Tuesday, October 5, 2021

Red Sox v. Yankees

I said years ago that I would skip these silly Wild Card games.  And I've stuck with that.  But the Red Sox  and Yankees actually finished with identical records of 92-70.  So to me, this is a true one-game playoff to see who gets the Wild Card slot.  And besides, this is the first game all year where I don't have to worry about ghost runners if we go to extra innings.  Real baseball!

So here we go.  From Fenway Park:

New York Yankees (92-70):
1.  Anthony Rizzo, 1B
2.  Aaron Judge, RF
3.  Giancarlo Stanton, DH
4.  Joey Gallo, LF
5.  Gleyber Torres, 2B
6.  Brett Gardner, CF
7.  Gio Urshela, 3B
8.  Kyle Higashioka, C
9.  Andrew Velazquez, SS
Gerrit Cole, P

Boston Red Sox (92-70):
1.  Kyle Schwarber, DH
2.  Enrique Hernandez, CF
3.  Rafael Devers, 3B
4.  Xander Bogaerts, SS
5.  Alex Verdugo, CF
6.  Hunter Renfroe, RF
7.  Kevin Plawecki, C
8.  Bobby Dalbec, 1B
9.  Christian Arroyo, 2B
Nathan Eovaldi, P

The Yankees go down without too much trouble in the top of the first, and we are underway.  If this game is close -- or even if it's not -- we'll probably be here until midnight.

26 comments:

  1. If this were a regular season game, I'd go with the Yankees radio broadcast. But this game is too nerve-wracking, so I'm going with the neutral broadcast on ESPN.

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  2. After retiring the first two Red Sox with no problems, Gerrit Cole walks Devers. Xander Bogearts then steps up and blasts a two-run homer to dead center field -- which is a long way in Fenway Park. BoSox lead 2-0 after 1.

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  3. Fangraphs now gives the Red Sox a 69 percent chance of victory.

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  4. World Series Titles in My Fan-Life:

    Yankees (7): 1977, 1978, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2009
    Red Sox (4): 2004, 2007, 2013, 2018

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  5. In the bottom of the 3d, Kyle Schwarber smacks a homer to right. Kike Hernandez reaches on an infield single. Devers walks. And that's all for Gerrit Cole. The Yankees signed him to a nine-year, $324 million contract after the 2019 season. And he was useless tonight.

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  6. Red Sox now have an 87.4 percent chance of victory.

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  7. Clay Holmes enters the game for the Yankees. In the regular season, he went 5-2 with an ERA of 1.61 in only 28 innings. He better be really good right now.

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  8. Gerrit Cole made $36 million this year, and unless the Yankees make a big comeback, his season will be over.

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  9. Holmes gets a strikeout and a double play, and the inning is over. BoSox lead 3-0 after 3.

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  10. Red Sox now have an 80 percent chance of winning.

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  11. ESPN radio has gone down, and they're having to call the game from the ESPN studio.

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  12. In the regular season, Nathan Eovaldi went 11-9 with a 3.75 ERA in 32 starts. But he is toying with the Yankees right now. He mows them down 1-2-3 in the top of the 4th, and the Red Sox still lead 3-0.

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  13. Red Sox tonight with navy hats, red jerseys with blue lettering, and white pants. Yankees wearing the Yankee road uniform.

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  14. The Yankees are on the board. With one out in the top of the 6th, Anthony Rizzo lofts a high fly into the right field seats, and Boston's lead is now 3-1.

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  15. Judge reaches on an infield single, and the Red Sox replace Eovaldi with Ryan Brasier. Giancarlo Stanton whacks a drive to center, and Judge tries to score, but he is thrown out at the plate: 8 to 6 to 2.

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  16. Brasier escapes without any further harm. Red Sox lead 3-1 after 5 and one-half innings.

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  17. The Red Sox regain control in the bottom of the 6th with a walk by Bogaerts and a double by Verdugo. They now lead 4-1.

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  18. Red Sox lead 4-1 after 6. FanGraphs has stopped updating, but ESPN gives Boston a 90.7 percent chance of victory.

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  19. The Yankees scored one run in their last game of the regular season, and they are really struggling to do anything on offense today. A lot of teams end their post-seasons because their hitting collapses. In the last decades, I saw it happen to the Nats four different times.

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  20. The Yankees go down 1-2-3 in the top of the 7th, and they are only six outs from elimination. At this rate, I'm not sure they could get the three runs they need if they had ten more innings.

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  21. To be fair, the Yankees are really lucky to have gotten this far. In the regular season, they outscored their opponents by only 42 runs -- they should have gone 86-76. Instead they went 92-70. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays outscored their opponents by 183 runs -- they should have gone 99-63. Instead, they went 91-71 and missed the playoffs by a game. The Yankees were 10-8 in extra innings, while the Jays went 3-9.

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  22. Very little has happened in this game, and yet we are only in the bottom of the 7th as we reach 11 PM on the East Coast. It's a good thing the Yankees and Red Sox don't have any young fans on the East Coast who'd like to watch this game.

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  23. Yankees struggling to keep it close as the Red Sox load the bases with two out in the bottom of the 7th. As the Yanks try to figure out what to do, ESPN shows Judge getting thrown out at the plate, as that was the most interesting play of the night. It was not a close play -- he never should have tried it.

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  24. And there it is. Verdugo lines a two out single to center that scores two more runs and makes the score 6-1. Verdugo is thrown out trying to reach second, but it doesn't matter because this game is over. Boston will be going to Tampa, and the Yankees will be going home.

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  25. The Red Sox win 6-2 and the Yankees will miss the World Series for the twelfth year in a row.

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