The latest chapter in the storied history between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees began on Tuesday night, when the Bronx Bombers hosted the Red Sox to kick off a three-game Wild Card series.
And this chapter saw the Yankees make some baseball history, but not the kind you want to make in the postseason.
Both teams sent aces to the bump on Tuesday night, with the Red Sox starting Garrett Crochet and New York turning to Max Fried. Both starters delivered, with Fried going 6.2 scoreless innings while Crochet pitched into the eighth, lasting 7.2 innings and at one point retiring 17 consecutive batters, while allowing just 1 run.
His final pitch of the night was also his fastest, as he topped 100 mph on the radar gun:
The Red Sox took a 2-1 lead in the top of the seventh when pinch-hitter Masataka Yoshida laced a line drive into right-center off relief pitcher Luke Weaver, bringing both Ceddanne Rafaela and Nick Sogard to the plate:
The Red Sox added an insurance run in the top of the ninth when, after New York retired the first two hitters, shortstop Trevor Story singled to left. He then stole second — the safe call confirmed after an extended video review — and was in scoring position for Alex Bregman:
That insurance run loomed large for Boston, with Aaron Judge due up second in the bottom of the ninth against Aroldis Chapman, who came on in relief of Crochet in the eighth.
But nobody, and certainly not the more than 47,000 in attendance at Yankee Stadium, expected to see what happened next.
Paul Goldschmidt led off the bottom of the ninth with a single to right, bringing the MVP candidate to the plate as the potential tying run. Chapman kept Judge in the yard, but his single to center moved Goldschmidt up 90 feet, and brought Cody Bellinger to the plate as the potential winning run.
Bellinger then singled to center, but third-base coach Luis Rojas, not wanting to make the first out of the inning at home plate in a 3-1 game, held Goldschmidt up at third. That loaded the bases with nobody out, and Judge as the potential tying run at second.
And it brought the dangerous Giancarlo Stanton to the plate. At this point, according to ESPN, New York’s odds of winning the game despite trailing by two were 51.3%.
It’s what happened next that made baseball history.
Chapman struck Stanton out on four pitches, the first three all hitting 100 on the radar gun before he got the Yankees DH swinging on a 92-mph splitter. Jazz Chisholm Jr. then came to the plate as a pinch-hitter and lofted a fly ball to right field off the end of the bat that was not quite deep enough for Goldschmidt to tag up.
Trent Grisham came to the plate as New York’s last chance, and Chapman got him swinging on a 101-mph fastball to end the threat.
Here are the final three outs of the game:
Now, here is how the Yankees made history.
According to OptaSTATS, the Yankees are the first team in MLB playoff history to load the bases with no outs in the bottom of the ninth, but fail to score a run and end up losing the game:
That is not the kind of history you expect to see at Yankee Stadium.
New York hopes to keep their season alive today in Game 2 of the Wild Card series with Boston.
