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Sunday, October 03, 2021

Boston Red Sox to host New York Yankees in AL wild-card game

The Boston Red Sox will host the New York Yankees in the American League wild-card game Tuesday night after clutch hits by their biggest stars helped to avoid several Game 163 scenarios.

Aaron Judge drove home the winning run with a one-out single in the ninth inning of the Yankees’ 1-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday while Red Sox slugger Rafael Devers’ 2-run homer in the ninth inning broke a 5-5 tie with the Washington Nationals.

Yankees shortstop Gio Urshela made a Jeter-esque catch, charging recklessly into the visiting dugout, and New York finished the year 92-70, punching a fifth consecutive postseason ticket after nearly falling into a labyrinth of tiebreaker scenarios.

Rougned Odor led off the ninth with a single against Josh Fleming (10-8), just New York’s second hit. Pinch-runner Tyler Wade advanced to second on Gleyber Torres’ flyout to the warning track in center, and Anthony Rizzo moved Wade to third with a one-out single.

Andrew Kittredge came on to face Judge, who ripped a 104.4 mph line drive off the right-hander’s glove. The ball skipped toward drawn-in second baseman Brandon Lowe, whose off-balance throw home wasn’t nearly in time to catch a sliding Wade.

RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: October 03, 2021 at 07:10 PM | 49 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
Tags: red sox, yankees

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1. Starring Bradley Scotchman as RMc Posted: October 03, 2021 at 08:11 PM (#6043403)

Well, of course they do.

2. villageidiom Posted: October 03, 2021 at 09:00 PM (#6043413)

I'm looking forward to it, though I completely understand if others don't. Look on the bright side: on Tuesday* either the Red Sox or the Yankees will be eliminated from the playoffs.

*OK, well, the game starts on Tuesday. It might be concluded by Friday.

3. Barry`s_Lazy_Boy Posted: October 03, 2021 at 09:45 PM (#6043428)

Wild card games are fun. This should be a fun one.

4. The Honorable Ardo Posted: October 03, 2021 at 10:20 PM (#6043433)

Top tier starting pitchers dueling in both games: Cole-Eovaldi, Wainwright-Scherzer.

5. John Northey Posted: October 03, 2021 at 10:29 PM (#6043435)

I'm hoping both are pounded hard and it is a 10-9 game or something where the winner has used every arm in the pen and is drained and then gets slaughtered by Tampa. Houston/Chicago - I detest LaRussa so have to cheer the cheaters. Ugh. Hoping the NL wins it all this year.

6. Walt Davis Posted: October 03, 2021 at 11:11 PM (#6043441)

Pretty disappointing. We were so close to heaps of extra baseball. We coulda had Dodgers-Giants and a 3-4 way tie for the AL WC. Instead nothing to do tomorrow.

Meanwhile, "poor" Dodgers with a 106-win season coming down to a single game. But I sympathize even more with Toronto.

7. Random Transaction Generator Posted: October 03, 2021 at 11:27 PM (#6043444)

It was painful to see the Rays and Nationals squander opportunities (or leads) today, as a Jays fan.

Oh well.

8. Rally Posted: October 04, 2021 at 08:13 AM (#6043463)

Yeah, and unfortunately it was not a problem that could have been solved by putting up another 10 or 15 runs against the Orioles.

9. Infinite Yost (Voxter)

Posted: October 04, 2021 at 12:16 PM (#6043505)

10. bunyon Posted: October 04, 2021 at 12:21 PM (#6043506)

I completely expect the Cardinals to win the NL. To be fair, the Dodgers aren't quite the same team that won 106 games. Of course, they could lose a few wins and still have a lot more than St. Louis.

I've watched the Giants a few times this year. I have no idea how they won 107 games. They did, can't take it away from them, but geez.

11. The Gary DiSarcina Fan Club (JAHV) Posted: October 04, 2021 at 12:35 PM (#6043509)

As I said yesterday, I have no desire to watch the Yankees-Red Sox. Even with the sound off. No one wins.

I'd love to see the Dodgers move on and face the Giants, but everyone knows the Cardinals will win. Wainwright will throw 6 innings of one-run ball, Paul Goldschmidt will hit a solo home run, and Yadier Molina will bloop a single into right-center field to score some random guy who no one had heard about before this year but somehow put up a 3-WAR season for the Cardinals.

Yes, I'm a bitter, jaded Angels fan, pissed off at another year getting flushed down the toilet. Sorry for the vitriol.

