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In the next edition of my player grading series, I wanted to talk about a player I have been thinking about quite a bit these past couple of days. Brady House did not have a full scale breakout in 2026, but he took a substantial leap forward. He made serious improvements and has put himself in position to fully break out in 2027.

Heading into the season, there was cautious optimism around House, especially after a monster Spring Training. However, he did really struggle in his first taste of big league action. In 2025, House hit just .234 with a .574 OPS in 73 games. He showed his whiff and chase issues, while also not displaying the power that made him a top prospect.

That put a lot of pressure on House entering 2026. He needed to take a step forward in order to maintain a spot in the Nats future. The best way to describe House’s season is that he held serve. He did not become a star, but he did enough to keep his spot as the third baseman entering next season.

A theme of House’s career is that he gets a little bit better every year without taking a massive jump. That happened again this year. Rather than getting overwhelmed in the big leagues, House held his own. On the season, House hit .247 with a .710 OPS, which is solid but not mindblowing by any means.

There was one area where House was elite though, and that was hitting left handed pitching. On the year, House hit .350 with a .975 OPS against southpaws. He has established a floor as a platoon masher with great tools. Moving forward, he will have to show more against right handed pitching though.

House got protected against righties, but he still got ample opportunities. In 220 AB’s against righties, House hit just .200 with a .586 OPS. Whenever Blake Butera talks about House, he emphasizes that the approach against righties is something that needs to improve.

However, Butera has also said that the 23 year old is just scratching the surface of his potential. This is an idea that I buy into as well. You can see the talent with House, he just needs more consistency.

One thing that stands out to me is House’s batted ball data. His xwOBA, xBA, xSLG, average exit velocity, barrel rate and hard hit rate all rank at least in the 63rd percentile. House actually underperformed his xwOBA by 20 points this season, showing there is more in the tank.

Despite not having great chase or whiff numbers, House makes enough hard contact to make up for that. He also found a way to cut that chase rate by over 2% compared to 2025. This new found discipline helped House’s walk rate go from 2.9% to 8.2%. 

Honestly, you can divide House’s season into two parts. After making the team and starting the first six weeks, House was sent down to AAA, where he played 50 games. Before he got sent down, House was hitting .227 with a .681 OPS. That was an improvement on 2025, but still left plenty to be desired. He hit for more power, but still struck out a lot.

In the minors, House was able to work on some things. He hit over .300 in Rochester and was able to develop. House actually hit for the cycle in one game down on the farm. He did his thing and waited for his next shot.

After Curtis Mead got traded, House got that opportunity and was rock solid. He hit .268 with a .738 OPS in the second half. House only hit three home runs, but he was driving the ball from gap to gap. He posted a 104 wRC+ and only struck out 23% of the time. 

With 10 home runs on the year, House made strides towards tapping into his impressive raw power. However, I still think there is a lot more to come. While a lot of Nats were pulling and elevating the ball more, House’s GB rate and air pull percentage stayed stable. Hopefully that is an element of his game that will improve in 2027.

If House can elevate more consistently, there is every reason to believe he can be a 25 home run bat. As we saw with that moonshot against Eury Perez, when House gets a hold of a baseball, it flies out of the stadium. The key will be getting to that A swing on a more consistent basis.

Like a lot of his offensive game, House got better against fastballs in 2026, but still could use further improvement. We saw with that swing against Perez, he can time up the heater. House just cannot do it every time right now.

Honestly, the most disappointing part of House’s game in 2026 was his defense. After grading out as a positive defender in 2025, House posted -4 outs above average this year. It was particularly ugly at the beginning of the season. In fact, his defensive struggles were a big reason he got sent down.

To his credit, I thought House’s defense looked a lot better once he came back. There were not as many errors and the routine plays became routine. House has all the tools to be an above average defender, and I think that will happen in time.

Overall, this was a solid but not spectacular season for House. He posted 0.6 fWAR and 0.7 bWAR. That is a step in the right direction, but he has not made it quite yet. With how he finished the season, I have faith in House to make further improvements.

