Boston Red Sox outfielder Masataka Yoshida, left, celebrates with first base coach José David Flores after driving in two runs against the New York Yankees during the seventh inning of Game 1 of an American League wild-card baseball playoff series, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, in New York.
Yuki Iwamura | AP Photo
New York Yankees pitcher Luke Weaver reacts as he walks off the field after giving up two runs to the Boston Red Sox during the seventh inning of Game 1 of an American League wild-card baseball playoff series, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, in New York.
Frank Franklin II | AP Photo
NEW YORK (AP) — Garrett Crochet retired 17 consecutive batters after allowing Anthony Volpe’s second-inning homer, pinch-hitter Masataka Yoshida lined a go-ahead, two-run single off reliever Luke Weaver, and the Boston Red Sox beat the New York Yankees 3-1 on Tuesday night in their AL Wild Card Series opener.
Crochet improved to 4-0 against the Yankees this year, throwing a career-high 117 pitches in a marquee duel of ace left-handers against Max Fried. Crochet struck out 11 and walked none over 7 2/3 innings while allowing four hits.
Pitching with a lead after Yoshida’s go-ahead hit in the seventh, Crochet extended his streak of retired batters until Volpe singled with one out in the eighth. Crochet’s final pitch was his fastest at 100.2 mph, which Austin Wells took for a called third strike.
Ex-Yankee Aroldis Chapman retired José Caballero on a flyout to finish the eighth, and Alex Bregman, playing his 100th postseason game, hit an RBI double in the ninth off David Bednar.
Paul Goldschmidt, Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger loaded the bases with consecutive singles starting the bottom half, but Chapman recovered to get the save when he struck out Giancarlo Stanton, retired Jazz Chisholm Jr. on a flyout and fanned Trent Grisham.
Boston improved to 13-12 against the rival Yankees in the postseason, winning nine of the last 10 meetings.
Game 2 in the best-of-three series is Wednesday night.
Crochet threw the most pitches in a postseason game since Washington’s Stephen Strasburg tossed 117 against St. Louis in 2019.
Fried pitched shutout ball for 6 1/3 innings but a Yankees bullpen that had a 4.37 ERA during the regular season, 23rd among the 30 teams, faltered again.
Weaver relieved with no one on, got ahead of Ceddanne Rafaela 0-2 in the count, then walked him on 11 pitches.
Nick Sogard grounded a hit into right-center, hustling to second when Judge didn’t sprint to pick up the ball. Yoshida lined the next pitch, a fastball at the letters, to center for a 2-1 lead.
Weaver had a 1.05 ERA in his first 24 appearances, was sidelined for 2 1/2 weeks by a strained left hamstring, then had a 5.31 ERA over his final 40 games.
Fried got 19 swings and misses, striking out six and walking three while allowing four hits in 6 1/3 innings. He escaped a second-and-third, two-out jam in the fourth, then first-and-second, one-out trouble in the fifth.
Volpe, who slumped to a .212 average this year, put the Yankees ahead when he drove a sinker to the opposite field, where the ball landed a half-dozen rows into the right-field seats. Volpe’s drive would have been a home run in all but one big league stadium: Fenway Park.
Yankees LHP Carlos Rodón (18-9, 3.09 ERA) and Red Sox RHP Brayan Bello (11-9, 3.35) start Wednesday.
Bullpen again an issue for Yankees
The bullpen that has been one of the New York Yankees’ biggest weaknesses this season faltered again in their playoff opener and has them on the brink of being eliminated by the rival Boston Red Sox.
After Max Fried worked six scoreless innings in Game 1 of the AL Wild Card Series, manager Aaron Boone let him take the mound in the seventh. But Boone removed Fried after he retired the first batter in favor of Luke Weaver, who walked the first batter he faced and allowed a double and Masataka Yoshida’s two-run single.
David Bednar gave up back-to-back hits in the ninth to give Boston some breathing room, and Boone’s in-game pitching decisions were under the microscope yet again in the aftermath of Tuesday night’s 3-1 loss.
There were plenty of pregame decisions questioned, too, with left-handed hitters Ben Rice, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Ryan McMahon not in the lineup against Boston starter Garrett Crochet, who got 23 outs before fellow lefty Aroldis Chapman recorded the final four to close it out. Crochet retired 17 consecutive batters after allowing Anthony Volpe’s solo home run.
But after turning to Nestor Cortes in the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers last year — with Freddie Freeman hitting a walk-off grand slam in Game 1 on Cortes’ first pitch — and making other calls to the bullpen that didn’t work out, Boone put himself in position to be second-guessed again.
Fried cruised through his first postseason start in pinstripes, allowing four hits and walking three batters. He threw 63 of his 102 pitches for strikes and got a standing ovation as he departed.
Post-injury Weaver showed up. The righty had a 1.05 ERA in his first 24 appearances went on the injured list in June with a strained left hamstring and had a 5.31 over his final 40 games.
That’s emblematic of the Yankees’ season, when their bullpen ERA of 4.37 ranked 23rd out of 30 teams.
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