1. The version of Max Fried that pitched to a 1.92 ERA in his first 17 starts as a Yankee through June 25 has returned. The version of Fried that pitched to a 6.80 ERA over eight starts from July 1 through August 16 is gone. (At least I hope he is.) Fried dominated the Orioles on Thursday night with seven scoreless, three-hit innings and a career-high 13 strikeouts to improve to 5-0 with a 1.60 ERA since August 22.

“I’m feeling really good physically,” Fried said. “I feel like I did toward the beginning of the year.”

2. My biggest fear when the Yankees signed Fried was how he would pitch in important games, especially in the postseason given his spotty playoff history in 12 starts and 20 games. But over the last month Fried pitched well in Houston, against the Blue Jays and grinded through a solid start without his best stuff at Fenway Park. He’s looking like the best version of himself at the best possible time with one remaining start in the regular season before he takes the ball for Game 1 of the postseason.

“That’s when you want to really hit your stride, going into the last week or so,” Fried said. “We want to go out there and finish strong and go into the playoffs strong.”

3. The Yankees took an early lead on a two-run double in the first inning from Amed Rosario, who has solidified himself as a lineup must whenever a lefty is starting. That’s all the Yankees would need with how good Fried was, but they added a run in the fifth and four more in the seventh.

Paul Goldschmidt went 2-for-5 leading off, Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger each had a pair of walks, Austin Wells had a couple of hits, Jose Caballero reached base three times and Giancarlo Stanton, Anthony Volpe and Jazz Chisholm all had doubles. Aaron Boone opted to play Trent Grisham (0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts) over Austin Slater. If Slater isn’t going to start every game against a lefty then I don’t know what his purpose is.

4. It was a nice, easy win, which was a welcome sight. It’s been a long time since the Yankees have had a laugher. In the 18 games since August 29, only their August 29 win over the White Sox and September 11 win over the Tigers were games won comfortably. Every other game has been a nail-biter, won late or lost. That’s a long time to play nearly only stressful baseball.

5. If the Yankees play in the wild-card series, Fried will have five days of rest before Game 1. If the Yankees miraculously win the division, he will have nine days of rest before Game 1. Either way, the Yankees’ rotation lines up beautifully for whichever round they open in.

6. On Thursday, the Guardians and Mariners won and the Blue Jays and Red Sox lost. The Yankees are now three games back in the loss column from the Blue Jays for the division (and four games overall because of the tiebreaker) with nine games to play. Here is the updated table of what needs to happen for the Yankees to win the division:

7. Again, I’m certainly still scoreboard watching the Blue Jays and praying for their demise and a lengthy losing streak to end the season, but I’m realistic in knowing it’s going to take an all-time collapse for it to happen. The Yankees are going to need a lot of help from the Royals, Red Sox and Rays to make the dream come true. The Yankees’ division odds are 9.1 precent on FanGraphs and their postseason odds are at 99.9 percent.

8. As for the wild card, the Yankees now have a two-game lead in the loss column over the AL West and a three-game lead in the loss column over the Red Sox (though it’s really two because of the tiebreaker). The Guardians are now just a game behind the Red Sox. The Rays are going to play a major role in deciding who the Yankees play as they have series left with the Red Sox and Blue Jays.

9. Will Warren gets the ball on Friday for the first time since his disastrous first inning on Sunday at Fenway Park. Warren’s latest first-inning meltdown now has him at a 6.39 ERA with an .839 OPS against in 31 first innings this season. With Trevor Rogers going for the Orioles, Warren can’t get lit up again like that. Rogers has a 1.43 ERA and a 0.894 WHIP in 16 starts this season. He has only allowed more than two runs in a start once this year and that was in his second start of the season. The Orioles are 12-4 this season when Rogers starts and 6-1 over the last six weeks. He doesn’t walk anyone (24 in 100 2/3 innings), doesn’t allow hits (66), doesn’t allow home runs (3) and he’s a lefty. If you were going to build a starting pitcher with the purpose of beating this Yankees team, you would build Rogers.

10. Because Rogers is a lefty, you’re likely going to see the same lineup from Thursday on Friday. Maybe Boone sits Grisham for Slater and Ben Rice plays instead of Wells, but other than that I don’t think anything changes. (It’s possible Ryan McMahon could start as he’s 2-for-4 against Rogers.) The Yankees will need to find a way to get a couple of runs off Rogers or wear him down enough to get the bullpen for three or four innings. Most importantly, Warren needs to be good.