Given his slow but steady progression as a pro, I think House will establish himself as a solid but not spectacular starter in 2027. My expectation is a .740 to .750 OPS with 20-22 homers and around 2-2.5 WAR. House will not get a super high grade, but he had a solid season. As the saying goes, C’s get degrees and I think Brady House had a C+ season.

Season Grade: C+

The Atlanta Braves offense has been hot and cold all season long. This has led to multiple shifts in not only which players are in the lineup, but also where they hit in the lineup. This makes sense because if it is not working, there is not reason to keep it the same.

In the game yesterday the Braves were able to score five runs and had opportunity to score even more based on the fact that they were able to produce more base runners than some may have assumed they would based on the pitching matchup.

Today the Braves are taking a similar approach that was sometimes deployed in the regular season of constructing a lineup based on the starting pitcher.

In today’s lineup the only player difference is that Sean Murphy will be in and Mike Yastrzemski is out, but there has been a massive shift where the players are hitting in the lineup. We see Ronald Acuña move up to leadoff, Ozzie Albies shift from sixth to third, Matt Olson shifts down to fourth, Austin Riley shifts from seventh to sixth, and the biggest one is Michael Harris shifting from fifth to seventh.

This shifts may seem odd at first, but the Braves have a decent sample size against Cristopher Sánchez and the lineup seems to be constructed based on that. Ronald Acuña has a 1.000 OPS against him in sixteen ABs, Ozzie Albies has a .500 average and 1.193 OPS in eighteen ABs, and Austin Riley has a 1.104 OPS in fifteen ABs. This would explain some of the shifting. On the flip side of the coin, Michael Harris has a .321 OPS against Sánchez in fifteen ABs.

This is the point where analytical teams are likely in the ear of the manager, and this lineup is set to get to Sánchez the best way they can.

The Phillies were bound to have a different lineup since Sale is a LHP and Mahle is a RHP.

This is indeed the case as Brandon Marsh and Justin Crawford will both be getting the start today. Tyler Mahle faced the Phillies twice already this month and held them to only one run over thirteen innings while only walking one and inducing twenty-three ground balls.

On paper the Braves have the edge, but this is playoff baseball where anything can happen. The Braves lead MLB in wRC+ in the ninth inning and are in the top eight in the eighth inning. If they can get to the bullpen early, it could be the X factor.

First pitch is at 2:00 EDT.

The Philadelphia Phillies have their backs to the wall as they take on the Atlanta Braves in Game 2 of their National League wild card playoff series this afternoon.

The Phils saw a 3-2 lead disappear in one swing of Austin Riley's bat in the series opener yesterday, as the Braves rallied for a 5-3 victory that put them on the verge of advancing to the NL division series.

Needing a win to stay alive, the Phillies' season now hinges on the left arm of Cristopher Sanchez (18-7, 2.91 ERA), who led the National League in wins and was the NL's starting pitcher in the All-Star Game.

He'll be opposed by right-hander Tyler Mahle (7-10, 3.99 ERA), who went 4-1 with a 1.99 ERA in nine starts for the Braves after they acquired him from the San Francisco Giants at the trade deadline.

USA TODAY Sports will follow all the action with updates and analysis.

This is the kind of thing I was talking about down the stretch. I felt the Cubs wouldn’t be backed down or awed by the situation. This is an experienced club. At the end of the day, this didn’t come down to injured pitchers or one eyed third basemen. It didn’t come down to one team scuffling a bit or another one that is on a major role. It came down to exactly one scenario. The Cubs needed to have a pitcher good enough to shove for seven innings against a good offensive team. They needed one because the Padres had one.

With the stuff that modern pitchers have, when they are clicking on all cylinders and not making any mistakes, it is very difficult to get anything going. For what it was worth, their hitters did have patience. They drew three walks from Michael King, who was pumping the strike zone with frisbees. When you see a hitter who is among the best in the game and in a good groove himself like Alex Bregman flailing with half swings at where the ball maybe used to be, it’s not hard to understand how mystifying King was. You definitely hat tip to him.

Is there some chance that maybe if Cub pitching were matching zeroes that he’d have at least broken a sweat? Sure. It was unfortunate that the Padres ambushed Cub starter Matthew Boyd and jumped on him instantly. A hat tip to the Padre scouting department. They had a plan as a team and they executed it. They’d clearly prepared for Boyd. They swung early and often and as was noted on the broadcast, they were able to recognize balls and strikes and only swing at the strikes. They were amazingly prepared.