12. ERROR---Jolly Old St. Nick

Posted: October 04, 2021 at 12:44 PM (#6043511)

My main feeling about these Wild Cards is that I hope like hell the Dodgers beat the Cardinals, because a Dodgers-Giants series with both teams having won 106+ games would be a doozy. It would be a shame to miss out on that.

I'm of mixed minds about that. I'd love to see the Cardinals derail the Dodgers, but then I'd much rather watch the Giants play their historic rivals than have them play a team with which they don't have any really memorable moments.

I'd love to see the "good" Yankees show up and go all the way, but realistically I think the best AL team to hope for would be the Rays or the Astros. But as long as the Braves get a quick knockout by the Brewers, I'll gladly watch any matchup that comes our way. Too bad that foam tomahawks don't cause laryngitis.

13. bunyon Posted: October 04, 2021 at 12:51 PM (#6043513)

Man. The hate is strong in you guys.

14. The Gary DiSarcina Fan Club (JAHV) Posted: October 04, 2021 at 01:01 PM (#6043514)

Man. The hate is strong in you guys.

That's what sports is about. Teams you love and teams you hate. It's not okay to hate in real life, so I save my hate for terrible, evil teams from Boston and New York (and the Bay Area - screw the Giants and A's).

I need a team to root for, or at least a team to root against. I get neither in the AL Wild Card when I could have had the Blue Jays, who are an incredibly enjoyable team to watch and root for. The last hour of the season yesterday was painful.

15. Jose Has Absurd Goosebump Arms Posted: October 04, 2021 at 01:20 PM (#6043516)

I completely get why non-Sox/Yankee fans hated the result yesterday. The fact is that yesterday was not dissimilar to 2011 with the dramatic comeback happening to rip out people's hearts. Obviously not AS dramatic or as exciting as 2011 but it was basically the same thing. If you wanted a crazy day of baseball you got it. Toronto took care of business emphatically, the Yankees played a genuine nailbiter and the Sox looked like they were going to lose for 6 innings and didn't get the lead until the 9th. Yesterday was thrilling.

But if people dislike the Sox/Yankees that's fine. As vi said, one of them will be eliminated tomorrow and frankly I suspect whichever team wins is likely to be eliminated before Monday.

16. The Ghost of Sox Fans Past

Posted: October 04, 2021 at 01:46 PM (#6043525)

17. pikepredator Posted: October 04, 2021 at 01:54 PM (#6043530)

Yep yesterday was exciting all around. And everybody rooting against Sox-Yanks *almost* got what they wanted, until it was brutally ripped away from them at the end.

As a Sox fan . . . Can't Wait!!

18. salvomania Posted: October 04, 2021 at 02:14 PM (#6043537)

. I'd love to see the Cardinals derail the Dodgers, but then I'd much rather watch the Giants play their historic rivals than have them play a team with which they don't have any really memorable moments.

I consider the Giants one of the Cardinals' main contemporary postseason rivals.

The Giants have beaten the Cardinals three times since 2000 in the NLCS, the last one featuring the Travis Ishikawa walk-off 3-run homer to win the pennant.

And old timers like me still vividly remember the intense 1987 NLCS, in which the Running Rebirds prevailed over Jeffrey "One Flap Down" Leonard's Giants in seven games despite being out-homered 9 to 2 (and out-stolen-based 5 to 4).

19. ERROR---Jolly Old St. Nick

Posted: October 04, 2021 at 02:23 PM (#6043542)

No big deal, but they gave Judge a hot on his walkoff? I originally heard it as a fielder's choice, which seemed more appropriate from what I could see on replay, but a hit makes a better story. Whatever.

The ball came off Judge's bat at over 104 MPH and Kittredge was in his follow through from about 58' away, so it was kind of lucky he didn't get killed. OTOH if there'd been two outs Judge would've been easily thrown out at first. So yeah, I think the scorer also just decided Whatever and gave Judge a hit for narrative purposes, plus he really did scorch the ball.

20. Mayor Blomberg Posted: October 04, 2021 at 02:25 PM (#6043543)

This Yankee fan would rather have seen the Jays and Mariners go forward. Neither Boston or NYY is that good a team or give me an 88 Dodgers vibe. And I do think the LAD shows the problem of the second wildcard. the WC did address the problem of a weak division champion, but the team with more wins shouldn't get the play-in game.

21. ERROR---Jolly Old St. Nick

Posted: October 04, 2021 at 02:32 PM (#6043545)

I'd love to see the Cardinals derail the Dodgers, but then I'd much rather watch the Giants play their historic rivals than have them play a team with which they don't have any really memorable moments.

I consider the Giants one of the Cardinals' main contemporary postseason rivals.

