’m not ready to think about the Rays yet. I still haven’t consumed every possible Game 2 reaction from depressed Red Sox fans mourning the humiliating defeat that ended their season. I will start to worry about the Rays on Friday. Today is a day for celebration.

1. “We don’t say hate.” That’s what my wife and I have taught our kids. With one exception: when you’re talking about the Red Sox.

I hate the Red Sox. Everything about them. I hated them long before I was a freshman in college in Boston in 2004. (If I close my eyes, I can still hear the sounds from outside my 11th-floor downtown dorm room when Ruben Sierra grounded out to end Game 7.) I hated them long before the 2018 ALDS disaster and the 2021 Wild Card Game.

I spent my Yankees fandom up until a year ago wishing and praying a Yankee would come along that could dominate the Red Sox in a way that David Ortiz did. My wish was granted and my prayers were answered in the form of a pitcher named Cam Schlittler. He’s almost too perfect in the role as a Massachusetts native who grew up pitching in the Red Sox’ backyard. He attended college one mile from Fenway Park, and yet, he was drafted by the team’s archrival. And in 15 months as a major leaguer, he has owned the Red Sox in a way no Yankee ever has. In a way no pitcher ever has. In a way no professional athlete has ever owned any team.

2. Outside of my wife and kids, Schlittler (who has the same first name as my oldest son) is the greatest thing to ever happen to me. (I’m only somewhat joking.) He’s an ace in every sense of the title and utterly dominates the Red Sox every time he pitches against them. In Game 1 of the Wild Card Series on Tuesday, Schlittler threw a career-high 117 pitches over 6 1/3 scoreless innings, while allowing just two singles to go along with 10 strikeouts and one walk. This comes a year after he ended the Red Sox’ season with eight scoreless innings in a masterful 12-strikeout performance.

3. “It’s very well-known that if you want to be a legend, which is obviously the goal,” Schlittler said, “you’ve got to do it in the postseason.”

Schlittler has now made six career starts against the Red Sox between the regular season and postseason and has pitched to this preposterous line: 38.2 IP, 22 H, 7 R, 2 ER, 10 BB, 49 K, 2 HR, 0.47 ERA, 0.828 WHIP. He’s already a legend in terms of the rivalry and he’s well on his way to being a postseason legend with a 0.87 ERA in three career postseason starts.

4. My only fear with Schlittler going into Game 1 was that I didn’t think this level of dominance could possibly continue. At some point, the Red Sox have to hit him, right? Maybe not. The Red Sox went into the game ready for Schlittler’s fastball-heavy approach and instead he leaned on a curveball that had the movement of a scraped-up Wiffle ball. Schlittler threw the most curves of his career and racked up strikeouts with it throughout the game. The game plan was a masterpiece and Schlittler executed it beautifully. I’m convinced the Red Sox will never hit him.

5. Schlittler wasn’t the only Massachusetts native to stick it to the Red Sox in Game 1. Ben Rice carried the offense the way he did all season in Aaron Judge’s absence. Rice doubled in his first at-bat, struck out in his second, hit a solo home run in his third, hit a 106.4-mph RBI single in his fourth and hit a grand slam in his fifth. He finished the game 4-for-5 with two home runs and six RBIs. It was as if the Red Sox’ scouting report on Rice was to wrongfully throw him fastballs.

“Any time you can come through for the team in a playoff game,” Rice said, “it feels pretty awesome.”

6. It’s hard to remember a game in which the Yankees’ offense had more walks than strikeouts, but they did so in Game 1 with five walks and only four strikeouts. The Red Sox’ bullpen failed to record a single strikeout in 3 1/3 innings. Everyone not named Heliot Ramos contributed. (Ramos had three of the worst plate appearances you’ll ever see and has to go down as the worst player to ever bat third for the franchise in a playoff game.)

Paul Goldschmidt drew two walks. Rice had the all-time night. Cody Bellinger had a single. George Lombard Jr. had three hits in his postseason debut, becoming the second-youngest player in major-league history to record three hits in their postseason debut. Amed Rosario drew a walk. Anthony Volpe had a single and a well-placed sacrifice bunt. Spencer Jones had a single and a walk and Austin Wells had two singles, a sacrifice fly and drove in two runs, including the game’s first run. Wells has the opportunity to erase one of the worst offensive regular seasons in the history of baseball in the postseason, and he’s off to a fast start. (Even Ryan McMahon drew a walk in the game. It was a four-pitch walk, which goes to show you just how bad Red Sox reliever Wyatt Olds is.)

