New York.— Garrett Crochet delivered a stellar performance in his postseason debut, and the Boston Red Sox defeated the New York Yankees 3-1 this Tuesday at Yankee Stadium, taking the lead in Game 1 of the American League Wild Card Series.
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The 26-year-old lefty pitched 7.2 innings of four hits, no walks and 11 strikeouts, allowing only a solo home run by Anthony Volpe in the second inning. After that hit, he retired 17 consecutive batters and closed his performance with a 100.2 mph fastball to strike out Austin Wells. It was the longest outing of his career, with 117 pitches.
Boston backed their ace’s gem in the seventh inning. With Ceddanne Rafaela on base after a long 11-pitch at-bat, Nick Sogard surprised with an aggressive double against Aaron Judge. That set the stage for Masataka Yoshida, who in his first postseason at-bat hit a two-run single that turned the scoreboard around.
The Red Sox extended their lead in the ninth, when Trevor Story got on base and then scored on a run-scoring double by Alex Bregman to make it 3-1.
In the closing, the Yankees loaded the bases with no outs against Aroldis Chapman, but the veteran closer struck out Giancarlo Stanton, Jazz Chisholm Jr., and Trent Grisham to secure the victory.
With this result, Boston is one win away from advancing, while history favors the Game 1 winner in this round, with a record of 18-2 in previous Wild Card series.
The second game is scheduled to be played at Yankee Stadium, with the Bombers forced to respond to avoid elimination.