That was about as unfortunate a game as you could possibly get in a short series. Not only did you lose and make the Padres feel even more confident about their game planning, you didn’t force them to use any significant reliever. They have a fully stocked bullpen that was already known to be lethal. In the short history of these three game Wild Card series, the team that has won the first game has won almost every series. I have no doubt that will level off at a lower level than it’s at so far, but it is the simple math of the format. One win gives you so many advantages in the series. Given that you had to give the Padres the edge in the first place (home field, better record, better pitching), you’d have to make them overwhelming favorites to advance at this point.

Again, the Cubs won’t back down. If Game 2 unfolds more like an ordinary game, the Cubs will be in the fight. But the Cubs were always a good, not great team. This is a tough assignment if this team is going to hold off the offseason.

Turn the page. Slow the game down. Do what you do. Hope it is enough.

Three Positives:

• Nico Hoerner had two of the three Cub hits.
• Seiya Suzuki had the other hit and drew a walk.
• Pete Crow-Armstrong had a walk and stole a base. What almost was, he came very close to robbing that first homer. One wonders if it would have shifted the energy at all.

Wild Card Game 1, September 29: Padres 8, Cubs 0

Reminder: Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA scores and are in no way subjective.

THREE HEROES:

• Superhero: Seiya Suzuki (.083). 1-3, BB
• Hero/Sidekick: Michael Conforto/Jacob Webb (.000). Conforto: 0-1; Webb: 1.1 IP, 5 BF, 2 H

THREE GOATS:

• Billy Goat: Matthew Boyd (-.203). 4 IP, 17 BF, 5 H, BB, 4 R, 4 K (L 0-1)
• Goat: Ian Happ (-.074). 0-3, BB
• Kid: Pedro Ramirez (-.057). 0-4

WPA Play of the Game: Fernando Tatis Jr. homered on the first pitch in the bottom of the first. (.105)

Cubs Play of the Game: Seiya Suzuki reached on a throwing error by Xander Bogaerts and was awarded second leading off the second inning. (.062)

Note: 18 of the 75 WPA events recorded for this game were recorded at .000.

Cubs Player of the Game:

Up Next: Game 2 in San Diego will see Kevin Gausman for the Cubs. Kevin was 9-12 with a 4.51 in the regular season. He did have a 4-2 record as a Cub, but also posted a 4.83 ERA and had the Cub longball problem, allowing 11 homers in only 50.1 innings. It’s obvious the Cubs need to add more talent to their pitching staff in 2027. It’s even more obvious that they need to examine everything in their training and medical department to determine if any amount of their injury woes could have been prevented or lessened. But also, the Cubs need to look at if there is a further issue with some of their approach. Gausman is an exhibit of a pitcher with a long track record who allowed almost as many homers with the Cubs (11) as with the Blue Jays (15), despite throwing more than 70 percent of his innings with the Jays.

Nick Pivetta (3-2, 2.86) starts for the Padres. Pivetta missed most of this year with a right elbow injury. The 33-year-old righty was excellent when healthy. He made four starts in September, throwing a total of 18.2 innings and allowing three runs on 15 hits. He struck out 18 and walked two. He got up to 87 pitches in his last start and that’s usually the threshold where a pitcher is pretty much good to go. I imagine if he is in a groove, they’d let him approach 100 pitches. And with a fully loaded bullpen and blood in the water, if he struggles at all, I imagine they’ll happily try to steal a game with their bullpen. I have no doubt the Padres could run this game as a bullpen game and still be able to bring their key guys back again for game three.

I thought Gausman should have started that first game. I have to wonder about his health after that diving play he made in his last game. Hopefully the Cub bats can get in the fight. It’s still since July 30 that the Cubs won a game without hitting a homer. Teams that hit more homers tend to win games. Teams that don’t score any runs continue to lose every time. So it’s now or never.

In case you didn’t know, there were three other games played yesterday besides the one in which the Red Sox offense laid an egg against Cam Schlittler while the team wasted its most electric pitcher. I’m of course talking about the start of the NHL season!

