Category: MLB

The Dodgers’ back-to-back World Series championships each have been punctuated by the Freddie Freeman Signature Moment.

It is the flair for the dramatic. It is coming through in the clutch, at the clutchiest of times. When you tell your friends about the game the next day, it is the first thing you mention.

Did you see that?

Did you see Freeman hit the walkoff grand slam in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series, the one that sucked the hype out of the New York Yankees? Gibby, meet Freddie!

Did you see Freeman hit the walkoff home run in the 18th inning of Game 3 of the 2025 World Series, the one in which the Toronto Blue Jays intentionally walked Shohei Ohtani four times and dared someone else to beat them? Freeman did.

The Dodgers don’t really know what you might see out of Freeman when they open this postseason Saturday. For Ohtani and Freeman, two of the top four batters in their lineup, the second half has been a struggle amid injuries.

Ohtani’s odyssey is headline news, and a matter of international intrigue. But Freeman’s inability to hit with power over the final two months, hampered by tendinitis in his right knee, raises this concern: If postseason opponents pitch around Ohtani and dare Freeman to beat them, can he?

“I’m not going to make an excuse,” Freeman said. “I will never blame my knee. I didn’t play very well, and that’s just how it is.”

Freeman’s 16 home runs this season are a career low for a full season.

In the second half, Freeman hit one home run, with a .339 slugging percentage. Miguel Rojas, better known for his glove, also hit one home run in the second half, with a .345 slugging percentage.

Freeman’s career slugging percentage is .505. Since becoming an everyday major leaguer in 2011, Freeman has slugged below .400 in either half of a season just once: in the second half of 2015, when he hit six home runs and slugged .395, amid wrist and oblique injuries.

“I think that the mechanics have changed because they were compromised because of his right knee,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “and so now that his right knee is getting back to full health, I think he’s got to recalibrate the swing, and that’s where we’re at.”

It is one of baseball’s eternal challenges: Some part of your body hurts, you make an adjustment — consciously or subconsciously — so your body doesn’t hurt so much when you play, and all of a sudden your swing is out of whack. Not by much, maybe, but by just enough to miss that 100-mph fastball or that breaking ball you find yourself lunging to reach.

“My body feels good,” Freeman said. “I think that’s the main thing. I feel like it’s in a good spot to be able to do the work and hopefully fix my swing and everything that’s been going on the last couple months.”

In Sunday’s game, Freeman pulled a line drive, close to becoming a home run before it veered foul. Freeman said he mentioned to Roberts that was the kind of drive that had gone missing.

Read more:Who's hot and who's not as Dodgers prepare for the postseason

On Tuesday, Freeman talked about a plan for day-to-day work this week, to make the adjustments in his swing to restore the production. He thought back to the days before Game 1 of that 2024 World Series, when ankle and rib injuries affected his play so obviously that the Dodgers scratched him from the final game of the National League Championship Series.

Then, as now, the Dodgers enjoyed a long break before the next series. This bye might be nice in terms of arranging a pitching rotation, but it is critical for allowing Freeman — and Ohtani — time to make adjustments by day without rushing to try them in a game that night.

“A couple of Octobers ago was probably 100 times worse, ailment-wise,” Freeman said. “I truly feel good right now, physically. So it’s on me now to figure out the mechanics of the swing in the next five days, and I have all the confidence in myself that I will figure that out by Saturday.”

Freeman is 37, with one year left on his contract with the Dodgers. He said the ailing knee should not require offseason treatment.

Read more:Dodgers Dugout: It's official — Dodgers won't win the World Series this year

“I have no pain in my knee right now, so I’m not gonna have any doctor’s appointments or anything,” he said. “So hopefully I’ll be ready to go by spring training next year.”

Spring training is in jeopardy because of the looming lockout. So let’s focus on this postseason, and the opportunity for another Freddie Freeman Signature Moment.

The last team to three-peat: the 1998-2000 New York Yankees. You might have heard of the most valuable player of that 2000 series. If Freeman leads the Dodgers to a parade this October, we can already hear Joe Davis on the call: Freddie, meet Jeter!