The Giants have beaten the Cardinals three times since 2000 in the NLCS, the last one featuring the Travis Ishikawa walk-off 3-run homer to win the pennant.

Okay, but only one of those series went the limit, and in that one the Giants won game 7 in a 9-0 laugher. Whereas the Giants and the Dodgers staged two of the most dramatic pennant playoff series in the entire history of baseball, both featuring 4 run 9th inning comebacks in the win-or-go-home game.

And old timers like me still vividly remember the intense 1987 NLCS, in which the Running Rebirds prevailed over Jeffrey "One Flap Down" Leonard's Giants in seven games despite being out-homered 9 to 2 (and out-stolen-based 5 to 4).

That's one I really wish the Giants had one. The Whiteyball Cardinals were my least favorite team ever.

22. ERROR---Jolly Old St. Nick

Posted: October 04, 2021 at 02:46 PM (#6043550)

This Yankee fan would rather have seen the Jays and Mariners go forward. Neither Boston or NYY is that good a team or give me an 88 Dodgers vibe.

Er, the Mariners had a season run differential of -51, and a 76-86 Pythagorean record, also going 5-9 against the Yankees and Red Sox. They would've been an even flukier playoff team than the '87 Twins.

The Jays had control of their destiny, and then blew it when they could only split with the Twins and the Yankees beat them in their final series. All you can really say about the Jays is Wait Till Next Year.

23. Mayor Blomberg Posted: October 04, 2021 at 03:13 PM (#6043555)

Er, the Mariners had a season run differential of -51, and a 76-86 Pythagorean record, also going 5-9 against the Yankees and Red Sox. They would've been an even flukier playoff team than the '87 Twins.

The two paragraphs reflect different standards of judgment. 1) Four decent teams, now of whom I expect to advance, vied for two spots. In that case, I'd prefer new blood. Deserve's got nothing to do with that opinion. 2) While I know the WC was brought in for the 2-division set-up, it did something to ameliorate the problem of weak division winner, so I would prefer that the play-in, if there is to be one, be among the two teams with the weakest records. I assume there's nothing worng with holding both of these opinions at once, especially on the internet.

24. Jose Has Absurd Goosebump Arms Posted: October 04, 2021 at 03:26 PM (#6043558)

If I'm an American League playoff team I am VERY happy that the Toronto Blue Jays are not a participant. That was a good ####### team with some serious starting pitching to go with truly terrifying bats.

25. My name is Votto, and I love to get Moppo Posted: October 04, 2021 at 03:57 PM (#6043561)

Totally agree with Jose. The Blue Jays had far better run differentials than the Yankees or Sox.

After yesterday's game, I went on a b-ref dive. Devers has 110 career homeruns at age 24, which I thought was pretty impressive, and it is, but well out of the all-time top 10. Soto, with 98 homers by age 22, is in the top 10 (#6).

My other favorite factoid that I discovered, Sammy Sosa is the only player since the 1930s (Gehrig, Ruth, Foxx, Hornsby) with multiple seasons of 400 total bases.

26. Mefisto Posted: October 04, 2021 at 04:09 PM (#6043563)

Whereas the Giants and the Dodgers staged two of the most dramatic pennant playoff series in the entire history of baseball, both featuring 4 run 9th inning comebacks in the win-or-go-home game.

Well ok, but your age is showing. The most recent of those 2 games was 59 years ago yesterday (the other was 70 years ago yesterday).

The Cards are a good team and deserve to be in the playoffs. The NL weak link is the Braves. The Dodgers should play them and then the Brewers (assuming they beat Atlanta). The Giants should play the Cards. You'd most likely end up with the Giants v Dodgers LCS, which would be exactly the drama you'd want.

27. salvomania Posted: October 04, 2021 at 04:20 PM (#6043564)

The Giants should play the Cards. You'd most likely end up with the Giants v Dodgers LCS, which would be exactly the drama you'd want.

I agree, seeding for the postseason makes all kinds of sense. Too much sense for it to ever actually happen.

28. sunday silence (again) Posted: October 04, 2021 at 05:20 PM (#6043575)

if you want to do it that way then there's no pt. to having divisions, right? So just make it one giant 15 team NL and take the 5 best records. I dont think most people would like that.

29. JJ1986 Posted: October 04, 2021 at 05:32 PM (#6043577)

Er, the Mariners had a season run differential of -51, and a 76-86 Pythagorean record, also going 5-9 against the Yankees and Red Sox.

Who was that poster here who used to rail against using pythagorean records?

