The Yankees did not just beat the Red Sox. They removed them from the sport for a week.
New York finished a two-game sweep with a 9-2 win at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday night, after shutting Boston out in the opener. The Yankees outscored the Red Sox 18-2 and outhit them 26-7, the most lopsided Wild Card Series in five years.
Max Fried Set the Tone
Fried went six innings and allowed one run with six strikeouts. He was 5-5 with a 2.80 ERA in the regular season, a record that tells you more about New York’s run support in his starts than about how he pitched.
One run in six innings in an elimination game is a performance that ends a series before the bats show up. The bats showed up anyway.
The Sixth Inning Was the Whole Game
New York scored six runs in the sixth. Cody Bellinger hit a three-run homer and Luis Garcia Jr. added a solo shot.
Boston’s bullpen choice is the part that will get relitigated all winter. Garrett Crochet entered and recorded no outs while allowing four runs, in his first appearance since April 25. Asking a pitcher who has not thrown in five months to hold a playoff game is a hope dressed up as a plan.
Boston’s Offense Was Already Dead
Willson Contreras hit a solo homer that accounted for Boston’s only run of Game 2, and it was the Red Sox’s first postseason run in 27 innings.
Twenty-seven innings. That streak spans this series and the last one, and it explains why Boston lost a two-game set by 16 runs.
Sonny Gray Was Not Happy
Manager Chad Tracy pulled Gray after 4 2/3 innings with Boston trailing, and Gray did not pretend to be fine with it. “I would’ve liked to have been trusted in that moment,” he said.
That is a 37-year-old veteran telling his manager, through a microphone, that the decision was wrong. Boston’s clubhouse has a winter of those conversations ahead.
The Red Sox Context Is Grim
Boston finished 87-75, down from 89-73 the year before, and has not played a postseason game at Fenway Park since 2021. The Red Sox also lost to the Yankees in the 2025 Wild Card Series, that time in three games.
Losing to New York in October once is baseball. Twice in a row, the second time by 16 runs, is a verdict on the roster.
New York Gets Tampa Bay Next
The Yankees reach the ALDS for a third straight season and face the top-seeded Rays, with Game 1 Saturday at 6:30 p.m. ET in Tampa Bay. Game 2 is Monday at 8 p.m. ET.
Tampa Bay beat New York in the 2020 ALDS in five games, which is the last time these two met with stakes this high. Fried’s full line and whether Bellinger’s homer came off Crochet have not been confirmed in the available reporting.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.