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

For much of the week or so building up to the beginning of the MLB playoffs, there was a lot of chatter going on about the postseason format and how goofy it was (to use a kind word) for the second-best team in the American League to be shunted to a Wild Card Series while one with eight fewer wins got a first-round bye and another that was flat-out .500 was given equal treatment with home field in the Wild Card.

The Yankees can’t do anything about it. It is absolutely fair to say that they had chances to avoid this fate by simply the AL East over an upstart Rays team, and despite a more impressive club on paper than Tampa Bay—which finished under .500 in 2025—they fell short of that. If you don’t win your division, then you are subject to the vagaries of the Wild Card. That’s just how it goes, and if the Yankees are fortunate to advance, then they’ll have other repercussions down the road. But the Dodgers were the lower seed in every playoff round last year after the Wild Card Series. In 2023, the Rangers were never the high seed in any of their four series. They both managed; the Yankees must do the same.

Anyway, the Yankees did at least know that by outplaying the Red Sox in the regular season, they were assured of hosting all three potential games of their Wild Card Series showdown at Yankee Stadium. Sometimes, home-field advantage can be overstated, it’s true. In this particular head-to-head, however? Even beyond getting last at-bats, it feels like a world of difference between playing it at Fenway Park and the Bronx. Weird things tend to happen at Fenway with the Green Monster, very limited foul territory, the triangle in center, the sharp turn of the right-field wall up from Pesky Pole, and more. That “weird” axiom holds true in seasons when the Red Sox aren’t good; they can still win those games. So if nothing else, it was a comfort to know that aside from the occasional surprising Short Porch Special, the ballgames would be more straightforward.

Then, of course, there’s the crowd energy. Baseball players live off of it, and though the new Yankee Stadium has had its ups and downs in that department across its 17 years of existence (I was still in college when it opened, yikes), when it brings the vibe, it brings the vibe. Alex Rodriguez’s game-tying homer off Joe Nathan in the 2009 ALDS. Hideki Matsui erupting against the Phillies in the Fall Classic. Raúl Ibañez sending shockwaves throughout the Bronx in 2012. Didi Gregorius, Greg Bird, and more providing huge hits during the 2017 playoff run. Giancarlo Stanton dropping taters on the Guardians in the 2024 ALCS. The crowd was such a huge part of making those moments indelible.

It was at it again last night.

Ben Rice brought the power to a Yankees lineup that was a little uneven until later on. Don’t be fooled by the final score if you happened to miss it! This was a tense, low-scoring affair for most of the night. Payton Tolle was very good for Boston, stymieing the Yanks, stranding runners, and making the platoon adjustments against him look poor. The bottom of the order scratched out a run in the second and Rice went 423 feet to dead center for a second run immediately after Boston skipper Chad Tracy pulled Tolle.

The man responsible for making that hold up was a familiar nemesis to the Red Sox: Cam Schlittler. He brought the stamp to one of those past huge Yankee Stadium moments in 2025 when he broke out to send Boston home in the winner-take-all Game 3 of that Wild Card rumble, firing eight shutout innnings with a dozen strikeouts on 107 pitches. Schlittler was not as efficient this time around, but that didn’t mean the Red Sox had much of an idea about what to do with him.

Schlittler deviated from his standard all-fastball-focused approach, deploying his curve 27 percent of the time to help generate 10 strikeouts and 24 swings and misses. He shook off a lost 10-pitch battle against Adley Rutschman in the first without a sweat and kept steamrolling through the Red Sox lineup.

Aaron Boone was so confident in how he looked that he let Schlittler hang out there for 117 pitches—not that strange a figure from my days of growing up as a fan but nearly unheard-of these days. It was the highest pitch count for a Yankee in the playoffs since CC Sabathia almost single-handedly eliminated the Orioles in 2012 ALDS Game 5. But Cam kept feeding off the crowd and frustrating the Red Sox batters, and in a short series, it was understandably tempting for Boone to see how much of the bullpen’s best he could avoid. That’s a dude.

It worked out, as only Paul Blackburn relieved Schlittler; Brent Headrick warmed up but didn’t pitch, and thanks to Rice, David Bednar never got that far. The Red Sox bullpen let the game get away from them, with Rice tallying an RBI knock during a two-run seventh before really slamming the door with a grand slam off Brayan Bello.

