The Red Sox arrived in the Bronx hoping their healthiest lineup in weeks could finally put some pressure on an opposing pitcher. Instead, Cam Schlittler turned Game 1 into a long October night for Boston, working 6 1/3 scoreless innings as the Yankees rolled to a 9-0 victory in the American League Wild Card Series.
Boston has one game left to change the series
A best-of-three set leaves little room for a slow start, and Boston now needs a win Wednesday night to keep its season alive. Game 2 is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.
- Teams that have taken a 1-0 lead in a Wild Card Series have won 21 of 24 series, an 88 percent success rate.
- Seventeen of those 21 series victories ended in two games.
- Home clubs are 9-for-9 in Wild Card Series after winning the opener at home, with eight of those series becoming sweeps.
The Red Sox have already climbed out of a deep hole once this year. They opened the season at 32-46, then caught fire with a 32-5 stretch that carried them into the postseason. Now manager Chad Tracy’s club must find another answer with elimination waiting one loss away.
Schlittler set the tone from the first inning
Schlittler, the leading candidate for the American League Cy Young Award, gave Boston almost nothing to work with. The Walpole, Massachusetts, native allowed two hits and one walk while striking out 10, continuing the kind of postseason work he delivered against the Red Sox a year ago.
In Game 3 of last season’s Wild Card Series, Schlittler blanked Boston for eight innings to finish that matchup. Tuesday, he was especially sharp early, permitting just one hit across the first four frames. He struck out eight in that span and generated 18 swinging strikes.
The outing also exposed an offense that entered October searching for rhythm. Over 24 September games, Boston ranked last in the Majors in several key categories:
- Runs per game: 3.0
- Batting average: .219
- OPS: .651
Tracy had felt encouraged before the opener, believing he finally had his preferred “A” lineup available after a September in which Ceddanne Rafaela, Willson Contreras and Adley Rutschman all lost time to injuries. Schlittler made that returning group look ordinary.
Tolle kept it close before the Yankees broke through
Rookie left-hander Payton Tolle made his first postseason start and gave Boston a chance through the early innings, even without matching Schlittler’s overpowering stuff. The Yankees scored first in the second when Austin Wells lined a two-out RBI single.
Tracy stayed with Tolle into the fifth, then removed him with two outs and the bases empty. The manager brought in left-hander Erik Miller to handle Ben Rice, a move shaped by the matchup but one that quickly went the other way.
- Miller had struggled during September.
- Rice saw a 96.8 mph sinker on Miller’s third pitch.
- The pitch caught too much of the plate, and Rice drove it over the center-field wall for a solo homer.
- The blast pushed New York’s lead to 2-0 before the Yankees pulled away in the 9-0 final.
Gray gets the ball against Fried
Boston will hand the Game 2 assignment to veteran Sonny Gray, asking him to do the work of extending the series and giving the lineup a clean slate. The challenge will be another formidable Yankees starter, left-hander Max Fried.
For the Red Sox, the assignment is straightforward: get to Fried early, give Gray some breathing room and force this series back into a winner-take-all third game. After one shutout loss, there is no longer time to wait for the offense to rediscover its spark.