30. Booey Posted: October 04, 2021 at 06:03 PM (#6043584)

My other favorite factoid that I discovered, Sammy Sosa is the only player since the 1930s (Gehrig, Ruth, Foxx, Hornsby) with multiple seasons of 400 total bases.

That factoid is wrong, though. ;-)

Todd Helton (2000, 2001) also had multiple 400 TB seasons. And your list in parentheses (Gehrig, Ruth, Foxx, Hornsby) needs to add Chuck Klein.

31. ERROR---Jolly Old St. Nick

Posted: October 04, 2021 at 06:13 PM (#6043585)

Whereas the Giants and the Dodgers staged two of the most dramatic pennant playoff series in the entire history of baseball, both featuring 4 run 9th inning comebacks in the win-or-go-home game.

Well ok, but your age is showing. The most recent of those 2 games was 59 years ago yesterday (the other was 70 years ago yesterday).

If recency is your sole criterion for relevancy, then sure.

The Cards are a good team and deserve to be in the playoffs. The NL weak link is the Braves. The Dodgers should play them and then the Brewers (assuming they beat Atlanta). The Giants should play the Cards. You'd most likely end up with the Giants v Dodgers LCS, which would be exactly the drama you'd want.

That'd be my preferred scenario, too, although it's obviously impossible under the current format. The underlying problem is the current power imbalance among the divisions, but then that's subject to change.

-------------------------

Er, the Mariners had a season run differential of -51, and a 76-86 Pythagorean record, also going 5-9 against the Yankees and Red Sox.

Who was that poster here who used to rail against using pythagorean records?

Guilty as charged, but the Mariners didn't qualify for the postseason no matter which metric you use. OTOH I'm certainly not saying that if the Mariners had qualified for the WC by winning three more games, their sorry Pythagorean record should've disqualified them. I'm perfectly fine with the way it came out.

32. Mefisto Posted: October 04, 2021 at 06:27 PM (#6043588)

If recency is your sole criterion for relevancy, then sure.

If the criterion is "playing an exciting game", then yeah I think recency is much more relevant.

That said, if the Giants play the Dodgers in the postseason -- which God and cfb forbid -- then there will probably be drama. But that will be current rivalry rather than the historic background, even if that's meaningful to me and to others who were there.

33. Captain Joe Bivens, Elderly Northeastern Jew Posted: October 04, 2021 at 07:02 PM (#6043595)

No big deal, but they gave Judge a hot on his walkoff?

If there were less than 2 outs, I don't think the fielder had any other choice but to come home.

34. MY PAIN IS NOT A HOLIDAY (CoB). Posted: October 04, 2021 at 09:22 PM (#6043617)

This Yankee fan would rather have seen the Jays and Mariners go forward.

Wait ... you're a Yankees fan?
Sheeeeit ... you, me and BDC have *got* to catch a game in his VIP seats in the air-conditioned BDCDome next year!

35. nick swisher hygiene Posted: October 04, 2021 at 09:23 PM (#6043618)

FWIW, I think their pythag significantly overstates the Jays’ quality.

Their batting leverage splits are instructive: they were monsters with 4+ leads, and well below league average late & close. Of course if you think that’s random, then they deserve more wins than they got—but if you think it’s meaningful, then their pythag W/L has a lot of air in it…

36. ERROR---Jolly Old St. Nick

Posted: October 04, 2021 at 10:18 PM (#6043628)

If recency is your sole criterion for relevancy, then sure.

If the criterion is "playing an exciting game", then yeah I think recency is much more relevant.

I guess if a requirement for an exciting game is that you had to be there to see it in real time, then sure, that eliminates pretty much every historic game from before you started watching baseball.

The Thomson game? Ancient history. The Merkle game? If there isn't a video, it didn't happen.

We can then apply this standard to ranking presidents and eliminate everyone from George Washington up through Ronald Reagan for most people here, and maybe even up through Clinton.

That said, if the Giants play the Dodgers in the postseason -- which God and cfb forbid -- then there will probably be drama. But that will be current rivalry rather than the historic background, even if that's meaningful to me and to others who were there.

Or maybe it's both, not either / or. Maybe it'd just be the latest chapter in a book that's a lot longer than the book of memorable games between the Giants and the Brewers. Do you really think that the history of the Giants / Dodgers or Yankees / Red Sox doesn't add anything to the drama of those matchups? One of the great attractions of baseball is the way its past informs its present.

37. Rowland Office Supplies Posted: October 05, 2021 at 08:35 AM (#6043645)

I've got a birthday thing that should keep me out of the house until around 10:00-10:30-ish. So I'll probably only see the last seven innings.

