Game Recap: 2026 AL Wild Card Series, Game 2 – W – BOS: 2, NYY: 9
This wasn’t any ordinary sweep. This was utter domination, fueled by extraordinary pitching and an offensive masterclass.
Cam Schlittler and Ben Rice made history on Tuesday, and in Game 2 last night, Max Fried and Cody Bellinger stole the headlines. Across the two games, the Yankees outscored the Red Sox 18-2, proving New York still owns Boston.
Welcome (officially) to October!
Image Courtesy: New York Yankees
Manager Aaron Boone pressed the right buttons at every step of this Wild Card series, from his starting pitching to becoming the first manager to line up eight lefties in a playoff game. All nine starters recorded a hit last night, helping the Yankees clobber the Red Sox 9-2.
Before the game, Sonny Gray recalled playing in New York and how much he hated it. A story from 2018 resurfaced in the offseason when he was traded to a team that made it “easy to hate the Yankees.” But if Yankees fans at the Stadium were loud in Game 1, they were even more obnoxious yesterday.
Obnoxious in the most admirable way, of course. The devotion and excitement in the Bronx, and their boos toward Gray, helped the home team thrive. For the second straight night, Red Sox manager Chad Tracy pulled his starter too early, and the Yankees made him pay.
Inexplicably, in the fifth inning, Tracy went to lefty Erik Miller first, even though Rice hit a solo home run off him in Game 1. This time, Bellinger doubled the Yankees’ 1-0 lead with a single to right field.
Luis García Jr., whose fourth-inning solo shot put the Yankees on the board, followed Bellinger with a single. The Yankees should have settled for the bases loaded, but third-base coach Luis Rojas’s poor send helped Adley Rutschman nab Rice out at home.
The send nearly came back to bite the Yankees when, with two strikes and two outs in the top of the sixth, Willson Contreras cut the deficit in half with a home run. But the Yankees refused to give in, and they broke the game open in the bottom of the sixth.
In Game 1 of last year’s Wild Card series, southpaw Garrett Crochet shut down the Yankees. Yesterday, in the sixth inning, the Yankees made him regret his first appearance since April 25. Unexpectedly, they played excellent small ball, paving the path to Bellinger’s big blast.
Leading off, Spencer Jones struck out swinging, but the ball landed in the dirt, and he ran down Rutschman’s throw to first base. He then stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error before George Lombard Jr., embracing the moment, slapped a single the opposite way for a 3-1 lead.
With his hit, Lombard became the first Yankee since Derek Jeter in 1996 to record at least four hits in his first two postseason games. That is a remarkable feat for the 21-year-old shortstop, who credited Jones’s “trademark phrase, ‘Just be a chill bird.’”
When asked to define “chill bird,” Jones joked, “It’s undefinable. You’ve seen a bird coasting through the air. It looks pretty chill most of the time.”
Sure. Whatever wins games.
After Lombard’s sixth-inning hit, Jazz Chisholm Jr. singled to right field, and Trent Grisham bunted perfectly down the third-base line. Grisham isn’t known for small ball, but he executed a perfect bunt against a tough lefty, loading the bases for Austin Wells.
Wells struggled offensively during the regular season, finishing with a .186 batting average and a .624 OPS. But this postseason, he already has a .500 average and four RBI, including a sacrifice fly that made it 4-1 Yankees.
Next, Ryan McMahon nudged a ball far enough into the infield for another run to score. Typically prone to strikeouts, the third baseman delivered.
Then, with two outs and a runner at second, Crochet intentionally walked Rice, and Bellinger made him pay. He drilled a hanger over the right-field fence for a three-run home run, extending the lead to 8-1 and putting the series out of reach for Boston.
The Bronx Zoo exploded.
“Honestly, this place itself, it’s such an amazing place to play in the postseason,” Bellinger said. “Fans are so into the game. It’s just an electric atmosphere, and it’s really special.”
Bellinger’s father, Clay, played for the Yankees at the peak of their 1990s dynasty. Cody barely remembers the championship parades, but he will always remember catching his father’s ceremonial first pitch the same night his home run propelled the Yankees past the Red Sox.
“That was really cool,” Bellinger said. “I knew he was gonna throw a strike. He didn’t even warm up. So, I was like, ‘Are you going from the mound?’ He said, ‘Yeah, for sure.’”
When Boone put eight left-handed hitters in his starting lineup, it felt like he would make substitutions if the Red Sox used a lefty reliever. But against Crochet, three lefties reached base safely. In the series, left-handed Yankees batters were 7-for-13 (.538) against Boston’s left-handed pitchers.
“We have some guys that are good left-on-left,” Boone said. “Some of their guys aren’t necessarily lefty specialists. There were a couple that were really tough that we had some success against. I think [it’s] the experience of playing against that so much this year. For months, we were very left-handed.”
In the seventh inning, Wells added an RBI single, giving the Yankees a 9-2 lead. The catcher is 6-for-11 (.545) with six RBI in his last 14 postseason games and 8-for-25 (.320) in his last eight, dating back to last year’s Wild Card Series.
“The at-bats have been incredible,” Wells said. “It’s been a whole new level from the regular season to these last two days, taking close pitches, moving guys over. I don’t think the box score really even says how good the at-bats are. Guys are doing incredible work in the box, turning the lineup over, and producing.”
Without sensational starting pitching, the Yankees would not have dominated Boston. In his 15th career postseason start, Fried twirled six one-run innings, holding Boston scoreless for 5 2/3. The Yankees’ +16 run differential tied the 2019 ALDS, the 1981 ALCS, and the 1937 World Series for the fifth-largest in a Yankees playoff series.
“I think it’s just whoever’s gonna take the ball and keep us in games to give our offense a chance to come alive and score some runs to be able to win,” said Fried, who threw 98 pitches. Sometimes it’s gonna be 100, 120 pitches. Sometimes it’s not. But we have a good group in there that’s really focused on winning the game and putting the team in front of themselves.”
The Yankees are well-positioned for the ALDS, especially because they achieved historic offensive feats without Aaron Judge.
“The best player in baseball isn’t even playing right now, and we’ve been dominating,” Schlittler said. “It’s good to get it done in two [games]. Now we’re set up perfectly for Tampa.”
The Rays are a challenging team, especially at Tropicana Field. In last year’s ALDS, when the Yankees left Toronto 2-0, the series was all but over. They cannot leave St. Petersburg without the series at least tied.
Game 1 of the ALDS is scheduled for Saturday, October 3, at 6:30 PM (5:30 PM CDT) (TBS, TRUTV, MAX). RHP Drew Rasmussen (16-5, 2.67 ERA) will start for Tampa Bay. The Yankees have yet to announce their starter, but it will likely be RHP Gerrit Cole or LHP Carlos Rodón.
Cover Image Courtesy: New York Yankees