7. The offense did enough against Payton Tolle to chase him after 4 2/3 innings. I was surprised Chad Tracy took him out when he did, as Tracy managed like early-career Aaron Boone (though Boone hasn’t evolved much since 2018) in the game, treating a one- and two-run postseason game like a random midseason game. Boone didn’t have to do much, and that’s the goal: keep Boone out of the game. Let him sit in the dugout and blow his bubbles, rotate his watch and shake hands at the end. Schlittler made sure Boone didn’t have an impact on the game and the offense did enough before blowing it open to keep Boone’s brain from maneuvering the game in the wrong direction. Boone did the right thing in pushing Schlittler the way he did and made the right call by going to Paul Blackburn when he did.

8. It was telling when Boone went with Volpe over Jazz Chisholm in the starting lineup, especially after sitting Chisholm last year in Game 1 and after Chisholm’s comments earlier this week, essentially threatening to have a tantrum if he didn’t play against lefties. Well, he didn’t play against the lefty, and when Boone had the chance to use Chisholm in a guaranteed plate appearance against a righty in the sixth inning, he stayed with Volpe. And I loved it. I like this version of Volpe. I’m fine with Volpe being an average-at-best bat if he hits at the bottom of the order and plays a great second base, which he has. He looks like a natural at second. He looked out of place at shortstop. If Boone stays with Volpe as the starting second baseman with the right-handed Sonny Gray starting Game 2, Chisholm may not show up to the game.

I think Chisholm will start Game 2. I think eight left-handed bats will start Game 2. I think Boone will go with this lineup:

1. Ben Rice, DH
2. Cody Bellinger, LF
3. Luis Garcia, 1B
4. Spencer Jones, RF
5. Jazz Chisholm, 2B
6. George Lombard Jr., SS
7. Trent Grisham, CF
8. Ryan McMahon, 3B
9. Austin Wells, C

That means Boone will have Volpe, Ramos, Rosario, Goldschmidt, Giancarlo Stanton, Jose Caballero and Ali Sanchez to deploy as right-handed pinch hitters once the Red Sox go to their lefty-heavy bullpen.

9. Max Fried goes for the Yankees. Fried shut down the Red Sox with eight scoreless innings back in April and pitched well against them again in August in an abbreviated, pitch-count-limited start coming off the injured list. Fried pitched very well against them in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series last year, and I expect him to do so again on seven days’ rest.

10. Game 1 was fun. A little too fun. Pouring it on in the eighth was euphoric. I don’t want to write it, but I have to: It felt like Game 3 of the 2004 ALCS. I know, I know. I shouldn’t have written that, but I did. The Yankees need to make sure it isn’t history repeating itself by winning on Wednesday. Only one team in the 16 best-of-3 series to date has erased a 1-0 deficit, and that was the Yankees over the Red Sox last year. Don’t allow a second instance to happen. Go out in Game 2 and do what you should have done in the four-game series in June and end the Red Sox’ season.

1. The Yankees are the best team in the American League, but the combination of injuries, poor roster construction and their annual summer vacation cost them the division for a second straight season. They lost Giancarlo Stanton for “24 hours” at the end of April and he hasn’t played since. They lost Aaron Judge for 96 games. Cody Bellinger, Jazz Chisholm, Jose Caballero, Austin Wells and Ryan McMahon each landed on the injured list, while Trent Grisham, Max Fried and Carlos Rodon all landed on it twice. They let Camilo Doval and Jake Bird blow games and spent another half-season trying to sell the world on Anthony Volpe as a shortstop. They suffered a midseason slump with bad summer series losses to the Reds, Tigers and Twins, but nothing was worse than getting swept in a four-game series by the Red Sox at Fenway Park. That series is why the Yankees are playing the Red Sox in the Wild Card Series for the second straight season.

