Blogs – Keefe To The City

Oct 2, 2026

Yankees Thoughts: Getting Ready for ALDS Game 1

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. This is the best I have felt about the Yankees in 2026. Coming off the two-game destruction of the entire Red Sox’ organization, the Yankees are flying high with the ALDS set to begin, and I’m flying equally as high. Who needs alcohol or drugs when your favorite baseball team beats the absolute shit out of your least favorite baseball team?

But when Drew Rasmussen throws the first pitch of the ALDS to Ben Rice on Saturday night at Tropicana Field, I will immediately be grounded. I’m already on my way back down like the hysterical Uncle Albert floating to the floor in Mary Poppins. Because while basking in the blowout of the Red Sox and the misery-fueled aftermath for their fans, I recognize the Rays are not the Red Sox.

2. The Rays don’t boast a punchless lineup or a manager that makes me appreciate Aaron Boone. They got to sit at home this week and watch the Yankees put their season on the line and force their best two starters to make an extra start for a reason. The Rays had the best record in the American League for a reason. The Rays earned their bye to the ALDS and home-field advantage in the AL playoffs for as long as they are alive in the playoffs. They held off the Yankees from June 28 through Game 162. Each time the Yankees made a play to overtake them, the Rays answered with lengthy winning streaks.

3. Cam Schlittler against the Red Sox is what the Rays’ Game 1 starter Drew Rasmussen has been against the Yankees in his career. This is Rasmussen’s career line against the Yankees: 59.2 IP, 38 H, 12 R, 12 ER, 13 BB, 70 K, 3 HR, 1.81 ERA, 0.855 WHIP. He has held the Yankees to a .180/.228/.246 slash line in his career.

The good news is the Yankees did beat Rasmussen up at the Trop (where Game 1 will be played) on July 9: 2.1 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 1 HR.

The bad news is that in his other three starts against the Yankees this season, Rasmussen pitched to this line: 19.2 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 24 K.

Rasmussen blanked the Yankees for six innings (and allowed one baserunner) in Tampa in April. He shut them out for seven innings in the Bronx in May. He got lit up by them at the Trop in July and then one-hit them for 6 2/3 innings (with 11 strikeouts) in September. He’s the single-worst possible pitcher for the Yankees to face in the league and they will have to face him in Game 1 and then again in Game 4 (if there is a Game 4).

4. Here are the Yankees’ individual numbers against Rasmussen:

Ben Rice: 1-for-16, HR, 7 K
Cody Bellinger: 4-for-17, 2 BB, 2 K
Luis Garcia: 0-for-6, K
Spencer Jones: 0-for-3, 2 K
George Lombard Jr.: 0-for-2, K
Jazz Chisholm: 2-for-14, 2B, 3 BB, 6 K
Trent Grisham: 6-for-16, HR, 4 K
Austin Wells: 1-for-8, HR, BB, K
Ryan McMahon: 1-for-10, 2B, BB, 7 K

Aaron Judge: 2-for-16, 2 BB, 8 K
Anthony Volpe: 0-for-11, BB, 7 K
Paul Goldschmidt: 2-for-9, 2 BB, 4 K
Jose Caballero: 1-for-6, 2 K
Giancarlo Stanton: 2-for-4
Heliot Ramos: 1-for-3, 2B, K
Amed Rosario: 0-for-2
Ali Sanchez: Has never faced Rasmussen

Outside of Grisham, it’s bad pretty much all around. That doesn’t mean he’s unhittable. Entering Game 2 of the 2017 ALDS and facing Corey Kluber, the Yankees’ roster was a collective 23-for-148 with eight walks, 44 strikeouts and a .155/.204/.250 slash line against Kluber for their careers. They chased him in the third inning in that game (2.2 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 2 HR) and then chased him in the fourth inning five days later (3.2 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 2 HR) to win the series. No, I don’t feel good about the Yankees having to face Rasmussen on Saturday and possibly twice within the next week, but it doesn’t mean the Yankees can’t beat him.

5. The postseason is different. In Rasmussen’s only postseason start (as a Ray back in 2021), he was pulled before recording an out in the third inning at Fenway Park. He faced 11 batters and six of them reached as he lasted only 33 pitches. Five years is an eternity in baseball and Rasmussen is now a seasoned veteran and an All-Star in each of the last two seasons. He was very good back then too (2.44 ERA in 10 starts and 20 games with the Rays that year), but he’s one of the best pitchers in baseball now.