Let’s keep the energy going tonight at 161st and River and see if the Yankees can end this series without needing to sweat out another potential Wild Card Series elimination game. The crowd can only do so much if the guys on the field aren’t capitalizing, but the Yanks sure did a great job of it on Tuesday night.

The playoff fever continues today on the site. Matt will name his Player of the Game for the Wild Card opener, Jonathan will preview tonight’s Game 2 matchup between Max Fried and Sonny Gray. Both will return when Matt recaps the full postseason action across the majors yesterday and Jonathan celebrates the 122nd birthday of 1932 Yankees World Series champion Johnny Allen. Scott will also be back for one last fond farewell to the RailRiders Era. And keep an eye out for Dani throughout the afternoon as he tackles any notable news that comes across the ol’ transom.

Today’s Matchup:

American League Wild Card Series Game 2

New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox

Time: 8:00 p.m. EST

TV:  NBC/Peacock

Venue: Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY

The Pittsburgh Pirates top prospect Seth Hernandez found himself atop another prospect list as he was named the Florida State League’s top prospect for his body of work as a member of the Bradenton Marauders.

In six starts with Bradenton, Hernandez was nearly unstoppable. He amassed a 3-0 record and an ultra low 0.96 ERA. During his time in Bradenton the first-year pro only gave up three earned runs and had 50 strikeouts as a Marauder. He also had a 0.71 WHIP and held opposing hitters to an abysmal .135 batting average.

Hernandez was drafted sixth overall by the Pirates in 2025 and in his first professional season there were few Minor League pitchers as dynamic as he was. At just 20-years old the Corona High School product finished the season 6-1 with a 2.43 ERA and 118 strikeouts through 74.0 frames.

Over the course of his season, Hernandez’ performance caught the eyes of national attention as he started the year out as the number 26 prospect in baseball and will finish the season as the number seven prospect. While also being the Pirates’ top prospect, Hernandez also took home FSL Pitcher of the Week honor for his April 24 performance against Clearwater. Against the Threshers Hernandez finished the game with a career high nine strikeouts and allowed just one hit and two walks across five scoreless innings. That strong performance helped him earn Pitcher of the Month honors for the month of April as he went 2-0 with, had 17 strikeouts and had a 0.53 ERA through 17 innings.

Hernandez is projected to make his MLB debut by 2028.

MLB Trade Rumors | Charlie Wright: The big news prior to last night’s matchup with the Boston Red Sox was the expected, yet nonetheless somewhat disappointing, news that Aaron Judge would be left off the Wild Card roster. The right fielder, dealing with a “moderate” right calf strain, will not be eligible to return until the ALDS, should the Yankees make it that far. On the flip side, though, Giancarlo Stanton and Trent Grisham were activated, and while neither projects to slot into the starting lineup, they serve as key depth as potential pinch-hitters late in the game. Grisham came in to play late in last night’s game when Heliot Ramos was removed for defense, Spencer Jones sliding over to right and Grisham moving into center.

MLB.com | Sarah Langs: The Yankees got off to a great start in the Wild Card Series opener, blanking the Red Sox 9-0 to move one win away from advancing. For much of the night, the clear-cut star of the show was the same man who slammed the door on Boston in their playoff showdown last year: Massachusetts native Cam Schlittler. (Ben Rice had a heck of a ballgame, too.) We turns it over to Langs, the queen of the fun facts, for seven of her favorite ones from Schlittler’s 6.1 brilliant innings of 10-K ball. Here’s one: Of the 56 pitchers to have ever made at least two playoff starts against Boston, only two have fanned 10 Red Sox twice. One is Cam; the other is the legendary Bob Gibson. Not bad!

Yahoo Sports | Bob Klapisch: On Monday afternoon, Judge made one last attempt to prove he was ready for the postseason, taking batting practice off Elmer Rodríguez (the projected starter for Sunday’s cancelled game) and Ryan Weathers. It was, unsurprisingly, unsuccessful, as the right fielder was only 13 days out from an injury that usually takes 4-6 weeks to heal. And yet, the fact that he can even make an attempt at all is the result of a somewhat-experimental medical procedure, PPP (platelet poor plasma) injections. Early indications suggest that these injections — the inverse of the platelet-rich plasma injections that have been used to treat tendons and ligaments — may help speed the process of soft-tissue injuries.

