Yankees force a Game 3 against Red Sox as Wells delivers key hit in 8th to score Chisholm with go-ahead run
Austin Wells didn’t win the series for the Yankees.
But the catcher may well have saved their season.
Wells, a disappointment at the plate for much of the season, delivered a two-out, RBI single in the eighth inning Wednesday night to give the Yankees a 4-3 victory over the Red Sox in front of a thunderous sellout crowd at the Stadium and send their AL Wild Card series to a third and deciding game.
“What a game,” a drained Aaron Boone said. “It’s been two great games.”
Jazz Chisholm Jr., who created headlines with his displeasure after he wasn’t in the Game 1 starting lineup, worked a two-out walk in the eighth against tiring righthander Garrett Whitlock, who has mostly dominated the Yankees since they lost him to Boston in the Rule V draft in 2020.
Wells then roped a full-count changeup down the rightfield line on the seventh pitch of the at-bat. It scored Chisholm, whose headfirst slide into home plate beat the tag by a whisker. Chisholm was running with the pitch.
“He was making some tough pitches there throughout but I felt like I put a decent swing on one of his best pitches,” Wells said.
Aaron Judge, who is 4-for-8 in the series after going 2-for-4 Wednesday, said it was one of the most impressive at-bats in a night with plenty of them.
“He’s a guy that can run it up to 100 mph with his sinker, has a good feel for his off-speed pitches. The biggest thing is he locates all his pitches so it’s a tough at-bat,” Judge said of Whitlock, who threw a season-high 47 pitches. “For him to go up there and have that at-bat in the biggest spot of the game and come through like that, it speaks volumes.”
David Bednar, who allowed a key run in the ninth inning of Tuesday night’s 3-1 loss in Game 1, struck out the first two batters of the ninth before Ceddanne Rafaela flied to Judge on the track in right to end it, shaking the Stadium one final time.
The Yankees will turn to rookie seed-thrower Cam Schlittler, who grew up a Red Sox fan in Walpole, Mass. and who started the season with Double-A Somerset, in Thursday night’s Game 3. The winner plays the Blue Jays.
The Red Sox, their third starter Lucas Giolito injured on the eve of this series, will start rookie lefthander Connelly Early, who has made four career starts.
Boone said after the game that Chisholm will be in the lineup for Game 3 but did not guarantee Ben Rice, who has blistered baseballs pretty much all season and who hit a two-run homer in the first inning Wednesday, would be in the lineup. It’s difficult to imagine he won’t be.
“Benny’s been swinging the bat so well,” Boone said.
It was a wild and noisy night overall at the Stadium as the longtime foes added another white-knuckling chapter to their storied rivalry, these first two games bringing to mind some of the battles that occurred in back-to-back seven-game series in the ALCS in 2003 and 2004.
“It’s Yankees-Red Sox [in the] postseason,” Judge said. “It’s a lot of emotions as a kid we dream about.”
The Yankees led 2-0 lead on the Rice homer. After the Red Sox tied it at 2 in the top of the third, manager Alex Cora removed starter Brayan Bello with one out in the bottom half of the inning when the righthander allowed a pair of singles. The Yankees didn’t score but they took a 3-2 lead in the fifth and the Red Sox tied it 3-3 in the sixth.
Yankees lefthander Carlos Rodon, who had a stellar season (18-9, 3.09), allowed three runs, four hits and three walks over six innings in which he struck out six. He took a 3-2 lead into the sixth before Trevor Story tied it with a home run.
Bello, 11-9 with a 3.35 ERA and a pest against the Yankees in his young career, allowed two runs, four hits and a walk over 2 1⁄3 innings with no strikeouts.
There was no shortage of game MVP candidates for the Yankees — from Wells to Rice to righthander Fernando Cruz, whose emotional outburst in celebration after getting out of a two-on, none-out jam in relief of Rodon in the seventh pumped up the crowd and his dugout. And there was Chisholm, who contributed on one of the three double plays his team turned and was the primary reason Cruz was able to celebrate.
With two outs and runners at first and second, pinch hitter Masataka Yoshida hit a ground smash that seemed destined for right-center. Chisholm, ranging to his right, made a diving stop but his throw to first trickled away from Rice. Lead runner Nate Eaton didn’t take off for home (Red Sox third base coach Kyle Hudson will be up for anti-MVP honors from the Boston standpoint for not sending Eaton, who all but certainly would have scored).
“It took everybody,” Wells said. “The defense was unbelievable tonight. Great at-bats. Great pitching on the mound. It was a really scrappy win. I think it literally took everything.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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