1. The finality of a baseball season is unlike any other sport. When the baseball season ends, it’s painful, it’s depressing, it’s downright sad. After watching a team play nearly every day for roughly eight months (from spring training through the postseason), when it ends, it’s abrupt. And while the Yankees’ season isn’t officially over yet, it certainly feels like it is.
2. Being put on the brink of elimination so early in a series always feels like the season is over. It felt that way last year when the Blue Jays took a 2-0 series lead and the year before when the Dodgers did the same (before taking a 3-0 series lead) and two years before that when the Astros did the same (before sweeping the Yankees). Being in a two-game hole through two games in a best-of-5 series is daunting. With these Yankees against these Rays, it feels impossible.
3. Aaron Boone should have changed the lineup for Game 2 after the humiliation of Game 1. He chose not to and got nearly the same result, if not for Ben Rice’s two swings. Boone should change the lineup for Game 3, but at the same time, if he does, he’s admitting he fucked up with the Game 2 lineup. The Yankees will be facing a righty again in Nick Martinez, and if Boone feels the lineup he used in Games 1 and 2 gives the Yankees the best chance to win, then how can he change it for Game 3? Anything other than the same nine names in the same order in Game 3 is Boone telling everyone he should have changed the lineup for Game 2.
4. Here are the lines for Martinez against the Yankees this season:
April 11 in Tampa: 4.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 1 HR
May 22 in New York: 6 IP, 9 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
September 22 in New York: 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 1 HR
Total: 16.2 IP, 20 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 5 BB, 12 K, 2 HR, 2.16 ERA, 1.500 WHIP
The ERA is great, the WHIP isn’t, as the Yankees put 25 baserunners on in 16 2/3 innings against Martinez. That’s promising. Average 1 1/2 baserunners per inning against Martinez in Game 3 and there will be a Game 4.
5. Here are the Yankees’ numbers against Martinez:
Ryan McMahon: 5-for-22, 2 BB, 9 K
Cody Bellinger: 5-for-17, 2B, HR, 2 K
Paul Goldschmidt: 2-for-10, 4 BB, 2 K
Luis Garcia: 2-for-10, 3 K
Jazz Chisholm: 2-for-10
Heliot Ramos: 1-for-10, HR, 4 K
Ben Rice: 3-for-9, 3 2B, 2 BB, K
Jose Caballero: 3-for-9, BB, 2 K
Trent Grisham: 4-for-6, 3 2B, 2 BB
Austin Wells: 2-for-5, 2 HR, K
Anthony Volpe: 0-for-5, 2 K
Giancarlo Stanton: 0-for-4, BB, 2 K
Spencer Jones: 1-for-3
George Lombard Jr.: 1-for-3, K
Ali Sanchez: 0-for-3, K
Here is my Game 3 lineup:
Ben Rice, DH
Cody Bellinger, LF
Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
Trent Grisham, CF
Austin Wells, C
George Lombard Jr., SS
Jazz Chisholm, 2B
Spencer Jones, RF
Jose Caballero, 3B
6. Rice is the team’s best hitter and has good numbers against Martinez. He stays in the leadoff spot. Bellinger also has had success against Martinez (he homered against him two weeks ago) and because he hits lefties as well as righties (if not better), it’s like having a switch hitter batting second. He stays where he is.
Paul Goldschmidt (in what could be his last game as a Yankee and of his career) goes in at first base for Garcia. Goldschmidt has reached base six times in 14 plate appearances against Martinez. Martinez doesn’t throw hard, so there’s no harm in Goldschmidt facing this righty. His bat breaks up a lane of all lefties, and if the Rays want to use a hard-throwing righty later in the game, Garcia can pinch-hit for him. With Max Fried on the mound, the Yankees need their best infield defense possible on the field. Goldschmidt is their best defensive first baseman.
Like Goldschmidt, this could be Grisham’s last game as a Yankee. His numbers against Martinez are the best on the team with three doubles and two walks in eight plate appearances. Bat Grisham cleanup and see if that success can continue. Considering the Yankees have five hits and two runs in the series, anyone is a candidate to bat cleanup.
7. Wells moves up to fifth. Wells and Rice have been the offense in the series and he has two home runs in five plate appearances against Martinez. Lombard Jr. in the 6-spot because the lefties need to be broken up. Chisholm and Jones after Lombard Jr. and Caballero in at the bottom of the order. Caballero has to be in there. He’s a pest and has the ability to do something drastic to change the series. He has three hits and a walk in 10 plate appearances against Martinez.
8. McMahon can take a seat. He should have been on the bench for Game 2. (Reminder: I wanted him left off the postseason roster for both rounds.) Boone should have played Volpe or Caballero, but went with McMahon and said, “I feel like I want to prioritize the defense.”
I don’t want to see Garcia anymore. Thanks for the home run off Sonny Gray, but I can’t watch him swing at every pitch thrown to him, no matter where it is. His at-bats have been short and dreadful. Take a seat on the bench next to McMahon.
9. The Yankees signed Fried for starts like this. Go out and save the season. Fried is expecting the birth of his first child any day, and if I were Fried, I wouldn’t waste missing that for this team or this game. But if he’s willing to miss the birth of his first child to start an elimination game, go out there and make it matter. Hand the ball off to David Bednar with a lead and then go to the hospital.
10. In order to win the next three games, the Yankees need their offense to show up, their starting pitching to pitch to the best of its abilities, the defense to be flawless and the bullpen to be unhittable. They need to win a game started by the All-Star Martinez, who had a 2.16 ERA in three starts against the Yankees this season. Then they need to win a game started by the dominant Drew Rasmussen, who owns the Yankees in a way no other pitcher ever has. Then they need to win a game started by AL Pitcher of the Month for September Freddy Peralta, who made one mistake in 4 2/3 innings in Game 2. Do all of that and the Yankees will be playing on Monday at home against the White Sox or in Cleveland. Fail to do even one of those things and the season will end the same way the last 16 have: without a championship.
Last modified: Oct 7, 2026