I kid, I kid, but in all seriousness, there were plenty of big moments to choose from in Tuesday’s action around the league. Let’s take a look.

Braves 5, Phillies 3 (BOX SCORE)

Even with the results of Tuesday’s game, I am very glad the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry has the prestige to garner an 8:00 first pitch so I can be safely out of work when the game’s on. I definitely did not have the radio on listening to Phillies-Braves at 2:00 on a Tuesday afternoon. Anyone else who definitely didn’t may have missed Austin Riley’s three-run home run turn a 3-2 game on its absolute head. The Phillies pitching staff, led by starter Jesus Luzardo, cruised through seven innings and Jhoan Duran was easily navigating through the Braves lineup – until he wasn’t and ran into Michael Harris II who started the rally. Chris Sale had the no decision in this one but he looked great in 6 1/3 innings, striking out nine even with the three runs allowed.

White Sox 6, Astros 3 (BOX SCORE)

Jordan Hicks and David Sandlin, partners in the “get Jordan Hicks off my baseball team” trade, both provided valuable outings in relief as the White Sox pulled ahead against the Astros. Hicks got the decision win! Even another ex-Red Sox, Sean Newcomb, got in on the action (though he allowed two runs.) The two-run home run Newcomb allowed, though, was the only extra-base hit the White Sox would allow on the night. It’s so funny looking at the White Sox lineup and recognizing so many former Red Sox, but it’s good to see some experiencing playoff action, as well.

Padres 8, Cubs 0 (BOX SCORE)

Pete Crow-Armstrong is the surefire NL MVP. The Cubs lineup on Tuesday, though, was punchless, and the wind was taken from them very early this game. How early? How about the first two batters both taking Matthew Boyd deep? After Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado each put a ball in the seats, Michael King, working with a lead, was electric. He took a no-hitter into the seventh. He benefitted from another former Red Sox player in Xander Boegarts hitting a home run. The Padres’ bullpen would complete the shutout with Joe Musgrove, once one of the best emerging pitchers in the game, returning from a lengthy Tommy John recovery, which was a super cool moment for anyone still awake at 1 in the morning. This was a shellacking, but unlike the game at Yankee Stadium, it was never remotely close, not even for a minute.

LOS ANGELES — Every game of the Dodgers postseason, from the National League Division series to — should they advance — the National League Championship Series and World Series, will be televised by Fox Sports. But on radio, Charley Steiner will call Dodgers home playoff games at Dodger Stadium for AM 570 and the team’s radio network, with Stephen Nelson on radio play-by-play when the Dodgers are on the road.

For Steiner, Saturday will be first playoff action in three years, with a long journey in between that included a debilitating back injury and battling cancer. Now, he’s feeling well, and ready to call his first postseason game since the 2023 NLDS.

Steiner called 35 Dodgers games on radio this season, and he gradually increased his workload as the season progressed. He called the first three innings of two games on the very first homestand, then gradually added innings over the next few months, before handing off the play-by-play reins to Nelson or Tim Neverett in each game.

“The whole issue was a question of physical strength,” Steiner said via phone. “When I first started way back at the beginning of the season, three innings was a lot.”

Steiner called the first game of nine of the Dodgers’ first 10 home series this season, before calling the first five innings of the last two games of the Dodgers’ series against the Tampa Bay Rays (June 15-16) and Baltimore Orioles (June 19-20).

On the Dodgers’ 10-game homestand heading into the All-Star break, Steiner called every other game, going five innings for three games, then six innings for two games.

On August 13, Steiner called the first six innings of the Dodgers’ series opener against the Milwaukee Brewers before handing off to Nelson for the rest of the game.

“I was leaving and I said to Duane [McDonald, radio producer and engineer for the last decade], ‘I’ll see you Saturday, we’ll go for seven,’” Steiner recalled. “And Duane said, ‘Fuck it, let’s just do nine,‘ and you know that was the kick in the ass that I needed.”

Two days later Steiner called all nine innings of the Dodgers loss to Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski, completing Steiner’s first time calling a full game since Game 3 of the 2023 NLDS.

