The New York Yankees blew their rival Boston Red Sox away 9-0 in Game 1 behind a Cy Young-worthy performance from Cam Schlittler and a six-RBI night for Ben Rice. The Red Sox bullpen struggled and they will need to win on Wednesday to stay alive in this Wild Card series.
Boston send veteran and former Yankee Sonny Gray to the hill while Max Fried will start for the Yankees.
For the Boston Red Sox, the most concerning aspect of their 9-0 loss to their rival New York Yankees in Game 1 was the failure of their offense once again.
Boston managed just three hits and they have now been shut out in consecutive postseason games for the first time in their history, dating back to last year’s loss to the same opponents.
Over the last month of the season the Red Sox have been last in the majors in runs per game (3.0), batting average (.219) and OPS (.651), and they showed few signs of sparking into life in the Bronx.
They were undoubtedly facing an elite pitcher in Schlittler but Paul Blackburn and John Schreiber had few issues out of the pen and, to make matters worse, Roman Anthony left the game with the right wrist injury which has been dogging him for most of the season.
Their recent record against Fried is not strong either. He held them to 6 1/3 scoreless innings in this series last year and gave up just one run in 11 2/3 innings across two starts this season.
All in all, the Yankees starter has a 1.93 career regular-season ERA against these opponents and could help them sweep this three-game series.
The history books are not kind to teams trying to overturn a deficit in a three-game Wild Card series, particularly on the road. 21 of the 24 teams to win Game 1 have won the series and 17 of those have been two-game sweeps.
Home teams have won all of the nine series in which they have led 1-0 and eight of those have been two-game sweeps. Against a Red Sox offense which is faltering at the crucial point of the season, the Yankees look likely to add to that tally.
Boston tried to make Schlittler work in his Game 1 start, forcing him to throw 117 pitches in his 6 1/3 innings. That did not make a huge difference as the Yankees’ ace dominated but the Red Sox are likely to take a similar approach with Max Fried.
Control has been a slight issue for the lefty in recent starts, walking two or more batters in two of his last three outings.
In Game 2 of this series, over 1.5 walks issued for New York’s starter looks like a solid pick.
Dave Roberts’ steal in Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS is one of the most famous moments in this rivalry and there could be another big steal tonight, although it may come from the New York Yankees.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. was benched in Game 1 against the lefty Peyton Tolle but should return to the starting lineup and only three players have stolen more bases than him in the majors this season.
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New York Yankees | -140 |
Boston Red Sox | +115 |
Run Line | NY Yankees -1.5 |
Total Runs | O/U 6.5 |
Ben Rice (NY Yankees) | +350 |
Wilson Contreras (BOS Red Sox) | +500 |
Wilyer Abreu (BOS Red Sox) | +550 |
Trent Grisham (NY Yankees) | +550 |
Spencer Jones (NY Yankees) | +550 |
Luis Garcia (NY Yankees) | +575 |
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This article was written by a partner sports writer via Spotlight Sports Group. All odds displayed on this page were correct at the time of writing and are subject to withdrawal or change at any time.