While Aaron Judge is on the shelf for the entirety of this best-of-three Wild Card Series against the Boston Red Sox, other New York Yankees homegrown talent stepped up to take Game 1 in the Bronx on Tuesday night.
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talent → step → night
It was two Massachusetts natives, Cam Schlittler and Ben Rice, who played a vital role in setting the tone with a key victory to open the postseason.
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who → play → postseason
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page → contain → partners
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News → sign → wager
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that → create → newsroom
It’s no secret Schlitter, who hails from Walpole, Mass., has had the Red Sox’s number ever since his incredible eight-inning Game 3 performance in this same Wild Card bout last year.
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who → ’ → bout
He came into this contest with an ERA below one, as Boston just hasn’t been able to figure him out.
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Boston → come → him
Schlittler has even leaned into the villain role he plays in the Red Sox fan base’s ecosystem, poking the proverbial bear on social media.
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he → lean → media
He has always been able to back up his talk with his performance on the mound, and Tuesday night was no different.
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night → back → mound
Schlittler, a frontrunner for the AL Cy Young Award, got the ball from manager Aaron Boone in Game 1 because of his stellar regular season, and he shoved 6.1 innings without allowing a run, while tallying 10 strikeouts, two hits and one walk.
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he → get → strikeouts
He blew past his career-high in pitches thrown for a single outing, hitting 117, while throwing a strike at a 65.8% clip (77).
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He → blow → clip
In short, Schlitter owns the Red Sox, and through six starts against the Yankees’ most storied rival, he owns a 0.47 ERA across 38.2 innings with 49 strikeouts.
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he → own → strikeouts
Of course, Schlittler’s performance wouldn’t matter without some offense, which was a large storyline entering the postseason, considering Judge was always on the fence in terms of making the roster.
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Judge → matter → roster
No player is allowed to join the roster midway through a series, and when the Yankees came out with theirs on Tuesday, the three-time MVP slugger wasn’t on it.
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slugger → allow → it
Enter Rice, the 27-year-old Cohasset, Mass. native who grew up a Yankees fan in enemy territory, but he didn't care.
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he → enter → territory
After having a breakout season with a career-high in home runs, he didn't care how Red Sox fans felt when he stepped up to the plate to take advantage of big spots.
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he → have → spots
Rice notched six RBI thanks to two home runs, including a grand slam in the bottom of the eighth inning to truly put this one out of reach for the Red Sox.
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Rice → notch → Sox
He finished the night 4-for-5 with a double as well.
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He → finish → double
If Judge wasn’t going to be on the roster, players like Rice would be looked upon by the organization and its fan base to come up clutch.
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players → go → organization
And in Yankees terms, that means putting the ball over the wall.
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that → mean → wall
Rice was up for that challenge on Tuesday night, and looks like he may be ready to continue that trend moving forward.
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he → look → trend
It wasn’t just these two Yankees farm system products, though, that got the job done.
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job → get → ?
George Lombard Jr., in his first-ever taste of the postseason, looked like a savvy veteran at the plate, going 3-for-4 with two runs scored.
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Jr. → look → runs
Also, catcher Austin Wells got the scoring started with an RBI single and had a sacrifice fly in that eighth inning with the Rice grand slam to have a two-RBI night as he went 2-for-3 at the plate.
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he → get → plate
Red Sox starter Payton Tolle lasted 4.2 innings, allowing five hits and one earned run.
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Tolle → last → hits
But the Yankees crushed the Red Sox arms after that, as they had 12 hits for the game compared to Boston’s three.
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they → crush → three
While it was quite the statement game for the Yankees on home turf, the Red Sox once had the worst record in the American League this year.
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Sox → have → League
There is a toughness this squad can show, especially with their season on the line.
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season → be → line
That will come on Wednesday night, as the Yankees are hoping to move right to the ALDS to face another AL East foe – the AL’s best Tampa Bay Rays – with Max Fried on the bump.
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Yankees → come → bump
Boston, in a win-or-go-home scenario yet again in the Bronx, will send Sonny Gray, a former Yankees starter, to the mound in Game 2.
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Boston → win → Game
The Aporia