“That was such a big deal to me, because it’d been such a long time. I didn’t know if I’d be physically able to do it, and then I did,” Steiner said. “It was for me the most significant broadcast that I had done, because I had to do so much to get to that point.”

Steiner has seen it all during his career, including 14 years at ESPN before broadcasting baseball games for the last quarter-century, three years for the Yankees before the last 22 years with the Dodgers, his favorite team growing up in New York. He’s called three different World Baseball Classics and called baseball games in seven different countries. But that August 15 game against the Brewers stood out to Steiner given all he endured physically over the previous two years.

“To me it was getting back in the saddle, I knew I could ride the horse to the finish line. And when the game ended, I did,” Steiner added. “I don’t know how many thousands of games I’ve done and how many years I’ve been doing it, but all of that was encapsulated into the first pitch of that game. The long journey took another step forward.”

September saw Steiner increase his workload even more. He called all nine innings of September 1 against the St. Louis Cardinals, then called the first six innings the next day, and all nine innings on September 4 against the Washington Nationals. Steiner called back-to-back full games on September 8-9 against the Cincinnati Reds, September 18-19 against the San Francisco Giants, and September 22-23 against the San Diego Padres. In all, Steiner called 10 full games, all over the final six weeks of the regular season.

He’ll call Games 1-2 of the NLDS on Saturday and Sunday.

“I can’t thank so many folks enough who’ve been so kind and supportive during this journey, especially within the booth. And then the reaction I’ve gotten from listeners and fans, it’s been overwhelming,” Steiner said. “So now, yeah, to the postseason, and I sure would like to call the third World Series championship in a row.”

No one should have been surprised when Austin Riley connected on a nearly 100 mph fastball right down the heart of the plate from Phillies closer Jhoan Duran in the 8th inning of the Phillies’ 5-3, Game 1 loss to the Braves yesterday in Atlanta.

Sure, Duran is the Phils’ lone reliable relief pitcher, a closer with truly unhittable stuff most of the time. And Austin Riley, who hit .219 with a .654 OPS this season, didn’t seem the likeliest of guys to play home run hero, but there were mitigating circumstances.

Duran was being asked to somehow get the Phillies across the finish line following five gutsy innings from Jesus Luzardo and one inning from rookie reliever Alex McFarlane. After breezing through the first five outs, Duran’s command wavered and the Braves made him pay.

It’s a fundamentally terrible idea to ask someone to do something difficult they’ve rarely ever been asked to do before in the most high pressure situation imaginable. One should not reasonably expect that to work very well. While Duran had pitched multiple innings in the past, those instances were rare and, not recent. He had only worked more than one inning in one instance this season, and twice last year, both with Minnesota.

Should Duran have been able to escape the 8th inning without allowing a crushing homer? Sure, but it shouldn’t have surprised anyone that he didn’t.

But Don Mattingly had little choice. There was no one else he trusted to protect a 3-2 lead to secure any of the remaining nine outs needed once J.T. Realmuto put the Phils ahead with his clutch two-run triple a half-inning before. Injuries and poor performance robbed him of any wiggle room, which is why Riley’s three-run blast in the 8th inning was shocking, but not surprising.

You could argue Mattingly should have used Duran for more multi-inning save attempts in September, but the Phillies’ final month struggles likely rendered those plans moot.

Let’s also not gloss over the fact that, had the Phillies not dithered around in the final two weeks of the season, Zack Wheeler would have started this game and, potentially, pitched a bit deeper than Luzardo was able to. Or that, if the bats had shown more of a pulse against Chris Sale in Game 1, they could have provided some cover to a substandard relief corps.

Actions have consequences, as we all saw in Game 1’s final three innings.

It’s easy to point the finger at Dave Dombrowski and his bullpen construction. Clearly, the team didn’t have the arms they needed. In hindsight, believing in Orion Kerkering, who was optioned to AAA two weeks before the end of the season following last year’s meltdown in Los Angeles, was a mistake, as was hitching their wagons to Jose Alvarado, whose struggles in 2026 mirrored those of ‘25 and were indicative of a reduction in his stuff during the course of the year.

But there is also a slew of bad luck thrown into the mix here.

