BRONX, NY—There are plenty of ways to win a postseason baseball game and the Yankees seemed determined to try nearly all of them Wednesday night.
They hit, they ran, they put the ball in play, they moved runners and they consistently made Boston’s defense work. When the opportunity finally came to deliver the knockout blow, Cody Bellinger supplied that too.
Behind another dominant postseason start, this time from Max Fried, and an offense that applied pressure in just about every way imaginable, the Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox 9-2 at Yankee Stadium to complete a two-game sweep of the American League Wild Card Series and advance to the ALDS.
Waiting for them is a familiar opponent in the AL East champion Tampa Bay Rays, but first the Yankees had to finish off Boston, and they did it by playing one of their most complete games of the season.
After winning Game 1 behind overpowering pitching and a huge night from Ben Rice, New York followed it up in Game 2 with the kind of offensive approach Yankee fans have been asking for for years, using contact, baserunning and situational hitting to create runs instead of relying solely on the long ball.
The Yankees still got the big swing eventually, but most of the damage came from putting the ball in play, taking extra bases and finding ways to score without relying solely on power.
Fried picks up where Schlittler left off
For most of the season, the identity of this Yankees team was rooted in its pitching, and that has carried straight into October.
Cam Schlittler set the tone Tuesday night, throwing 6 1/3 scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts as New York opened the series with a 9-0 win. As detailed after Game 1, Schlittler completely overwhelmed Boston while Ben Rice carried the offense with two home runs and six RBIs.
Twenty-four hours later, Fried made sure Boston never had a chance to recover.
The left-hander allowed just one run on three hits across six innings, walking one and striking out six. Boston’s only damage against him came on a solo home run from Willson Contreras in the sixth, and by that point Fried had already spent most of the night keeping the Red Sox lineup uncomfortable. He struck out Jahmai Jones and Adley Rutschman to begin the game, stranded a double in the third and retired Boston in order in both the second and fifth innings.
Through the first two games of the postseason, Schlittler and Fried combined to give the Yankees 12 1/3 innings while allowing just one run, continuing a theme that followed New York all season. The offense has had its stretches, both good and bad, but the pitching staff has consistently given the Yankees a chance to win, and through two postseason games, that formula has looked even stronger.
Yankees find another way to score
Luis García Jr. gave the Yankees their first run with a solo home run in the fourth, but the rest of the night became a reminder that postseason offense does not always have to come from waiting around for a three-run blast.
In the fifth, Trent Grisham singled before Austin Wells reached on a forceout. Rice then punched a single into right field that moved Wells to third, and Bellinger followed with an RBI single to give New York a 2-0 lead.
The Yankees really began to separate themselves one inning later, and they did it by creating constant pressure.
Spencer Jones reached first after a Yankees challenge overturned the original call, then immediately stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error. George Lombard Jr. drove him home with a single, Jazz Chisholm Jr. followed with another base hit and Grisham dropped down a bunt single to load the bases.
From there, Wells lifted a sacrifice fly to left field before Ryan McMahon brought home another run with a productive groundout. By the time Boston could finally record the second out of the inning, a one-run game had turned into a 5-1 Yankees lead without New York needing a home run.
That sequence was exactly the kind of baseball that tends to matter in October. The Yankees were not waiting around for someone to hit the ball 450 feet. They were taking the extra base, making contact, putting pressure on the defense and finding different ways to bring runners home.
Then Bellinger finished the job.
Boston intentionally walked Rice with two outs to bring Bellinger to the plate, and Bellinger responded by launching a three-run homer to right-center field that blew the game open and gave the Yankees an 8-1 lead.
Bellinger finished with four RBIs, García collected three hits, including the solo homer that opened the scoring, and Wells continued his productive postseason with two more RBIs after driving in two runs in Game 1.
The homer was the biggest swing of the night, but it was everything that came before it that made the sixth inning feel like such a complete offensive performance.
Speed becomes another weapon
The Yankees continued that pressure in the seventh.
Chisholm walked, stole second and then stole third. Grisham walked behind him and swiped second on the same sequence before Wells singled up the middle to bring home another run.
By the end of the night, New York had stolen four bases and repeatedly forced Boston to make plays under pressure. Chisholm alone stole two, while Jones and Grisham each added one.
It was not the stereotypical version of the Bronx Bombers, and that may be what made the performance so encouraging.
Rice showed in Game 1 that the Yankees can win with overwhelming power. On Wednesday, they showed they can also create offense one base at a time, turning singles, walks, stolen bases, bunts, sacrifice flies and productive outs into runs.
If anyone knows that’s what it takes to get things done in October, it’s the New York Yankees.
Yankees finish the job
Will Warren took over for Fried in the seventh and surrendered a solo homer to Nick Sogard, but Boston never seriously threatened to make the game competitive again.
Brent Headrick handled the eighth before David Bednar took the mound in the ninth with a seven-run cushion. After issuing a leadoff walk to Contreras, Bednar retired the next three batters, striking out Caleb Durbin to end the game and officially send the Yankees to the Division Series.
It was a fitting ending to a Wild Card round the Yankees controlled almost from start to finish.
New York outscored Boston 18-2 across the two games, got dominant starting pitching in both and found completely different offensive formulas in each win.
Up Next: ALDS
The reward for sweeping one division rival is a date with another.
The Yankees will now face the AL East champion Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS, giving New York another opportunity against the team that ultimately finished ahead of them in the division.
They will arrive having played almost exactly the kind of baseball a team wants to be playing in October, scoring nine runs in each of their first two postseason games while finding different ways to win each night.
Nine runs Tuesday. Nine more Wednesday. Maybe 9-9 was just a coincidence, or maybe it was a fitting little nod to the Captain, who we know would give just about anything to be standing in right field for a fall night under stadium lights in the Bronx.
The Wild Card round showed the Yankees can beat teams in more than one way.
Now they get a chance to prove it against the AL East champions.
