New York Yankees 2-6 Boston Red Sox: American League wild card game – as it happened

Final thoughts

Well, enough about my predictions. Yes, the Red Sox could—in fact—win a single-game elimination and, more improbably, it wasn’t a madcap game. We even got out of here at a reasonable hour, at least as far as Yankees/Red Sox games go. It’s hard to know if Boston will have much of a chance against the Tampa Bay Rays in their next series, but they have probably already out-performed even the most generous offseason predictions about their future.

The MLB playoffs will continue tomorrow with the NL Wild Card game between the St Louis Cardinals and the Los Angeles Dodgers. This, however, will mark the end of our MLB live blogs for the time being but look for the Guardian to continue to cover the MLB playoffs until a World Series champion is crowned. Thanks to all who followed along with today’s coverage, particularly everybody who contributed their thoughts along the way. Ciao!

After all that, the huge trade deadline acquisitions and the post-All-Star Game winning streaks, the Yankees offseason lasted a single game and a painful elimination at the hands of their bitterest rivals.

It’s going to be a fun offseason for New York sports talk radio.

Yankees 2-6 Red Sox, FINAL

Torres hits a long flyball out and that will do it! The Red Sox will be facing the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS while the Yankees have been eliminated!

Yankees 2-6 Red Sox, top 9th

Gallo also hits a scary-looking ball but it’s just a long out. Now the Yankees are just one-out away.

Yankees 2-6 Red Sox, top 9th

Next up for the Yankees, Stanton, who was probably the team’s best hitter… and continues to be. He hits another solo homer right around the Pesky Pole. It’s a four-run game now and still just one out. New York’s not completely dead yet.

Yankees 1-6 Red Sox, top 9th

Garrett Whitlock is out there for the “not officially a save, but it’s the ninth inning of a single-game elimination”). He gets Judge to ground out. Two outs remaining.

Yankees 1-6 Red Sox, bottom 8th

Christian Vazquez gets his first at-bat of the game. He strikes out swinging and then Dalbec grounds out. Last call for the Yankees in the top of the 9th!

Yankees 1-6 Red Sox, bottom 8th

Well, if Robles is going to have a 1-2-3 inning against your team, that’s a sign that your team probably doesn’t deserve to win. Back at Fenway, we catch the remainder of the Neil Diamond “Sweet Caroline” singalong, a local tradition that I am frankly too ashamed to discuss in detail, but hey when your team is five runs ahead in the eighth inning you’re allowed to have fun.

The Chad Green is facing the Hunter Renfroe and he actually gets him to strike out looking.

Yankees 1-6 Red Sox, top 8th

Here’s Anthony Rizzo, who promptly falls behind 0-2. And Robles, look at that, gets him out on the third pitch of the at-bat. The Yankees have one more inning left in their 2021 lives.

Yankees 1-6 Red Sox, top 8th

Odor is next and after working a full count he skies one high for out number two. That’s four more outs if anybody’s counting them at Fenway.

Yankees 1-6 Red Sox, top 8th

Oh no, it’s Hansel Robles. It’s time for the Yankees to score here and here’s someone they could have used earlier in the game: catcher Gary Sanchez. He, uh, flies out immediately here, sorry to all the Yankees fans who were hoping for him to hit a home run just to make manager Aaron Boone look worse.

Yankees 1-6 Red Sox, bottom 7th

The Yankees take their penultimate mound visit here. It ended up being productive, I suppose, since the first pitch is a strike. Verdugo hits what he thinks will be a double, he gets called out on the play but it doesn’t matter: two runs score and the Yankees’ deficit now resembles a steep, steep mountain.

To the eighth inning!

Yankees 1-4 Red Sox, bottom 7th

Bogaerts takes two high pitches for balls. 2-0. Green might not be giving him too much to drive here. The next pitch? Absolutely not something X can do anything with, he takes it for ball three. 3-0. The next pitch? That’s ball four. That loads the bases for Verdugo.

Yankees 1-4 Red Sox, bottom 7th

The Chad Green is now pitching for New York and—no biggie—his job is to take care of Rafael Devers with two runners on base. For a brief second Devers makes contact and it feels like almost put the game away, but the ball hangs up for a long flyball. Two out, now, and it’s time for Bogaerts to see if he can make it more comfortable for Boston.

It’s probably easier to do so if your hitters aren’t promptly falling into 0-2, 1-2 holes.

Yankees 1-4 Red Sox, bottom 7th

Hernandez takes a 2-0 pitch count lead almost immediately. Never mind, make it 3-0. Feel like it’s an automatic take right here with the way the reliever’s throwing. And it is, and he does and he takes his base. It’s now two on and one out and here comes Aaron Boone to make a wise pitching change.