1. A night after the Yankees came a run away from blowing a nine-run lead on Tuesday, it looked like they may blow a five-run lead on Wednesday.

After taking a 7-2 lead into the bottom of the fifth, Luis Gil imploded like Cam Schlittler the previous night and a 7-2 game became a 7-5 game with the tying runs on base. For the second night in a row, Aaron Boone summoned Fernando Cruz much earlier than he’s used to to relieve his starter and put an end to the Twins’ rally. And for the second straight night, Cruz ended the inning.

2. Unlike on Tuesday, the Yankees were able to tack on in the eighth and ninth. (Then again, you shouldn’t need to tack on when you have a 10-1 lead like they did on Tuesday.) Cruz pitched a scoreless sixth, Devin Williams did the same in the sixth, Luke Weaver matched it in the eighth and even Camilo Doval was able to put up a zero in the ninth. Not only did Doval pitch a scoreless inning, but it was the best he has looked as a Yankee, retiring the side on 10 pitches (eight strikes) with two strikeouts.

3. Doval got Byron Buxton looking at a 101-mph cutter on the outside corner for a three-pitch strikeout for the first out, got Austin Martin to pop up a 99-mph cutter on an 0-2 pitch for the second out and then got Trevor Larnach to swing through a 1-1 slider and then a 1-2 slider to end the game. If Doval pitched like that with any consistency he would be one of the best relievers in baseball, if not the best. That outing is why the Yankees traded for him and why he’s still on the roster despite doing everything he can to pitch himself off of it: because that version of him exists. I don’t know how the Yankees plan on getting that version out of him consistently, but it’s mind blowing that the guy on the mound on Wednesday is the same guy who was atrocious in nearly all of his 18 prior appearances as a Yankee.

4. Trent Grisham homered twice, Cody Bellinger homered, Aaron Judge had three hits (and a walk), Paul Goldschmidt had two hits, Ben Rice and Jasson Dominguez had doubles, Ryan McMahon had an RBI single and Jose Caballero had a walk, run and stolen base. The only Yankee not contribute offensively was Jazz Chisholm with an 0-for-5 night at the plate, though he did have a great game defensively. (Chisholm should sit on Thursday with a lefty starting.)

“A lot of really big contributions,” Boone said. “Just really good offense.”

5. The Yankees won, the Blue Jays lost, the Red Sox lost, the Mariners lost and the Astros won. The Guardians also won. The Guardians’ six-game winning streak now has them two games back in the loss column of the Astros, Mariners and Red Sox.

6. The Yankees are four games back of the Blue Jays in the loss column, but five games overall because of the head-to-head tiebreaker. The division is over. For those of you who believe nothing is truly over until it’s over, here is what needs to happen for the Yankees to win the division:

I would say the worst the Blue Jays could go is 4-6, which means the Yankees can only lose one more game. Unless the Blue Jays completely unravel over the next 10 games (which is something they haven’t done all season), there’s no chance the Yankees can overtake them.

7. Certainly I’m still scoreboard watching the Blue Jays praying for their demise and a lengthy losing streak to end the season, but I’m realistic in knowing it’s going to take an all-time collapse for it to happen. If I had to rank who I would want the Yankees to play in a best-of-3 as of now I would go Guardians, Mariners, Astros, Red Sox.

8. The Red Sox aren’t the best team of the four, but the threat of Garrett Crochet in a short series and his dominance of the Yankees combined with the Yankees potentially being eliminated by the Red Sox for the fourth time in the postseason is too much for me. The Astros may be a better option than the Mariners because of the Mariners’ rotation and the absence of Yordan Alvarez, but 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2022 have left me forever scared of the Astros. The Guardians would be a dream scenario. The Yankees eliminated them in five games last year when the Guardians were a much better version of themselves, especially in the bullpen. I will always pick an AL Central postseason opponent for the Yankees when given a chance, considering they’re 15-4 against the AL Central dating back to 2018, having never lost a series to that division. The Aaron Boone Yankees have never won a postseason series against a team from outside the AL Central, and the Yankees haven’t won a postseason series against a team from outside the AL Central since the 2012 ALDS.