38. Adam Starblind Posted: October 05, 2021 at 08:42 AM (#6043648)

I guess if a requirement for an exciting game is that you had to be there to see it in real time, then sure, that eliminates pretty much every historic game from before you started watching baseball.

Obviously the Thomson game was exciting. Just watching the video of the HR is still exciting. But it has nothing to do with the teams' current rivalry, and that is owing to it being so long ago. They are rivals though--because they are to different degrees excellent franchises in California.

39. Mefisto Posted: October 05, 2021 at 08:49 AM (#6043651)

One of the great attractions of baseball is the way its past informs its present.

I agree with this, but what Adam said is right. There are lots of fans for whom the rivalry is important, but they don't know the history.

In any case, I was talking about the competitiveness of the teams on the field. That's likely to make an exciting game and is therefore more important. The history can add to that, but that's secondary.

40. SoSH U at work Posted: October 05, 2021 at 09:47 AM (#6043659)

They obviously have one of the three best rivalries in all of baseball. But like the other two, it's due to location and a history of success, not because of the postseason. This is the first time they'll meet in the postseason (though obviously the one-game and three-game playoffs are de facto postseason games), just as the Cubs-Cards have only met once. The Yankees-Red Sox is the only one of three rivalries with any kind of beyond the regular season history.

The Giants have a much longer postseason rivalry with the Cards (seriously, how can y'all forget Hunter Pence hitting the ball three times on the same swing, the most Hunter Penceian of plays?)

41. ERROR---Jolly Old St. Nick

Posted: October 05, 2021 at 11:02 AM (#6043673)

I agree with this, but what Adam said is right. There are lots of fans for whom the rivalry is important, but they don't know the history.

If the Giants do wind up playing the Dodgers, I'll bet by the time the series starts a lot more fans will have been made aware of that history, at least the fans who don't just tune in for the first pitch.

In any case, I was talking about the competitiveness of the teams on the field. That's likely to make an exciting game and is therefore more important. The history can add to that, but that's secondary.

I agree that even if MLB hadn't begun until 1963, this year's Dodgers-Giants matchup would make for the best possible series.

I got a taste of that rivalry in 1971, when those two teams met in Candlestick in September during a fluke temperature inversion that sent the thermometer up to 104. The Dodgers rallied in the 9th to take an exciting game, but what was really memorable was the way groups of rival fans would parade past fans of the other team, waving the other team's pennant, eliciting great cheers. But then when that first group of fans set fire to the pennant, all hell would break loose. There were fights breaking out in the stands on an almost constant basis, total anarchy that seemed fitting for the intensity of the rivalry.

I only lived in the Bay Area for a few months, so that was the only Giants-Dodgers game I've ever been to, out of the hundreds of games I've seen in person. But in terms of memories, that one is in my top 4 or 5.

42. Slivers of Maranville descends into chaos (SdeB) Posted: October 05, 2021 at 11:44 AM (#6043685)

It's not a wildcard game, it's a play-in game.

43. SoSH U at work Posted: October 05, 2021 at 11:50 AM (#6043688)

It's not a wildcard game, it's a play-in game.

Why is it not a wildcard game?

44. Nasty Nate Posted: October 05, 2021 at 11:53 AM (#6043691)

It's not a wildcard game, it's a play-in game.

It's not a play-in game, it's a purple monkey dishwasher game.

45. pikepredator Posted: October 05, 2021 at 01:22 PM (#6043716)

It's Yanks-Sox with the season on the line. Call it the Poopy-Pants McTaggart game for all I care.

46. My name is Votto, and I love to get Moppo Posted: October 05, 2021 at 01:42 PM (#6043722)

That factoid is wrong, though. ;-)

Todd Helton (2000, 2001) also had multiple 400 TB seasons. And your list in parentheses (Gehrig, Ruth, Foxx, Hornsby) needs to add Chuck Klein.

Whoops! I'd looked it up the day before, and was going from (obviously faulty) memory.

47. The Gary DiSarcina Fan Club (JAHV) Posted: October 05, 2021 at 01:58 PM (#6043725)

It's the Rooting for the Meteor Game.

48. Jose Has Absurd Goosebump Arms Posted: October 05, 2021 at 02:00 PM (#6043726)

It's the Rooting for the Meteor Game.

Yes I'm with you. I really hope Rafael Devers' 3rd homer tonight doesn't slam into a meteor.

49. RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: October 05, 2021 at 04:31 PM (#6043762)

The leadoff hitters tonight are Kyle Schwarber and Anthony Rizzo.

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Boston Red Sox to host New York Yankees in AL wild-card game

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