Also, on the topic of injuries, Red Sox leadoff hitter Roman Anthony had to leave Wild Card Series Game 1 in the sixth inning for a pinch-hitter. The 22-year-old missed nearly four months with various hand and wrist issues, and Boston manager Chad Tracy said they flared up again after an uncomfortable check-swing. There’s no word yet on whether the Red Sox will replace him on their roster or keep him around to see if he bounces back at all.

ESPN: Prior to the start of Wild Card play yesterday, ESPN posted their predictions for this year’s postseason. Perhaps surprisingly, the Yankees were the consensus in the Wild Card round, with 18 voters selecting the Bombers, and only six the Red Sox — tied for the highest margin in the first round matchups. Following rounds, though, went much worse for the Yankees, with the Rays the overwhelming favorite regardless of who they play in the ALDS; those numbers turned out to be identical for the ALCS as well, as none of the Central and West teams got any love.

MLB.com | Anthony Castrovince: We wrap up today’s news with a position-by-position breakdown of the Yankees and Red Sox, courtesy of MLB.com. In Castrovince’s opinion, the Yankees are the clear favorites, both collectively and on a position-by-position basis and collectively — so naturally, he picks the Red Sox in three, because “that’s baseball.” Here’s hoping he’s wrong.

For as often as it is applied with certainty, “Most Valuable Player” can feel uncomfortably inexact. Pitchers are valuable in different ways than hitters. Hitters are more valuable in good times than when they are slumping. Sheer productivity is valuable, but players can help win games in ways statistics obscure. Maybe “Most Valuable” is best explained as “you know it when you see it.”

And in the Yankees’ Game 1 win against the Red Sox on Tuesday night -- as on so many nights during the regular season -- Ben Rice was the player heaving them over a finish line that was not immediately clear they would cross without him. He went 4-for-5 with two home runs, one of which gave the Yankees a second run when the game was close early, the second of which was a grand slam that allowed them to preserve key arms late. He drove in six of the Yankees’ nine runs while becoming the first Yankee to homer twice in a playoff game in half a decade’s worth of Octobers. He left no doubt.

“Count on one hand,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “One of the best hitters in the league.”

Rice’s regular season will earn him plenty of down-ballot MVP votes, though he almost certainly will not beat out Yordan Alvarez’s near-Triple Crown season to win it. But if the award were given for sheer offensive productivity, his numbers alone would solidify him as a top-five finish. 

Rice posted the fourth-best OPS (.897), fifth-highest wRC+ (149), and tied for the fourth-most home runs (41) in the majors. Only eight players had a higher OPS with runners in scoring position than Rice (.975), who became the focal point of the Yankees’ lineup – and was therefore under more pressure to produce while being pitched more carefully – when Judge was on the injured list for three months this summer.

Built into that three-month period was one month (August, mostly) during which Rice struggled to prop up the lineup in Judge’s absence, hurt further by an injury to Cody Bellinger. He endured a .184 average and .641 OPS in August, and the Yankees’ offense sputtered without him.

“It was a great offensive season, and obviously, we needed it,” Boone said, before recalling that second-half swoon.

“That’s the thing you love to see. For as great a year as he had, he had a stretch there for a month where it was really a grind and a struggle, but he kind of got himself out of it.”

As Rice recovered, the Yankees’ offense followed, and it exploded after Judge returned from his rib injury. And when a strained calf pulled Judge out of action again, Rice slid back into the role of offensive anchor.

The 27-year-old is, and has been, the hitter around whom the Yankees built entire lineup plans this year. Even Judge’s injury made his production so crucial, and even with their catchers enduring historic offensive struggles, the Yankees did not put Rice back in his old position, too desperate for his offense to risk injury or overload from catching duties.