9. With two crappy starts his last three times on the mound, Schlittler has been giving the postseason Game 3 assignment to Gil. But with Gil’s control issues coupled with an awful outing on Wednesday, I’m not sure who the current frontrunner is to be the Game 3 starter. I trust Schlittler more to throw strikes, but I trust Gil more to escape jams unscathed. They are each scheduled to make two more starts and I guess how they perform in those starts will determine who gets the ball after Max Fried and Carlos Rodon in the playoffs.

“They’re each going to have a few more [starts] here, so hopefully they put us in a tough situation based on them performing well,” Boone said.

10. Fried gets the ball on Thursday in Baltimore as the Yankees go from playing a night game in one city to playing the next night in another city yet again. The left-handed Cade Povich goes for the Orioles, so this is what we should see:

Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
Aaron Judge, RF/DH
Cody Bellinger, CF
Giancarlo Stanton, DH/RF
Amed Rosario, 3B
Austin Slater, LF
Anthony Volpe, SS
Jose Caballero, 2B
Ben Rice, C

(Please don’t let Slater lead off.)

It’s unlikely that’s what we’ll actually see, but at this point I don’t care as long as I see a win.

1. When the Yankees took a 10-1 lead over the Twins in the fourth inning on Tuesday night, I didn’t think I would be doing a Joba Chamberlain 360-fist pump around my living room after the final out of the game. The Yankees nearly blew a nine-run lead over the final five innings against the ninth-best offense in the American League, but managed to hold on for a 10-9 win.

2. The Yankees scored two runs in the first, four in the second, three in the third and one in the fourth. That should have been enough for the bats to go quiet for the rest of the game (which they did), but it wasn’t thanks to the pitching (and managing to some extent).

Cam Schlittler retired the first two batters he faced on two pitches. Then he allowed back-to-back, six-pitch walks and a five-pitch RBI single. He ended up needing 24 pitches to get the final out of the first.

Schlittler rebounded from that first-inning RBI single to retire 10 straight from the last out of the first through the first out of the fifth. Working with a nine-run cushion with one out in the fifth and no one on, the rest of the game seemed like a formality until Schlittler unraveled. After recording that first out in the fifth, the Twins went single, home run, walk, strikeout, walk, wild pitch and walk off him before he was removed for Fernando Cruz. It took five of six batters to reach against the clearly fatigued Schlittler for Boone to decide to make a change. Cruz ended the inning on four pitches.

3. Leading 10-4 going into the bottom of the sixth, Aaron Boone decided not to send Cruz back out for the seventh. Maybe he didn’t want him having an up-and-down. Maybe he wanted to save him in case he was needed on Wednesday. Maybe he thought the game was over with a six-run lead in the sixth. Whatever the reason was, it nearly came back to haunt the Yankees.

With Cruz out of the game, Boone gave the ball to Ryan Yarbrough. He likely wanted Yarbrough to eat the remaining four innings. Yarbrough wasn’t able to eat anything. He got one out while giving up four runs.

4. In came Mark Leiter Jr. and it was Leiter Jr. of all pitchers who restored order to the game for the Yankees by putting up a zero over 1 2/3 innings across the sixth and seventh.

“That’s one of the stories of the game for me, a huge four outs there from Mark to settle things,” Boone said. “Him getting four outs was massive and that allowed Devin and Bednar to take it from there.”

Devin Williams followed Leiter Jr. with a scoreless eighth, and clinging to a one-run lead, David Bednar allowed a one-out, solo home run in the ninth before retiring the next two batters to end a game that should have never been as close as it was.

5. Here are my current Bullpen Trust Rankings:

David Bednar

That’s it. Just Bednar. But if you want the entire bullpen ranked by level of trust, here it is:

David Bednar
Fernando Cruz
Tim Hill
Luke Weaver
Devin Williams
Ryan Yarbrough
Mark Leiter Jr.
Camilo Doval

Even with as many home runs as Cruz has given up of late, he has to be second. Hill never gets to pitch, but with a lefty up to end an inning, I trust him explicitly. If he has to pitch to a righty he plummets on this list. Weaver has been so bad of late outside of Saturday at Fenway Park that I nearly put him below Williams. Doval is the worst reliever on the team and should no longer be on the team.

(I didn’t include Paul Blackburn since he’s clearly only on the roster to get the team through Game 162. Blackburn and I have the same odds of being on the postseason roster.)

7. “A little exhale after that one,” Boone said.