2. The Yankees went into that June 25-28 series with the Red Sox with a three-game division lead. The Red Sox were 32-46, had fired their manager, were 15 1/2 games out in the division and in last place in the AL. In the first game of that series, the Yankees had a 2-0 lead in the fifth inning with Cam Schlittler on the mound adding to his career domination of the Red Sox. The Red Sox were on their way to falling 15 games under .500. Their season was over. At least until the Yankees pulled out the defibrillators on defense and brought the Red Sox back to life. A comedy of errors led the Red Sox to a 6-3 win. Schlittler allowed no earned runs with nine strikeouts over five innings and took the loss. The Red Sox won the next day, and the next day and the next day and kept on winning, ripping off a 32-5 run to turn their season around. The 15 1/2-game lead the Yankees had over the Red Sox eventually dwindled down to a half-game, but thankfully, the Red Sox never passed the Yankees in the standings or the venue for the games this week would be Fenway Park and not Yankee Stadium.

3. The Yankees have no one to blame other than themselves for having to play in the best-of-3 Wild Card Series for a second straight year. They have no one to blame other than themselves for the Red Sox — the one AL team that possesses their kryptonite with an abundance of left-handed pitching — being their opponent. Like last year, if the Yankees were to play the Red Sox in a best-of-5, my confidence would be much greater than it is now, even without Judge and with Stanton relegated to a one-at-bat-at-most-per-game role. If the Yankees had to play them in a best-of-7, my confidence would be through the roof. But in a three-game series? I don’t know if there is any measurable confidence in a best-of-3. Just like there wasn’t last year when the Yankees eked out a series win with Judge and Stanton against a Red Sox roster inferior to this year’s.

That’s not because the Yankees are an inferior team. Quite the opposite. When they’re not beating themselves, the Yankees are a much better team than the Red Sox, even without Judge and Stanton. It’s because it’s a BEST-OF-3 SERIES. The Yankees lost three-game series this season to the Athletics, Orioles, Blue Jays, Reds, Tigers, Twins and Cardinals. The Rockies swept the Red Sox in a three-game series this year. It’s three games! The margin for error is slim and for the Aaron Boone Yankees who have always played as if their margin for error is infinite, it’s not an ideal setting. After Tuesday night, one team will be on the brink of elimination.

4. I have to believe Cam Schlittler will dominate the Red Sox like he always has in Game 1. I can’t entertain thoughts that he could be tired, that he’s due for a clunker against a team he has dominated or that he could get outpitched by Payton Tolle, even if it’s very conceivable he could get outpitched by Tolle. Tolle is the Red Sox’ Schlittler, just left-handed and smilier and fatter with a mustache. The Yankees had 46 plate appearances against Tolle in 2026 and went 4-for-43 with three walks, 18 strikeouts and a .093/.152/.163 slash line. The Yankees scored one run against Tolle in 13 innings and that one run was a Jazz Chisholm home run at Fenway Park around Pesky’s Pole. Last season, Garrett Crochet (who is on the Red Sox’ Wild Card Series roster) made four starts against the Yankees and the Red Sox won all of them with Crochet allowing just four walks and recording 39 strikeouts in 27 1/3 innings, and yet, Tolle has been more dominant against the Yankees.

If there is offense while Schlittler and Tolle are in the game, it’s likely to come from a home run. Schlittler and Tolle combined for 342 1/3 innings and only allowed 252 hits. It’s nearly impossible to envision either of them allowing a series of consecutive hits to plate runs. Only 31 of the 1,364 combined hitters they faced hit home runs, but the 2.3 percent chance that someone gets a mistake over the short porch is the only believable way the duo would allow a run (or runs) to be scored on Tuesday. For two starters who walk few, strike out many and rarely allow hits, let alone home runs, hitting a mistake out is the best and may be the only chance to score.

5. Fortunately, the Yankees are much better at hitting home runs than the Red Sox. The Yankees were second in the majors in home runs (three fewer than the Astros) in a season in which Judge missed 96 games and Stanton missed 138. The Red Sox were 26th in the majors in home runs. If the long ball is the path to generating offense and being the difference in a game started by two pitchers who both own the opposition, the Yankees’ lineup is better constructed to do so. (Now watch some bum like Nick Sogard hit one out in Game 1.)