Yankees 1-4 Red Sox, bottom 7th

Schwarber, who has already hit a big home run today, is up next with one out and nobody on base. He takes ball four here. Walks, as the announcers keep hammering home, are the big differences between the two teams. Not a single Yankees player has taken one and that is probably the real story behind the current box score. Hernandez is up next.

Yankees 1-4 Red Sox, bottom 7th

Loaisiga pitches to Arroyo in a very vowel-y matchup that ends with Arroyo grounding out.

Seventh inning stretch

You know it’s the MLB playoffs when I’m breaking out the “Night at the Opera.”

Yankees 1-4 Red Sox, top 7th

And Urshela falls behind 1-2. He takes a too-tall high fastball and stays alive. 2-2. He swings at the next pitch. Foul. Still 2-2. Urshela swings again. Another foul. He’s still Bee Gee-ing here ad staying alive. Another pitch. THERE is a swing and miss. Another Boston strikeout and the Yankees’ postseason is down to two innings. We head to the seventh-inning stretch.

Yankees 1-4 Red Sox, top 7th

Here comes Brett Gardner and… he falls behind 0-2. And then 0-3 and, since you’re not given a chance to fall into a 0-4 hole, that means he’s out.

Yankees 1-4 Red Sox, top 7th

Young Tanner Houck is now pitching for the Red Sox, with usual starter Christian Vazquez acting as his catcher. Torres is up here to lead things off for the seventh. His first pitch? Well, that’s another strike to continue the habit of Yankees batters falling behind early. The next pitch: outside. 1-1. Torres fouls the next one off, falling behind 1-2. Torres gets some good lift on a ball but it’s just a routine fly that Hernandez catches. Make that eight outs for the Yankees to work with.

Yankees 1-4 Red Sox, bottom 6th

Bobby Dalbec is out there, one more big bat for Loaisiga to take care of this inning. Let’s see if the Yankees can at least limit the damage and focus on getting back out there and score some runs off the softer parts of the Boston bullpen.

As a matter of fact, he gets Dalbec to strike out. The Yankees now have nine outs to score at least three runs. They haven’t looked great this game, but there’s no reason to believe that those are insurmountable odds.

Yankees 1-4 Red Sox, bottom 6th

Plawecki gets called back and instead, it’s once-and-current first baseman Travis Shaw who, after some drama, strikes out to become the second out of the inning.

Yankees 1-4 Red Sox, bottom 6th

Jonathan Loaisiga is out here now to face Hunter Renfroe (yes, I will mention his first name every single time he’s at-bat). Renfroe takes three straight balls. Loiasiga gets the benefit of a strike call before finally delivering ball four. So that’s two on with one out for Boston.

Yankees 1-4 Red Sox, bottom 6th

Verdugo is up now. One out, one on. The Fenway crowd is singing along to “Seven Nation Army,” thus embarrassing me and everyone else in the New England region. What’s next? The Wave? Verdugo hits a double and we have another play at the plate… Bogaerts scores on the play after some hesitation from the Red Sox baserunning coach. The Red Sox regain the three-run lead and Boone is here to make another pitching change.

Meanwhile, that was a beyond-crucial run for Boston, obviously.

Yankees 1-3 Red Sox, bottom 6th

Severino walks Bogaerts on four pitches, so the Red Sox again have a runner on first.

Wait, Phil Nevins is a Yankees coach now? This is what I was talking about when I said that this game makes you aware of your own mortality.

Yankees 1-3 Red Sox, bottom 6th

Odor stays in the game to play third base. Severino is still in the game, facing Devers who loses his bat on his first swing. 0-1. Devers takes two more balls outside. 2-1. He has a free swing here, but he only fouls it off 2-2. The next pitch is away. 3-2. Devers fouls off another pitch. On the next one, Devers extends his reach a bit and ends up missing Severino’s offering for the first out of the inning.

Oh if the Yankees lose this one, particularly if it ends up by being a one-run margin, this image is going to haunt them for a while.

Yankees 1-3 Red Sox, top 6th

So, Stanton is at second still, but there are two out and nobody on third. The Red Sox had 33 outfield assists this season, so maybe not the wisest decision there by Judge even in a different scenario. Meanwhile, the gold Gallo falls behind 0-2. He doesn’t chase a high ball one. 1-2. On 1-2, Gallo swings and pops one up. Somehow, the Yankees only scrounge out one run there, but the Red Sox now would utterly love some more cushion here in the next few innings.