In a matchup dripping with rivalry venom, the Boston Red Sox struck first in the American League Wild Card Series, outlasting the New York Yankees 3-1 behind ace Garrett Crochet’s electric seven-inning gem. The victory gives Boston a commanding 1-0 lead in the best-of-three set, tapping into a perfect Game 1 trend: Teams winning the opener in this format have advanced 100% of the time over the past three years.
Crochet, the 26-year-old left-hander acquired in a blockbuster trade from the Chicago White Sox last winter, lived up to his billing as Boston’s postseason X-factor. Facing a Yankees lineup that led MLB with 849 runs during the regular season, he carved through the heart of the order with surgical precision. Over seven innings, Crochet surrendered just one run on three hits, fanning nine and walking none while throwing 100 pitches—his first postseason start as a starter after brief relief stints in 2020-21. “This is what we traded for him to do,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said postgame. “Garrett doesn’t flinch. He owns the mound like it’s his living room.”
The southpaw’s dominance was on full display early. He retired the side in order in the first, mixing a devastating 98-mph fastball with a knee-buckling slider that left Yankees sluggers like Aaron Judge—whom Crochet has whiffed 11 times this year alone—grasping at air. Judge, held hitless and scoreless, later tipped his cap: “Stuff’s off the charts. He earned it tonight.” Crochet’s stat line against New York this season? A pristine 3-0 record with a 3.29 ERA and 39 strikeouts in four starts, a blueprint he extended into October.
Boston’s offense, no stranger to the short porch in right field, provided just enough support against Yankees lefty Max Fried, the $218 million offseason prize who spurned the Red Sox. The breakthrough came in the fourth: Jarren Duran laced a one-out double, advanced on a wild pitch, and scampered home on Alex Bregman’s RBI single to right, putting the Sox up 1-0. Masataka Yoshida, pinch-hitting in the seventh, delivered the dagger—a clutch two-run double off Fried that chased the starter and swelled the lead to 3-0. Yoshida’s blast, a 105-mph liner to the gap, ignited a Fenway-like roar from the traveling Red Sox faithful.
New York’s lone tally arrived in the fifth via Amed Rosario’s solo homer off Crochet’s slider—a rare blemish in an otherwise lights-out effort. But the Yankees’ bats, potent all year, sputtered against Boston’s bullpen brigade. Garrett Whitlock tossed a scoreless eighth, and Aroldis Chapman slammed the door with a four-out save in the ninth. It wasn’t clean—Chapman loaded the bases with three straight singles, including knocks from Paul Goldschmidt and Judge—but he escaped with three punchouts, stranding the tying run at third.
For the Red Sox, who clinched their spot with a late-season surge and dominated New York 9-4 in the regular-season series, this win feels like destiny reloaded. Crochet’s extension to a six-year, $170 million deal in April now looks like the steal of the century. Game 2 looms Wednesday at 8:08 p.m. ET, with Boston’s Tanner Houck facing Yankees righty Luis Gil. A sweep would send the Sox to the ALDS, but as Cora quipped, “One game’s not a series. But damn, it feels good.”
In the Bronx, where ghosts of 2003 and 2004 still whisper, the Red Sox reminded everyone: This rivalry never sleeps—and tonight, Boston snored a little louder.