Because Schlittler likely won’t pitch in the games Rasmussen starts (unless the Rays hold him back for Game 5), Rasmussen’s starts represent the only time the time(s) the Rays will have the starting pitching advantage in the series. If the Yankees win when Rasmussen starts, it will be nearly impossible for the Rays to win the series because it will mean having to win all of Schlittler’s starts. If the Yankees win Game 1, the path to a series win for the Rays becomes incredibly difficult to envision.

Unless the Yankees are going to beat up Rasmussen on Saturday like they did in July (and that’s impossible to expect), the way to beat him is the plan the Red Sox’ unsuccessfully attempted against Schlittler in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series: keep it close until he’s out of the game.

Rasmussen averaged just under six innings in his 30 starts this season, but he never pitched more than seven innings. His season-high for pitches was 114, which he threw in his final start of the season in the division-clinching game at Yankee Stadium on September 22. He will start Game 1 of the ALDS on 10 days’ rest. It’s possible there’s some rust initially after having not pitched in a third of a month, or it’s possible he’s so rested that he comes out dotting the corners and racking up strikeouts.

6. However Rasmussen comes out (whether rusty or dominant), Gerrit Cole needs to match him. That’s a lot to ask, considering Cole is pitching as poorly as he ever has a Yankee. The only other time Cole looked this bad was in the final month of 2021. That month-long slog foreshadowed his 2021 one-game playoff performance at Fenway Park, in which he lost the game after four batters. If Cole pitches on Saturday like he did in September, the Yankees will be down 1-0 in the series.

Thanks to the day off between Games 1 and 2 and with Schlittler going in Game 2, Cole doesn’t need to give the Yankees length. If he empties the tank and only gives the Yankees five spectacular innings (or even four), he will have done his job. The Yankees’ bullpen is well-rested. It had one high-leverage plate appearance in the Wild Card Series and Paul Blackburn induced a double play in it. The bullpen is so rested that Aaron Boone had to use his high-end relievers in a Game 2 blowout just to get them work in. The bullpen can cover as many innings as needed. They just can’t help if a game is ruined early.

7. And that’s what I’m most worried about with Cole: ruining the game early. Allowing a crooked number in the first or second inning can’t happen. The Yankees can’t be playing from behind by multiple runs against this Rays team, especially in a Rasmussen start. Cole doesn’t have to be great for long. He just needs to be great for as long as he’s in the game. I don’t expect him to have the kind of start Schlittler or Fried had against the Red Sox because I don’t expect much from this version of Cole or postseason Cole. I recognize his overall postseason career numbers are strong, but as a Yankee, when there have been fans in the stands or the opposition hasn’t been an AL Central team, he hasn’t been very good.

8. The games at the Trop won’t feel like road games because the crowd will be mostly Yankees fans. The Rays are opening the upper deck for the series due to ticket demand and that demand is coming from Yankees fans. It’s going to sound like Yankee Stadium inside the Trop on Saturday and Monday (and possibly next Saturday too). But the turf, the oddities of the field and roof and everything that comes with the 36-year-old dome will favor the Rays.

9. If the Yankees play clean baseball, they will win the series. They could lose both Rasmussen starts and still win the series. I believe that many more things have to go right for the Rays to win three games than need to go right for the Yankees to win three games. The Rays are going to get good-to-great starting pitching and superb managing and will play exceptional defense. But they have to win the Rasmussen starts and win one of the non-Rasmussen starts and get production from their Big 3 at the top of the order and get shutdown performances from their bullpen. (The Red Sox went in to the Wild Card Series with the No. 1 bullpen in the majors in 2026 and the Yankees scored 15 runs against it in 6 2/3 innings. The Rays had the 14th-best bullpen in the majors this season.)

10. The Yankees own the better rotation, the better lineup, the better bullpen and more power (they finished second in the majors in home runs by three without Judge and Stanton, while the Rays finished 22nd). The Rays have the edge in defense, manager and home-field advantage in terms of the actual field and not the crowd. Because of the slop in the AL Central side of the AL bracket, whichever team wins this series is not only going to the ALCS, but to the World Series. That team should be the Yankees, and if they can win Game 1 on Saturday, it will be the Yankees.

Blogs • Yankees

Oct 2, 2026

Getting Ready for Rays

The ALDS begins on Saturday at Tropicana Field.