It would have been a disastrous loss for the Yankees with the Red Sox losing to the A’s and an opportunity to create separation in the wild-card standings available. The win combined with a Red Sox loss, Mariners win and Astros win currently has the Yankees playing the Astros in the Bronx for the wild-card series. With the Yordan Alvarez ankle injury, playing the Astros is preferable to the Red Sox because the Astros don’t have Garrett Crochet.

8. “I feel like we have one of the best bullpens in the league,” Leiter Jr. said.

Clearly a graduate of the Aaron Boone School of Media, Leiter Jr. couldn’t be more wrong. The Yankees have the worst bullpen in the majors since the trade deadline with the highest ERA. The only truly trustworthy arm is Bednar.

9. Anthony Volpe returned to the lineup and went 2-for-4, which was enough for Jack Curry to call for him to start again tomorrow on the postgame show. Not you too, Jack! Twins starter Zebby Matthews sucks and doesn’t belong in the majors. Evaluating Volpe on hitting a guy that the entire Yankees lineup beat the crap out of isn’t impressive. Matthews put 13 runners on in three innings.

We have three years of performance to know Volpe shouldn’t be playing over Jose Caballero and if the Yankees are going to make the shortstop decision based on performance against a Triple-A pitcher (which is how we ended up in this situation with Volpe hitting Triple-A pitching in 2023 spring training) then they are even more lost than I originally thought. The starting shortstop shouldn’t be a daily decision. Start Caballero every day and play Volpe once the postseason position is set.

9. The Yankees will see an old AL East familiar face in Taj Bradley on Wednesday. The Yankees got to him for six runs back on April 17 at Yankee Stadium before beating them on May 4. He’s not going to allow the type of hit parade Matthews did, so the Yankees are going to need Luis Gil to have some semblance of control. It’s hard to envision Gil continuing to succeed while walking the park and with Schlittler struggling mightily in two of his last three starts, Gil is likely the Yankees’ Game 3 starter in the postseason. It would be nice if Gil could start to build some trust in throwing strikes.

10. The Twins are bad. Really bad. They have the second-worst record in the AL. Losing a series to them at this point of the season with what’s at stake for home-field advantage in a best-of-3 would be unacceptable.

1. On Saturday, Jazz Chisholm called the Yankees “the best team in the league.” Well, that’s not all Chisholm said. He also added, “Any team that thinks they’re better than us, they should know that when we step on the field, we’re coming with relentlessness. We’re coming to step on necks. We’re not here to play around.”

Ah yes, the relentless Yankees, who went to Minnesota and got two-hit, while striking out 14 times in a 7-0 loss on Monday. “The best team in the league” with the third-best record in the American League and the seventh-best record in the majors. (Chisholm is 0-for-8 with three strikeouts since his outrageous comments on Saturday. He also couldn’t complete a double play that led to the Twins’ first run on Monday.)

2. While the Yankees were getting blown out by the 18-games-under-.500 Twins, the Blue Jays staged yet another late-game comeback against the Rays and won in extra innings. If you didn’t think the division was over after Sunday with the Yankees falling to four games back in the loss column (and five overall), well, it’s definitely over now at five games back (and six overall) with 12 games to play.

3. Since Chisholm gave his latest take on the 2025 Yankees, the team is 0-2 after losing on Monday. Not only did the Yankees lose, they were dominated. Simeon Woods Richardson provided his longest start since June 21 and recorded a career-high 11 strikeouts. He entered the game with a 4.85 ERA.

“It’s definitely frustrating,” Ryan McMahon said. “I think a lot of guys think that we should have been a lot better tonight, but you got to tip your cap sometimes.”

Yes, sometimes you have to tip your cap, like when you’re facing Garrett Crochet like the Yankees did and lost to on Sunday. But Woods Richardson? In a playoff race? There’s no time or excuse to be tipping your cap to fringe major leaguers in Game 150 of the season.

4. It was the first time in franchise history the Yankees’ offense had a two-game span in the regular season with at least 30 strikeouts and fewer than 10 hits (stat from Katie Sharp). “Best team in the league,” indeed!

Here is how the Yankees’ 14 strikeouts on Monday were dispersed: Giancarlo Stanton 4, Cody Bellinger 2, Jazz Chisholm 2, Ryan McMahon 2, Trent Grisham 1, Paul Goldschmidt 1, Austin Wells 1 and Ben Rice 1.

The Yankees were two-hit by the Twins. Two hits against Woods Richardson and no hits against the very hittable bullpen trio of Kody Funderburk, Travis Adams and Pierson Ohl. The Yankees have now lost their last two games to the Twins.