And as Judge, a three-time MVP, tries to work his way back from this injury in time for a potential Division Series, Rice represents the lineup lynchpin once again. Judge has said he will have to be healthy enough to play right field when he returns -- not just serve as the designated hitter -- because the Yankees lineup functions better with Rice in that spot. Meanwhile, Boone said before Game 1 that Major League Baseball’s active home run leader, Giancarlo Stanton, is effectively on the roster just to take a pinch-hit at-bat each night because getting him more chances would require maneuvering with Rice.

In fact, Rice is one of the Yankees’ few immovable objects. Luis Garcia Jr., whose .831 regular season OPS was 25th among qualified hitters, did not start Tuesday night because the platoon matchup favored Paul Goldschmidt at first base. Rice has been immune to Boone’s otherwise all-inclusive platoon considerations for quite some time.

“He’s one of the best hitters I’ve ever seen,” rookie George Lombard Jr. said. “And he shows why all the time.”

Still, Cam Schlittler was the one who heard MVP chants Tuesday night, and for good reason. He was untouchable, almost literally, for a Red Sox lineup that has seen him many times and planned for this. And when he was asked about those chants, he deferred to another Yankee more deserving of the title.

“We already got an MVP in this locker room. He’s won three of them,” Schlittler said of Judge. “If he were in there this whole season, he’d probably have it.”

But Judge was not in there this whole season -- wasn’t even in there for half of it -- and despite his best efforts to heal a strained calf in record time, he was not in the Yankees lineup Tuesday, either. Without him, against the kind of left-handed starter seemingly poised to punish the Yankees for the absence of their right-handed superstar, Rice was the unstoppable weapon.

His first-inning double signaled Payton Tolle was vulnerable. His home run against Erik Miller in the fifth gave the Yankees a two-run lead while signaling to the Red Sox that none of their lefties were safe. His bases-loaded single in the seventh gave the Yankees breathing room as Schlittler tired. And it would not be an exaggeration to suggest that his grand slam in the bottom of the eighth might decide the series. Because of that swing, Boone felt safe using John Schreiber in the ninth instead of David Bednar. Because of the size of the lead late, he did not need Brent Headrick, either.

Headrick and Bednar have been the Yankees’ best relievers all season. They will be fully rested in relief of Max Fried in Game 2. With a series win in reach, there might be nothing more valuable than that.

Anthony Volpe sure looked comfortable in his first playoff start at second base while delivering a key hit and sacrifice bunt in a 9-0 win over Boston in Game 1 of the wild card series at the Stadium.

It was a highlight in a rocky season for the one-time shortstop of the future for the Yankees, who bounced from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to The Bronx and all around the infield in a wild season.

Now he looks like he could be a key piece to a potential playoff run.

“I’m just in the moment and ready to go,’’ Volpe said. “Everything that happened, happened. … It’s all hands on deck.”

His path to Game 1 included offseason surgery to repair his left shoulder a little less than a year ago, followed by a minor league rehab assignment that began in April before he was optioned to the minors when he failed to show enough to merit a trip back to The Bronx at short.

When he finally got back to the majors, it came because José Caballero, who replaced Volpe at short, was hurt.

And after more than one trip back to the minors, Volpe didn’t play his first major league game at second base until this month.

“It was frustrating,’’ Volpe said. “As bad as it was, it was a good opportunity.”

“Credit to him,’’ Aaron Boone said prior to the game. “It was an incredibly difficult situation, but that’s why I always [say], we live in the moment so much. It’s a snapshot in such a long grind of the season. There’s gonna be good times, bad times, twists and turns. A lot of times, the cream usually rises to the top.”

The Yankees went with Volpe over lefty-swinging Jazz Chisholm Jr. against Boston left-hander Payton Tolle, with Volpe having started at second just 11 times in the majors before Tuesday night.

Still, infield coach Dan Fiorito expressed confidence that Volpe would be solid wherever he was asked to play.

“I know he’s ready,’’ Fiorito said before the game. “He’s got some games there going back to the minors.”

And Fiorito said Volpe’s knowledge of the game has helped with the transition.

“He doesn’t have the same experience as he does at shortstop, but he’s a baseball player,’’ Fiorito said. “He knows all his responsibilities. He’s looked good out there so far.”

Prior to this season, Volpe had appeared in just two games as a pro at second base, as the Yankees prepared him throughout his career to be the shortstop for the foreseeable future.