6. But that’s about where the positivity on lineup construction ends for the Yankees. As of Tuesday morning — the morning of the start of the postseason — the Yankees’ postseason roster was mostly unknown and only three of nine lineup spots were set in stone: left field (Cody Bellinger), shortstop (George Lombard Jr.) and catcher (Austin Wells). The Yankees are a team full of mostly designated hitters, built like an autodrafted fantasy team. They have three possible first basemen: one who can’t hit righties, one who can’t hit lefties and one who can’t field. They have three possible second basemen: one who has all the talent in the world but is mentally fragile and a postseason disaster, one who is pesky but reckless and one who just started playing the position in August. They have four options at third base: one who is owed a lot of money but is the worst non-catcher offensive player in the sport, one who is an extreme liability and the reason the Red Sox won that Schlittler start to save their season in June, one who is the pesky-but-reckless option from second base and one who is the second base option that just started playing second and also just started playing third. In center field, they can either play a rookie who can’t field, strikes out a ton, but can hit home runs or a veteran who can’t run and can’t hit postseason pitching, but has good plate discipline. In right field, it’s either move the rookie center fielder to right or the all-world left fielder to right or play the guy who mashes left-handed pitching but fields like he’s drunk or blindfolded (or both).

7. Not having a one-size-fits-all lineup like championship teams have or even a set lineup for lefties and righties means a lot of crucial, season-changing decisions have to be made from what the starting lineup should be, to who gets pinch-hit for, to when someone gets pulled for a defensive replacement and so on. And the person who will make these decisions is a manager whose worst tool is in-game management. Aaron Boone will be counted on to make countless logical, smart, intelligent moves throughout each game that will all need to have positive outcomes.

8. That’s what worries me most about the Yankees in this series: Boone’s brain. Boone will have his hands all over this series in a way he has never had to before. The front office did a good job Boone-proofing the pitching staff by giving him the best rotation and minimizing his in-game input on pitching decisions. Ideally, the formula would be starter to David Bednar, but when it’s not, he has two very good setup men and a pair of starters who would be No. 1 and No. 2 starters on a lot of major-league teams. But when it comes to the lineup, it won’t be so easy. Boone will have to balance going for offense while not sacrificing defense. He will have to use bench bats at the most opportune times and avoid his habit of creating lengthy left-handed lanes for the Red Sox to expose.

It’s unlikely the Yankees lose the Wild Card Series because their starting pitching gets lit up. It’s unlikely they lose because their bullpen implodes. It’s possible they lose because they don’t hit enough — a staple of the Boone era in the playoffs. But if they lose, it’s most likely because their manager fails to put his players in the best possible position to succeed. The Boone Yankees are 25-27 in the postseason. His Yankees have never won a series of 5 or 7 games against a non-AL Central team. A lot of it is because of the offense’s annual disappearing act, but Boone hasn’t done anything to elevate the chances of his previous seven postseason teams. If anything, he has hindered their chances of winning.

9. I like to say the Yankees need to outhit their own manager to win games to prevent him from having an impact on close games. That’s not possible in the playoffs, where games are low-scoring and close. Every decision Boone makes from the moment he starts to fill out his lineup card until the final out of each postseason game is crucial, and he has been incapable of handling the pressure that comes with making many consecutive correct decisions, which is what it takes to win in October. And now he will play his biggest role and have his biggest impact of his eight postseasons.

Even with Boone being asked to play the biggest role in the postseason of his managerial career, I believe the Yankees will win. Sure, if they had a healthy Judge and Stanton, it would make it a lot easier, but even without them, they are better than a Red Sox offense that makes the 2026 Yankees offense look like the 2009 Yankees. And for those who watched this offense every day for the last six months, you know how frustrating it is. The Red Sox haven’t scored more than four runs in a game since September 12.

10. I want nothing more than for the Yankees to win and for Boone to win. I don’t want to sit through another end-of-the-season press conference with him telling everyone how close the team is and how sweet it’s going to be once they do win it all. “The top of the mountain” as he likes to say. Just win for the first time in his nine-year tenure and the first time in 17 years for the franchise, so I can stop dreaming about the day he’s no longer employed by the team.

I’m nervous. How can you not be if you’re a Yankees fan? I expect the Yankees to win this series because I don’t want to envision this series ending any other way. At the end of today, the Yankees will either be playing for their season tomorrow or playing tomorrow for the chance to play on Saturday. It better be the latter because I can’t handle the former again.