Red Sox One Win From Eliminating Yankees

The Boston Red Sox took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three AL Wild Card series after a 3-1 Game 1 win in New York and can eliminate the defending AL champion Yankees with a victory in Game 2 on Wednesday. Garrett Crochet dominated in his postseason start, throwing 7.1 innings, allowing one run and striking out 11, while Masataka Yoshida delivered a seventh-inning two-run single that proved decisive. The Yankees, despite a potent regular-season offense, again failed in a clutch moment when they loaded the bases with no outs in the ninth and did not score — an event characterized by Stats Perform and OptaSTATS/Marca as extraordinarily rare. Historical trends favor winners of Game 1 in this Wild Card format, and Boston’s recent history of closing series tilts momentum toward the Red Sox, leaving New York needing a win in Game 2 to stay alive.