But his offense stalled and his defense regressed and when he played through the shoulder injury last season, it took a toll.

Many scouts have long believed that, despite the Gold Glove he won as a rookie, Volpe was better suited as a second baseman and with George Lombard Jr. so far looking the part, the best chance Volpe has of sticking in The Bronx — and making a difference this postseason — is an ability to play second and perhaps third.

“Anthony is a competitor,” Fiorito said. “He’s dialed in. He knows where everybody’s got to be on the field at all times. And he’s in the right spot at the right time. That makes you feel good about him.”

And Fiorito has been most impressed with Volpe’s consistency at other parts of the infield.

“He’s made some really good plays there, but he’s also made the ones you expect him to and that’s what you need this time of year,’’ Fiorito said.

All September, we watched the Red Sox half-heart their way through the month. Guys got days off, pitchers were pushed back, bullpen arms were saved, and the general intensity of all the games flat out sucked, especially as a late season product where historically there’d be a race to get into or improve playoff positioning.

All of this uninspiring play was only potentially made palatable by one overarching theme: After losing their previous series in New York at the end of August — And with it the tiebreaker over the Yankees — the Red Sox essentially made a deal with the baseball devil in which they (apparently) made their return trip this week their sole priority. In short, they put the results of games in the first four weeks of September on the backburner in favor of getting healthier and being ready to go for September 29th.

Well, September 29th came, and they were woefully unprepared for the very matchup they were supposedly studying up on for the last month. They looked flat, overwhelmed, and like a team who didn’t belong on the stage.

Just as importantly, they looked like the same team they’ve been all month, where they not only rank dead last in runs scored with just 71, but are 18 runs behind the next closest squad.

They also mimicked multiple September games in which they ran out the white flag bullpen squad after falling behind early. When Payton Tolle walked off the mound in the fifth inning, it was still just a 1-0 game, but the next five pitchers through the bullpen door were Erik Miller, Greg Weissert, Alec Gamboa, Wyatt Olds, and Brayan Bello. Chad Tracy did this in a playoff game, in New York, with winter potentially breathing down their neck in 24 hours. That is some September 15th garbage!

Regardless of whether you felt the July and August Sox were legit or all smoke and mirrors, there’s no denying they had a certain fight to them, and it’s a quality that kept them in every single game.

And then all at once, after losing that Yankee serious to close August, they intentionally and strategically stopped pushing for wins every day with the same intensity. On one hand, I can’t even entirely blame them for doing that because it’s largely the box this playoff format puts you in … But wow, if you’re going to do that, you absolutely need to have a way to guarantee you can hit the ground running and be ready to go when Game 1 does come around, because tonight, this Red Sox team proved entirely incapable of flipping the summer switch back on.

Apparently, in their final tune up, they spent all weekend practicing against the Trajekt machine on the Schlittler setting, and despite seeing the difference between his velocity and off-speed pitches simulated, it didn’t make a lick of difference and they still got caught with their pants down for the second year in a row.

Unfortunately, there’s no perfect way to enter the playoffs, and this wretched, bloated postseason format only further complicates the conundrum. For this reason, I’m actually partially sympathetic to the idea there’s just a reality here where the line between getting the plane off the ground and never even getting started in October is razor thin and tough to gauge.

However, at the same time, solving this riddle is exactly what the guys who run this team get paid to figure out. That’s literally the gig. And borrowing a dramatic turnaround, it appears they’ve failed miserably.

Things aren’t quite over yet, but unless Wednesday and Thursday feature a flip of the script that’s as jarring, abrupt and surprising as that performance was hideous on Tuesday, it’s going to be a brutal and bitter winter in Boston. If there’s any bullets left in the gun, they need to find it and start firing now.

For the second straight year, Jazz Chisholm Jr. expected to be in the Yankees lineup for Game 1 of the AL wild card series.

For the second straight year, he was not.

With the Red Sox opening the series with lefty Payton Tolle on the mound, Aaron Boone started the righty-hitting Anthony Volpe at second base over the lefty-hitting Chisholm, a platoon that worked out as Volpe went 1-for-3 with a sacrifice bunt in Tuesday’s 9-0 win.