Brad Keller looked to be a tremendous off-season free agent signing. Signed to a two-year, $22 million contract, Keller had a 4.02 ERA in 31.1 innings until he was shut down for the season with an ailing elbow. Tanner Banks, who had become one of the team’s most trusted left-handed relievers after a stellar 2025 season, missed much of the second half after posting a 6.19 ERA in 36.1 innings. Kyle Backhus was never supposed to be a major contributor, but his 4.95 ERA in 20 innings was a disaster.

The only pleasant surprise in the relief corps this year was the emergence of rookie right hander Alex McFarlane, who is the only other arm in the ‘pen that Mattingly trusts right now. And he also gave up a key run on Tuesday, an RBI triple to Ozzie Albies that briefly gave Atlanta a 2-1 lead.

That the Phillies were not able to reach down into the minors for additional help is certainly an indictment of Dombrowski and the farm system, but the general manager did attempt to mitigate that with a couple more arms at the trade deadline.

Brooks Raley was supposed to become an important left-handed, late inning option after his acquisition from the Mets. Over the last four seasons, Raley had ERAs of 2.68, 2.80, 2.45 and 1.96 in 52.2 innings with the Mets this year. No, he never had great stuff, but he was consistently excellent for New York since 2022. After the trade, Raley’s 7.94 ERA in 16 appearances forced Dombrowski to leave him off the wild card roster.

Caleb Kilian, acquired in the Luis Arraez trade, got hurt almost as soon as he arrived. So, Dombo’s two trade deadline acquisitions to improve the struggling bullpen both turned out to be useless. Were other top-tier closer-type relievers traded? No, but that doesn’t mean had Dobrowski been better at developing prospects that they couldn’t have overpaid for something better than Kilian or Raley in August.

But even if a handful of these pitchers had turned out to be productive, it may not have mattered. That’s because once you put on a Phillies uniform, you are unable to secure late leads in the postseason.

Here are all the instances, dating back to Game 3 of the 2023 NLCS, in which the bullpen was unable to secure a save, eight blown saves in all.

• Game 3, 2023 NLCS: Orion Kerkering, holding a 1-0 lead in the 7th, allows a leadoff single and RBI double to blow the lead. Craig Kimbrel then gave up the walk-off single in the 9th for a 2-1 loss.
• Game 4, 2023 NLCS: In what was a full-on bullpen game, Kimbrel entered the 8th inning with a 5-3 lead, but surrendered a game-tying, two-run home run to Alek Thomas and then, a few batters later, an RBI single to Gabriel Moreno, handing the Phils a 6-5 defeat.
• Game 1, 2024 NLDS: Entering the 8th inning with a 1-0 lead, Jeff Hoffman blew the save but was ably aided by Matt Strahm and Kerkering in allowing five 8th inning runs in an eventual 5-2 defeat.
• Game 2, 2024 NLDS: This game the Phillies actually won! With a 6-4 lead in the 8th, Strahm gave up a game-tying two-run blast to Mark Vientos to tie the game 6-6. The Phils walked it off in the bottom of the 9th, of course.
• Game 4, 2024 NLDS: Entering the 6th inning with a 1-0 lead, Phillies closer Carlos Estevez served up a grand slam to Francisco Lindor that sealed the Phillies’ fate in a series-ending 4-1 loss to the Mets.
• Game 1, 2025 NLDS: Holding a 3-2 lead in the 7th, Matt Strahm allowed a two-out, three-run home run to Teoscar Hernandez in a crushing 5-3 defeat to the Dodgers.
• Game 4, 2025 NLDS: With a 1-0 lead entering the 7th, Jhoan Duran walked in a runner with the bases loaded and two outs to tie the game at 1-1. Kerkering would finish the choke job with his game-ending error in the bottom of the 11th.
• Game 1, 2026 Wild Card: Duran gives up the three-run homer to Austin Riley, with four outs left to get, in a 5-3 defeat.

Seven playoff defeats. Eight blown saves. The Phillies have not successfully executed a save situation since Game 1 of the ‘23 NLCS. And this list doesn’t even count Game 6 of the 2022 World Series in which Alvarado served up a go-ahead home run to Yordan Alvarez in the 6th inning of an eventual 4-1 loss.