5. Carlos Rodon was fine (6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 1 HR), but Luke Weaver wasn’t. Weaver was blasted for five earned runs on three hits and two walks, while only recording one out. All three hits were doubles. In September, Weaver has allowed earned runs in four of six games, pitching to this line: 3.2 IP, 12 H, 10 R, 10 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 2 HR, 24.52 ERA, 4.087. WHIP. It’s possible that between Weaver’s last month and Fernando Cruz’s latest issue with home runs that Devin Williams is somehow the team’s best non-David Bednar reliever. The postseason should be fun.

“That was trash,” Weaver said of his performance. (I’m sure Aaron Boone thought his stuff looked good.) “Felt like I was fighting myself the whole time.”

6. Trent Grisham went 1-for-the Blue Jays series, 1-for-the Tigers series and 0-for-the Red Sox series. Not great. Maybe Grisham will show up for this series, considering he’s being given the most plate appearance opportunities of anyone on the team by batting leadoff every game.

7. After going 0-for-7 with six strikeouts against the Red Sox, Austin Wells was right back in the lineup going 0-for-3 with another strikeout on Monday. His OPS is back under .700 at .699.

8. I need this lineup against righties until the Yankees’ postseason spot has been finalized:

Trent Grisham, CF
Aaron Judge, RF/DH
Cody Bellinger, LF
Giancarlo Stanton, DH/RF
Ben Rice, 1B
Jazz Chisholm, 2B
Jose Caballero, SS
Ryan McMahon, 3B
Auston Wells, C

And this lineup against lefties:

Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
Aaron Judge, RF/DH
Cody Bellinger, CF
Giancarlo Stanton, DH/RF
Amed Rosario, 3B
Jazz Chisholm, 2B
Jose Caballero, SS
Austin Slater, LF
Ben Rice, C

9. The three-game lead the Yankees took in the loss column over the Red Sox on Saturday for the first wild-card spot is now back down to one. In two days the Yankees have erased everything they earned on Friday and Saturday. The Yankees can’t tie the Red Sox with the same record because the Red Sox own the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Here is the Yankees’ remaining schedule: Twins (2), Orioles (4), White Sox (3), Orioles (3)

Here is the Red Sox’ remaining schedule: A’s (3), Rays (3), Blue Jays (3), Tigers (3)

(Maybe none of this end up mattering and the Yankees host the Astros or Mariners in the wild-card series or go to Houston or Seattle for the wild-card series.)

10. The Yankees better have gotten their effortless, no-show performance for the series out of their system on Monday because they need to win on Tuesday and Wednesday with the Red Sox hosting the A’s. The Yankees have the starting pitching advantage in both games. They have the offensive advantage and bullpen advantage. The Yankees are a far superior team to the Twins and they better act like it and play like it the next two nights or they will be setting themselves up to go on the road for the wild-card series.

1. The Yankees did enough on their end over the weekend at Fenway Park by winning two of three, but the Blue Jays swept the Orioles to end the division race. The Yankees are four games back in the loss column and five overall because of the head-to-head tiebreaker, and with 13 games to play, the AL East is no longer a possible postseason path for the team Jazz Chisholm called “the best team in the league” after Saturday’s win.

2. The Yankees beat the Red Sox 4-1 on Friday and 5-3 on Saturday with their old “Score early and then hang on for dear life” formula. It was enough to create three games of separation in the loss column for the first wild card, but that lead was cut to two after Will Warren pooped his pants with yet another first-inning meltdown and the Yankees lost 6-4 on Sunday.

3. We all know Chisholm talks too much and rarely ever backs it up, so it came as no surprise that he decided to give his latest “the Yankees are the best” rant a night before Warren would oppose Garrett Crochet.

On June 25, after salvaging the third game of a series Cincinnati, Chisholm said, “I feel like we got a great team and I feel like we’re going to make the World Series again.” At the time the Yankees had lost nine of 12 and after that win they would lose 22 of their next 39.

Three weeks ago after beating up on the AL-worst White Sox, Chisholm said, “We want to win the division. Right now, it’s just like, we’re going to go out there and win that and then we’re going to go and win the World Series.”

Then on Saturday, he said, “We’re the best team in the league. Any team that thinks they’re better than us, they should know that when we step on the field, we’re coming with relentlessness. We’re coming to step on necks. We’re not here to play around.”