The last two days have been thoroughly enjoyable. I believe I have consumed every available social media post, video, blog and podcast of depressed Red Sox fans, who are angry, embarrassed, sad and miserable about what took place in the Wild Card Series. But now it’s time to focus on the ALDS and the Rays.

With the ALDS set to begin on Saturday at Tropicana Field, let’s go through some questions and comments from readers.

I think Carlos Rodon should start Game 1. – Charles

The Yankees announced earlier that Gerrit Cole would start Game 1. Aaron Boone made a comment that Rodon would start one of the two home games, either Game 3 or Game 4. If Rodon is going to start a home game and we know Cam Schlittler is going to start Games 2 and 5, then this is what the rotation will be for the ALDS:

Game 1: Gerrit Cole
Game 2: Cam Schlittler
Game 3: Max Fried/Carlos Rodon
Game 4: Max Fried/Carlos Rodon
Game 5: Cam Schlittler

For me to advocate for Rodon to start a game and even Game 1 says everything you need to know about his current abilities versus Cole’s. I despise Rodon. He was a clown for all of 2023, untrustworthy in 2024, a postseason disaster in 2025 and made only 16 starts in 2026. But those 16 starts in 2026 were the best he has looked as a Yankee, and arguably in his career. He didn’t give up more than three earned runs in any start, pitched to a 2.67 ERA and allowed only seven home runs in 84 1/3 innings. In his last start of the season on September 22 against the Rays with the Rays trying to clinch the division at Yankee Stadium, Rodon shut them down: 8 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 8 K.

That night, the Rays won the division in the second game of a doubleheader, and the following day, after a night of celebrating in New York City, the Rays played a hungover, meaningless game. They sat Yandy Diaz and Chandler Simpson, pulled Junior Caminero after two at-bats and called Mason Englert up from Triple-A to start. They treated the game like a spring training exhibition and were blown out 9-2 by the Yankees. Cole started that game and pitched to this line: 5.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, 1 HR. It was a fine start in a vacuum, but factor in the Rays’ lack determination to win a meaningless game after a night on the town and with a lesser lineup, and it wasn’t very good. But that’s mostly what Cole was in his final starts of the season: not very good.

I’m a big believer in the Yankees being run as a meritocracy. It’s why I wanted Spencer Jones playing over Trent Grisham before Grisham got hurt. It’s why I wanted Anthony Volpe sent down in 2023 and 2024 and 2025 and 2026. It’s why I wanted Alex Verdugo out of the starting lineup in 2024 and it’s why I want Ryan McMahon on the bench in 2026. You should have to earn your playing time, your at-bats and your starts. Rodon has earned it this season.

I understand wanting to start the lefties at Yankee Stadium to attempt to negate the short porch, and if the Yankees were playing at home in Game 1, I think it’s possible Rodon would be starting Game 1 (though I can’t say for certain since the Yankees cater to Cole). If Rodon and Cole are both going to pitch in the series, having Rodon pitch at home and Cole on the road does make more sense even if I don’t trust this version of Cole.

Which position players on the Wild Card Series roster get left off the ALDS roster? – Steve

Would you dump Giancarlo Stanton from the bench since the Yankees will carry at least 11 pitchers in this series? – Rick

These two questions are nearly impossible to answer because we don’t know the status of Aaron Judge or how many pitchers the Yankees will take on the ALDS roster. The Yankees took 10 pitchers for the Wild Card Series. With this year’s ALDS having a day off between Games 1 and 2, they could get by with 10 pitchers again, but I think they go with 11, and Ryan Weathers is the addition.

I think the first player off the roster then becomes Amed Rosario. The Rays are starting Drew Rasmussen (righty) in Game 1 and probably Nick Martinez (righty) in Game 2. Other rotation options are Griffin Jax (righty), Shane McClanahan (lefty) and Ian Seymour (lefty). The only other potential left-handed pitchers on their roster are Garrett Cleavinger, Cam Booser and Steven Matz, and they are all pretty bad, including against lefties. If the Yankees needed a right-handed bat to pinch hit and Rosario wasn’t on the roster, they would have Paul Goldschmidt, Giancarlo Stanton, Anthony Volpe, Heliot Ramos and Jose Caballero as options. (And Ali Sanchez, but I’m more likely to appear in this series than he is.) Rosario is the easy choice to leave off.

