NEW YORK — Considering the stakes and the opposing pitcher (Max Fried), Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium seemed like a night that Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet couldn’t afford to so much as blink.
Well, he did just once, when Anthony Volpe took him deep for a solo shot in the second. But never after that. Boston’s power lefty retired 17 in a row following the homer by Volpe.
In his first career postseason start, Crochet turned in a brilliant performance (7 2/3 innings, four hits, no walks, 11 strikeouts) that led the Red Sox to a 3-1 victory over the Yankees in Game 1 of this best-of-three AL Wild Card Series.
The lefty punctuated his career-high, 117-pitch performance with a 100.2-mph heater, his fastest of the night, to get Austin Wells looking.
Teams who win Game 1 are 18-2 in the Wild Card round.
Boston acquired Crochet from the White Sox in December for nights precisely like this, and the 26-year-old proved to be up for it.
Crochet just needed a little offense to make his performance stand up.
In that game-turning top of the seventh, Ceddanne Rafaela, one of Boston’s least patient hitters, worked an 11-pitch, one-out walk against Luke Weaver. Rafaela was the first batter that Weaver faced after Fried left to a standing ovation following 6 1/3 stellar frames. Nick Sogard came up next and hit what looked like a routine single to right-center. Instead, Sogard pushed the envelope, testing Aaron Judge’s arm and sliding in with a double.
That set up Masataka Yoshida’s first career postseason at-bat, and he belted a two-run single up the middle to give the Red Sox their first lead.
Boston added a huge insurance run in the ninth, as Trevor Story hit a two-out single of Yankees closer David Bednar and then stole second. Alex Bregman then stepped up and laced an RBI double.
The Yankees made things interesting in the bottom of the frame, as they loaded the bases with no outs against Aroldis Chapman, who entered after Crochet exited in the eighth. The 37-year-old lefty buckled down, striking out Giancarlo Stanton, getting Jazz Chisholm Jr. to fly out to right and then fanned Trent Grisham to close things out.
Prior to Tuesday night, Chapman faced only one batter with the bases loaded all season before facing three in the ninth inning.
According to OptaSTATS, the Yankees are the first team in MLB postseason history to have the bases loaded with nobody out in the bottom of the ninth but not score a run and lose the game.