So in the three instances in which Chisholm ran his mouth this year, the Yankees went on to lose 22 of 39, lost a fourth game to Crochet this season and are now out of the division race. And who could forget when Chisholm called the Royals’ ALDS Game 2 win “lucky” in the postseason, while Chisholm went 2-for-15 in the ALDS, 3-for-19 in the ALCS and 5-for-21 in the World Series.

4. As long as the Yankees’ postseason position is unknown, if Anthony Volpe starts another game this season at shortstop over Jose Caballero, I will actively root against the Yankees. After going 3-for-6 with a walk and two stolen bases in the second and third games of the Tigers series, Caballero had two doubles, a home run and another stolen base against the Red Sox. Caballero is a tough at-bat at the plate, a menace on the bases and surehanded in the field. He does everything better than Volpe and if Volpe plays again in a meaningful game or in the postseason, I will have to go against the Yankees.

5. Austin Wells better never commit catcher’s interference or allow a passed ball or a stolen base because he needs to be the best defensive catcher in the game to justify his bat. Wells went 0-for-7 with a walk and six strikeouts against the Red Sox and is down to .210/.267/.437 on the season. We know he can’t hit postseason pitching since we watched him go down swinging on elevated fastballs in each round last year, so if he’s going to play (and he is) then he better be amazing behind the plate.

6. I criticize Aaron Judge for his performance in big games, and rightfully so, but he was awesome over the weekend: 5-for-10 with two home runs and four walks. Hopefully this is Judge returning to his pre-mid-June-Royals-series self since that version of Judge hit. 394/.490/.779 in 66 games before Aaron Boone gave him his only non-injured list day off of the season. Since Boone’s lineup decision, Judge has hit .258/.412/.575 in 74 games. The .987 OPS Judge has in the lsat 74 games of his “slump” would be the third-best OPS in the majors this season. But when you build an offense reliant on your star needing to be an all-time, historic great and not just Hall-of-Fame great like Brian Cashman has then the Yankees can’t afford to have Judge being anything less than one of the best right-handed hitters in history.

7. I don’t know if Luis Gil’s six no-hit innings on Friday were the most painful six no-hit innings of all time, but they have to be up there. Gil had runners on all game because of his lack of control with four walks and added in a balk and two wild pitches and somehow came away from the game unscathed: 6 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 4 K. Gil’s ERA is down to 2.83 in eight starts this season despite having put 58 runners on in 41 1/3 innings.

8. The Yankees will likely have to overpay for Cody Bellinger to re-sign him and the end of whatever deal he gets will likely be ugly like all free-agent contracts end up being, but the Yankees have no choice but to sign Bellinger. His RBI double off of Aroldis Chapman in the ninth inning on Saturday was one of the biggest hits of the season and it seems like Bellinger always comes through when needed, whether it’s at the plate or in the field. His ability to hit left-handed pitching like he’s Hideki Matusi and his versatility to play over the outfield and at first base makes him so valuable to the Yankees. Here’s to Bellinger being a Yankee for the rest of his career.

9. The 12-game gauntlet against the Astros, Blue Jays, Tigers and Red Sox is over and the Yankees finished 7-5. I wrote two weeks ago they needed to do no worse than 6-6 and they played one game better. It was the first time this season the team exceeded expectations. Unfortunately because the Blue Jays seemingly come back in the late innings every day the division race is over, so now the Yankees need to ensure they have home-field advantage in the best-of-3 wild-card series.

Sunday’s game was a glimpse into what could happen in said best-of-3. Face and lose to Crochet in Game 1 and you’re facing elimination immediately in Game 2. The Yankees didn’t miss Crochet in any of their four series this season against the Red Sox and went 0-4 in games he started. His 2025 line against them: 27.1 IP, 20 H, 10 R, 10 ER, 4 BB, 39 K, 5 HR, 3.29 ERA, 0.878 WHIP. The home run ball was their saving grace against him like it has been in nearly all of their wins this season, and it still wasn’t enough to win any of the games he started. Add in that they went 1-2 in games started by Brayan Bello and you’re looking at a 1-6 record in games against the starting pitchers the Red Sox will use in Games 1 and 2 of the wild-card series.

10. The Yankees need to use the glorious schedule they have over the last 13 games to stack wins and make sure they are playing at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, Sept. 30. They already pissed away a once-eight-game lead over the Blue Jays to lose the division. They can’t lose the first wild-card spot too.