Now if Judge is healthy, someone else has to come off the roster. I fear it may be Stanton, but I would make it Ramos. Ramos can’t be trusted in the outfield, and while three at-bats in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series is the smallest of sample sizes, he looked overmatched for the moment. I understand he had a .907 OPS against lefties this year, but the Rays don’t have many lefties and there would be better pinch-hit options against them. And with the Yankees’ left-on-left success, you may not even need a pinch hitter.

If the Yankees go 0-2 at the Trop, who do you want to start Game 3? – Aaron

I would say Fried, but if the Yankees are in that hole, it doesn’t really matter if it’s Fried or Rodon since both would have to pitch anyway with the other going in Game 4. The Yankees need to win one of the first two games at the Trop.

Boone did not need to do much in the Wild Card Series. What do you see as his pitfalls for the Tampa series? – Paul

It’s easy to manage when your offense scores nine runs like it did in both Wild Card Series games and when your starting pitchers give you length like they both did in the Wild Card Series. Boone didn’t have to do much against the Red Sox. The only move he really had to decide on was to bring Paul Blackburn into Game 1 in relief of Schlittler with a runner on and the Yankees leading 2-0. That move worked. However, Boone admitted he got greedy and should have pulled Schlittler after he got Willson Contreras out to start the inning, which was his initial plan and what he told Schlittler was the plan.

Boone will have to be at his best in the ALDS. He’s not going to outmanage Kevin Cash, the best manager in baseball. He needs to match him though. He’s not going against Chad Tracy, who just managed arguably the worst two consecutive games imaginable. If Boone screws up, the Rays will take advantage. The only way to remove Boone from the equation is for the starting pitchers and offense to perform like they did against the Red Sox, but that is an impossible ask against the team that finished with the best record in the American League.

Tampa Bay schooled Boone in the art of baseball in the game where they clinched the division. Do you think, based on the Wild Card Series, Boone learned anything from that beatdown? – Bret

We’re in Year 9 of Boone and he still makes the same mistakes he made in Year 1. I don’t think the loss to the Rays two weeks ago turned on a lightbulb that will change him as a manager. He had very little impact on the Wild Card Series. He had the best starting pitcher against the Red Sox in the history of the game pitching Game 1 and one of the best starting pitchers of this generation pitching Game 2 and his offense scored 18 runs in 16 innings.

If the Rays have a runner on third with less than two outs, they will bunt to get that run in. They used this play in the division clincher two weeks ago and throughout the season. The Rays don’t care about giving up outs, they care about scoring runs when they are readily available. Earlier this season, Boone claimed that the Rays’ use of the squeeze play to score when executed perfectly is indefensible. However, Joe Girardi explained during a game what is needed to defend the play. The Rays are going to use this play to score if given the opportunity. Accepting the situation as a lost cause isn’t good enough, and the Yankees need to attempt to defend it better.

I worry about the Yankees’ sloppiness making an appearance in this series, which will doom them and end their season if it does. If Grisham is playing center field and jogging to shallow fly balls like he’s shagging in batting practice or if the team can’t cleanly field bunts, hit the cut-off man and properly back up throws, the Rays will run wild. If the Rays are given free bases like Grisham gave Nate Eaton in the Wild Card Series, the Rays will take advantage. The Rays will score leadoff doubles. They will put the ball in play to move runners over and they will put pressure on the Yankees’ defense. The Boone era Yankees have always played messy baseball even if Boone claims that judgment is an exaggeration. This is not the team to play Boone baseball against.

Blogs • Yankees

Oct 1, 2026

So Long, Sonny Gray

The former Yankee took the loss in the game that ended the Red Sox’ season.

I liked Sonny Gray. I wanted to keep liking him too, but he made it impossible. Not because he wasn’t with the Yankees what he was at his best with the A’s (and what he has been since leaving the Yankees). It wasn’t even because of his performance, which was OK in 11 starts in 2017 (3.72 ERA and 4.87 FIP) and then abysmal in 27 starts and 30 games in 2018. It was because of how he handled his time in New York and how he evaluated his performance.

Long before exaggerating and flat-out lying about performances became the nightly routine it has become in the Yankees’ manager’s office and clubhouse, Gray was at the forefront of telling you that what you watched wasn’t how it should be interpreted in the Aaron Boone era. As Gray pitched to a 4.90 ERA and pitched himself out of the rotation in 2018, he frequently acted as though his efforts were better than the results showed.

In his last start of May 2018, Gray was destroyed by the Angels. He was given a 4-1 lead through the second inning and made it disappear almost as quickly as he got it. His line for the night: 3.2 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, 1 HR.

