Game 1: 9/24/21, 7:10 PM (NY wins 8-3)
What a huge win! Yanks start their biggest series of the season with a bang in Beantown. They now find themselves just 1 game behind the 1st wild card and 2 games ahead of Toronto for the 2nd wild card. Gerrit Cole wasn’t his superstar self but only made 1 bad pitch which happened to be a 3-run homer to Devers which kind of dampened his outing but still tossed 6 innings allowing 3 runs, I would’ve liked to see Boone keep him out there for another inning only at 95 pitches but nonetheless good game by Cole. The offense got it going right away in the 1st. Judge ripped an RBI double to the wall, Stanton had an RBI groundout, and Torres ripped a 2-out RBI single to give them a quick 3-0 lead. In the 3rd, New York struck for 4 more runs off Nathan Eovaldi, Stanton started it off with an opposite field 3-run homer to make it 6-0 and Higashioka would follow up with an RBI single on a pop up that should’ve been caught by Schwarber, in fact I’m not sure how it wasn’t caught and how it wasn’t ruled an error but the Yanks will take it. After Boston scored 3 in the 6th, Torres would add some insurance with a solo homer to dead center. He seems to be getting hot at the right time and he’s on a 10 game hitting streak. Every starter had at least 1 hit as NY piled up 15 hits as a team. The bullpen was flawless as the trio of Holmes, Peralta, and Green were great. Cole picked up his 16th win while Eovaldi took the loss.
Game 2: 9/25/21, 4:10 PM (Yanks win 5-3)
UNBELIEVABLE! Yanks pick up their biggest win of the year behind a MONSTER go ahead grand slam by Giancarlo Stanton. They are now tied for the wild card league with a chance to go up 1 game tomorrow on Sunday Night Baseball. Nestor Cortes did a decent job but didn’t provide much length, nonetheless he did a solid job keeping the big Boston bats off the board only allowing 2 runs over 4.1 innings. Yanks couldn’t really get much going as the only run they could muster was on a wild pitch that scored Urshela at that point they were trailing 2-1. In the 8th, the inning started off quick with back to back strikeouts for NY but somehow they put together some quality at bats and formed a rally. Gardner and Judge walked and then Rizzo was hit by a pitch setting up bases loaded 2 outs for Stanton, and he delivered. He swung at the first pitch and LAUNCHED the go ahead grand slam over the green monster and onto Lansdown street into the Boston night. It gives me chills as it was the biggest home run of the season and probably the most meaningful homer in Stanton’s career. Boston brought in a lefty to face Rizzo who is a lefty and it didn’t work. After the game Stanton was asked what he was thinking when they brought in a lefty… his response, “they better get Rizzo out”. They did not get Rizzo out. What a damn moment for the Yanks and Stanton. Mike King, Leutge, Severino and Chapman all pitched in relief and would only surrender 1 run. Incredible stuff from the pen. Severino picked up his 1st win of the season and Houck took the loss.
Game 3: 9/26/21, 7:10 PM (NY wins 6-3)
SWEEP IT IS! New York takes all 3 games in Beantown against the rival Red Sox and have won 6 straight ballgames and currently hold the 1st wild card spot by 1 game. Jordan Montgomery had a solid start, he gave up 1 run through 5 innings, although he had a lot of traffic on the bases he managed to work through it nicely. Boston would take a 1-0 lead in the 4th, but the Yanks would score 2 in the next frame. Urshela brought home a run on a bases loaded double play and then LeMehieu would rope an RBI single to take a 2-1 lead. In the 7th, Joely Rodriguez would enter the game (for some weird reason) and get into trouble. A sac fly would take the game at 2 and in brought Chad Green in to try to fix the mess. Green picked up a strikeout for the 2nd out, he induced what should have been an inning ending foul out by the usually sure-handed LeMahieu dropped the ball to allow the at bat to continue, the very next pitch Green yet again induced a pop up to shallow left field which yet again should have ended the inning but the usually sure-handed Gallo dropped the ball allowing the go ahead run to score and put Boston on top 3-2. That was extremely frustrating.
In the 8th, Judge would connect on a go ahead 2-run double after a questionable foul tip strike 3, but we’ll take it. With the Yankees up 4-2 now, Stanton would come up and smoke a MONSTER 2-run homer to Lansdown street to extend the league to 6-3 which would be the final. Stanton had the best 3-game series of his career as he went 7-13 (.538) with 3 homers and 10 RBI’s. First Yankee ever to accomplish that feat in history. Incredible. I still have chills. Green took the win while former Yankee Ottovino got the loss.
My thoughts:
Words can’t describe how amazing this series was! This weekend could not have went any better for the Yankees. There is still work to be done with 6 games remaining, but NY holds a wild card spot by 2 games and hold the 1st wild card spot by a game. Their destiny is in their own hands as a 4-2 finish should secure them a wild card game and even a 3-3 finish could secure them a spot.
What’s next?
Boston is in luck, as they travel to Baltimore to take on a bad O’s team that has kind of had Boston’s number this season. The Yanks head up to Toronto to take on the Blue Jays in the biggest series of the year. They take 2/3 in Toronto and I would say they essentially lock themselves in a wild card spot. Keep winning! LFGGG!