At the end of the day, Tuesday’s blown save by Duran was the result of trusting the wrong players and a lot of bad luck. No one knows how Mattingly would have handled the 9th inning had Duran escaped the 8th, but the fact he was put in the position of having to manufacture an elaborate plan to secure the final nine outs of the game is an indictment on the relievers in his ‘pen and an offense that continues to provide the pitching staff with little room for error.

Even if the Phillies figure out a way to win Games 2 and 3 against Atlanta, how do they piece together an additional three series victories over the next three weeks and win a title? How can they do that with only two relief pitchers they trust?

Watching Riley’s home run sail over the right field wall was an incredible moment. How could it happen again? How could this team blow another Game 1 in a tight playoff series?

It’s just what they do.

The Yankees have a chance to complete a sweep of the Red Sox on Wednesday night when the teams clash in Game 2 of the American League Wild Card Series.

The opener gave us a 9-0 rout, another Cam Schlittler gem and 6 RBI by Ben Rice, who smashed two home runs. What’s Game 2 got in store? 

Here’s a look at three things to watch as Max Friedopposes former Yankee Sonny Gray at 8 p.m. at Yankee Stadium:

A Gray matter

Gray, a 36-year-old righty, has a complicated history with the Yankees. He’s had a very good career but did not pitch well in 2017-18 in the Bronx after a ballyhooed trade from Oakland. There’s still some leftover Gray-said, Yanks-said wreckage from when he pitched here, and he noted before this season that he was happy to be in Boston, a place where it’s “easy to hate the Yankees.” 

Think that’ll be a talking point in the stands in Game 2? How will Gray react to his reception, which probably will be, um, loud? Even if he had a 4.51 in 41 games (34 starts) as a Yankee, he’s still a dynamite pitcher, as evidenced by his 18 wins this season (tied for the most in MLB) and 2.72 ERA. He threw five sharp innings for the Yanks in a 2017 ALCS game against Houston and has a 3.26 ERA in six previous postseason starts. In 10 lifetime starts against the Yanks, he has a 3.67 ERA, including two good ones this past June.

Gray said on Tuesday that being a Yankee made him a “better pitcher, a better baseball player.” We’ll see how that looks in a huge rivalry moment in Game 2. Boston’s season might depend on how he pitches.

Lefty-laden lineup?

With Gray starting, Aaron Boone has a chance to deploy even more left-handed hitters in his Game 2 batting order. Luis García Jr. and Jazz Chisholm Jr. did not start in the opener and could be factors, though there likely will be late mixing-and-matching, too, since the Red Sox have some strong southpaw relievers. 

Here’s the thing – the Yankee lefties already dominated Game 1, which was started by a lefty. A lot of the damage was done by Rice, who was 4-for-5 and joined BobbyRichardson, Bernie Williams, Hideki Matsui and Robinson Cano as Yankees who have knocked in six runs in a postseason game. But overall in the opener, Yankee left-handed hitters were 8-for-18 (.444) with 8 RBI – Austin Wells, who hit just .122 against lefties during the season, knocked in the other two runs. 

Gray actually was better against lefties than righties during the season, holding them to a .654 OPS, 28 points lower than his mark against righties. Keep an eye on these matchups early: Rice is 3-for-7 with two homers against Gray and García is 4-for-10 with a home run. 

Load management

In terms of bullpen work, Game 1 was a Yankee dream. They did not use Brent Headrick, who made the second-most appearances (81) in baseball this year, though he warmed up. Closer David Bednar warmed up, but did not pitch either. The Yankee bullpen, which was second in relief ERA to Boston this year, is fresh going forward.

Some of the savings is due to Schlittler, of course, who delivered 6.1 shutout innings and helped blank Boston for the second straight postseason game, including his 2025 playoff masterpiece. The Red Sox had never been shut out in consecutive postseason games in their long history. 

Boone tried to squeeze an extra out from Schlittler, but he gave up a hit with one out in the seventh. Boone turned to Paul Blackburn, who has been excellent – he had a 1.69 ERA during the regular season and has a 0.83 ERA since June 21. Blackburn threw 1.2 shutout innings and stranded an inherited runner. John Schreiber threw a scoreless ninth after the game got out of hand.