“I thought I commanded my two-seam well,” Gray said after his ERA ballooned to 5.98. “I think it was my four-seam that every time I threw it, it kind of leaked back over the middle of the plate. Slider was good. Yeah, I think the stuff was good.”

In 3 2/3 innings, Gray put 10 runners on base, walked three, allowed seven hits, allowed three extra-base hits, walked Kole Calhoun (.160/.195/.199), walked in a run and hit a batter. But there he was telling everyone his “stuff was good.” It was scary to think what Gray would look like if he didn’t have his “good stuff” and then we found out. For the next two months, he stayed in the rotation and continued to get the shit beat out of him. Every once in a while he would throw a gem just to make you think for a moment that maybe he figured it out only to follow it up with a disaster. The final straw came on August 1 when the 115-loss Orioles got to him for eight hits, seven earned runs and two walks over 2 2/3 innings in a loss. Gray was removed from the rotation after that performance and traded after the season.

Instead of becoming a young, controllable starting pitching success story for the Yankees, Gray was just another in the long line of young, controllable starting pitching failures Brian Cashman has acquired as Yankees general manager. (Maybe a healthy Ryan Weathers will end the drought?) After 28 seasons as general manager, Cashman has still failed to acquire a successful young, controllable starter. Gray, Jeff Weaver, Javier Vazquez, Michael Pineda, Nathan Eovaldi, James Paxton and Jameson Taillon all failed in New York and were traded or allowed to walk in free agency. They all blew up in the postseason or were left off postseason rosters completely.

There was a reason the Yankees gave up three of their better prospects in the summer of 2017 for Gray and there’s a reason why the team let him start Game 1 of the 2017 ALDS and Game 4 of the 2017 ALCS. There’s a reason why the Yankees let him keep starting all the way until August in 2018 even though he was nearly a guaranteed loss every time he took the ball. There’s a reason why so many teams were connected to him when the Yankees shopped him and why the Reds ultimately decided to trade for him and give him a $30.5 million extension after the trade, disregarding his awful 2018 season. And there’s a reason why David Ortiz said the following about Gray in 2015:

“The last few seasons, the toughest guy I’ve faced is Sonny Gray from Oakland. This kid’s stuff is legit … the first time I see this Gray kid on the mound, I can’t help but notice he’s 5’10” and skinny. He looks like the guy who fixes my computer at the Apple Store. I’m thinking, Here we go. This is gonna be fun. Then he took me for a ride, man. Fastball. Sinker. Slider. Curve … Whap. Whap. Whap. You have no idea what this kid is going to throw. He drives me crazy.”

The reason for all these things is that Gray has the ability, talent, stuff and repertoire to be a perennial Cy Young candidate. The pitcher Ortiz was talking about is the one who pitched to a 2.88 ERA over 491 innings in his first three seasons in the league and who shut out the Tigers over eight innings in Game 2 of the 2013 ALDS. That’s the pitcher the Yankees thought they were getting. That’s the pitcher I thought the Yankees were getting.

The Yankees essentially did get that pitcher … when they were on the road. When Gray was away from Yankee Stadium, he was his usual self, but when the Yankees were home, it was like watching Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS every start.

Home (15 games, 11 starts)
59.1 IP, 78 H, 47 R, 46 ER, 35 BB, 45 K, 11 HR, 6.98 ERA, 1.904 WHIP

Away (15 games, 12 starts)
71.0 IP, 60 H, 26 R, 26 ER, 22 BB, 78 K, 3 HR, 3.17 ERA, 1.155 WHIP

At Yankee Stadium, opposing batters teed off on him like a collective MVP candidate (.318/.406/.527), while on the road, opposing batters hit against him like they were a backup catcher (.226/.295/.320). Unfortunately, the Yankees couldn’t destroy the rest of their rotation by moving everyone around to accommodate Gray’s inability to pitch in the Bronx, so they instead made Austin Romine his personal catcher as if Gary Sanchez was the problem. When the hopeful magic trick of having Romine turn around Gray’s season proved ineffective, the Yankees continued to stick with the meaningless experiment.

The 2018 Yankees went 11-12 when Gray started and 89-50 in all other games, winning 100 games despite Gray’s miserable season. He was left off the postseason roster, and the second the season ended, Cashman went to work openly showing his displeasure with Gray’s performance and ending his Yankees tenure by saying things like “It hasn’t worked out thus far” and “I think that we’ll enter the winter, unfortunately, open-minded to a relocation” and “It’s probably best to try this somewhere else” and “Our intention is to move Sonny Gray and relocate him.”

On Gray’s first day as a Yankee, he met with the media and talked about how excited he was to be a Yankee. He went out of his way to pen a piece in The Players’ Tribune titled ‘New York, I’m Ready to Go.’ In it, he said, “I couldn’t be happier” to be a Yankee, wrote about watching the 2009 Yankees and how his new teammates “have been awesome” and how he was “welcomed with open arms.” Gray would go on to be a guest on CC Sabathia’s podcast to reinforce all of these thoughts.

Because of all this and because Gray went above and beyond to express his admiration for the Yankees and his happiness about being a Yankee, it made his comments in the winter upon signing with the Red Sox more than puzzling.

“I never wanted to go there in the first place,” Gray said of the Yankees, which seems odd since his 2017 piece in The Players’ Tribune is hundred of words saying the complete opposite.

“It’s easy to hate the Yankees,” Gray said, which is fine. It’s something I would expect anyone who joins the Red Sox to say, whether said in jest or not. But it comes off as fake when you factor in how every anti-Yankees claim Gray made at his first Red Sox press conference contradicts everything he said in 2017 and 2018.

“I just wasn’t myself,” Gray said of his time in New York. (Whose fault is that?) “I don’t know what led to that or anything.”

I think we know what led to that: pitching in New York. Here are Gray’s 2018 splits again:

Home (15 games, 11 starts)
59.1 IP, 78 H, 47 R, 46 ER, 35 BB, 45 K, 11 HR, 6.98 ERA, 1.904 WHIP

Away (15 games, 12 starts)
71.0 IP, 60 H, 26 R, 26 ER, 22 BB, 78 K, 3 HR, 3.17 ERA, 1.155 WHIP

The Yankees couldn’t lose a postseason game at Yankee Stadium against Gray, and they didn’t. With the help of a foreign substance on his neck, Gray looked to have his best stuff through the first three innings of Game 2 of the Wild Card Series. He had all six of his pitches working, and as a result, kept the Yankees off balance and off the scoreboard early. Luis Garcia got him for a solo home run to lead off the fourth, but that was it against Gray through four.

In the fifth, with the Yankees leading 1-0, Gray allowed a pair of ground-ball singles, and with two on and two outs, he was removed from the game after just 70 pitches. The only start in which he threw fewer pitches in all year came back on April 20 when he was removed from a game early due to hamstring tightness. His manager Chad Tracy had a bizarre answer for why he removed Gray after 70 pitches.

“We’re struggling to score runs,” Tracy said. “And when you get in spots where you’re struggling to score runs and you’re already trailing, you feel like you’ve got to be aggressive and go.”

I’m glad the Red Sox manager removed Gray because the team’s offense was struggling to score runs. If Tracy removed Gray because he didn’t want him to face the Yankees’ lineup for a third time, well, Gray doesn’t believe that was a good reason.

“I think I’m the best pitcher in the American League going through the order the third time. I think that’s a fact,” Gray said. “I would have liked to live or die with me in that moment, but that’s the competitor I am, and yeah, I think you can probably ask the guys, and they felt the same way.”

But Gray was removed and one of the runners he put on came around to score to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead in their eventual 9-2 blowout win. While it could have been anyone starting on the mound for the Red Sox in Game 2 and I would feel as good as I do today, Gray taking the L against the Yankees to end the Red Sox’ season has made everything about Wednesday’s win and the series win that much sweeter.

Wherever Gray’s next stop is, he’ll tell everyone he never wanted to go to the Red Sox in the first place, even though he had to waive his no-trade clause to go there. And that’s what I’m rooting for and every Yankees fan should be.

Blogs • Yankees • Yankees Thoughts

Oct 1, 2026

Wild Card Series Game 2 Thoughts: Another Laugher

The Yankees swept the Red Sox to advance to the ALDS. Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

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.

Blogs • Yankees • Yankees Thoughts

Sep 30, 2026

Wild Card Series Game 1 Thoughts: Eat Schlitt, Red Sox

The Yankees beat the Red Sox 9-0. Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

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:

Ben Rice, DH
Cody Bellinger, LF
Luis Garcia, 1B
Spencer Jones, RF
Jazz Chisholm, 2B
George Lombard Jr., SS
Trent Grisham, CF
Ryan McMahon, 3B
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.