“It’s a tough call there, one I deliberated on the last couple days, but ultimately this is the way I wanted to go in this first one,” Boone said before the game.

Last year, Chisholm was not happy to be sitting against lefty Garrett Crochet in Game 1, and spoke to reporters postgame with his back turned to them at his locker, showing his displeasure with the situation.

Boone described this year as “different scenarios, circumstances” — Chisholm played just three games after returning from the injured list for a right thumb sprain last week, with Volpe making the most of his call-up from Triple-A in the interim — and reiterated that he was OK with players being “ticked off at different points” because they are not in the lineup.

“I essentially just texted him, like, ‘Hey, you might be the most important person in the building tonight. We need you to be ready to go for the biggest spot, potentially,’ ” Boone said. “Obviously he’s going to play a huge role for us if we’re going to get deep in the playoffs and win a world championship.”

Chisholm figures to be back in the lineup on Wednesday for Game 2 against Red Sox righty Sonny Gray.

It has been a difficult contract year for the pending free agent, underperforming for most of it before finally getting hot right up until he injured his thumb earlier this month.

Amed Rosario was also in the lineup for Game 1, starting at third base and going 0-for-1 with a walk against Tolle before Ryan McMahon replaced him in the top of the fifth.

In the regular season, Rosario hit just .208 with a .606 OPS in 160 plate appearances against lefties, but the Yankees have continued to give him opportunities.

“I know his numbers haven’t been as great as they have been the last few years against lefties, but you dig a little bit and I think he’s been very much in line with who he’s been, he just hasn’t got a lot of results,” Boone said. “But I feel like he’s a real threat.”

The Yankees could have started another right-handed hitter, José Caballero at third over Rosario, but they seem to value him as a 10th man off the bench.

Caballero is the best pinch-running option on the roster that has 10 pitchers and 16 position players, the latter allowing Boone to get aggressive with how he uses his bench.

The final spot in the bullpen came down to a pair of lefties — Ryan Yarbrough or Tim Hill — with the Yankees taking Yarbrough because of his ability to give them some length if needed.

Hill, a lefty specialist who was homer-prone late in the season, could get back on the roster if the Yankees advance.

By then, they also could add another lefty in Ryan Weathers, who was left off the roster to continue building him up from a left forearm flexor strain.

Weathers was likely only going to be available for one inning the whole series, so the Yankees had him throw live during Monday’s workout, giving him a chance to pitch more often if the Yankees reach the ALDS.

“If we go on a long run here, I feel like Weathers could play a massive role for us,” Boone said.

Trent Grisham made the roster after missing the final three weeks of the regular season with a hamstring strain and played the final two innings in center field (shifting Spencer Jones to right) after Heliot Ramos was pinch hit for by Luis García Jr.

Asked if the left-handed hitter would start in center in Game 2 against Gray, Boone said, “not necessarily.”

The youngest Yankee to start in a postseason game since Mickey Mantle in 1952 did little to slow the comparisons to Yankees greats. 

Just by watching, you would not have known George Lombard Jr. — all 21 years, 119 days of him — only became legally allowed to drink the champagne the Yankees soon hope to taste in June. 

You would not have known Lombard was playing against Double-A competition as recently as late April. 

You would not have known Lombard began his major league career with questions both about his defense and his mind — going through a surreal, six-game error streak that questioned his readiness. 

Because in the 9-0 win over the Red Sox in Game 1 of the wild-card series in The Bronx, Lombard began his playoff career without betraying a nerve or even an awareness of the stakes. 

All while making baseball historians reach for their record books about the youngest — and best — playoff debuts ever. 

“It’s really cool,” Lombard said of being included with Mantle, who started his first playoff game at 19 years, 349 days in Yankees history. “It’s definitely an honor. I have to pinch myself every now and then. 

“But we know what the goal is, and we know what we’re all trying to do as a group, so it’s easy to just focus on that.” 

It was just one postseason game, but the poise Lombard showed at a sold-out Yankee Stadium reinforced why the club has thought so highly about a first-round pick whose calm-and-cool demeanor, if not game just yet, earns comparisons with Derek Jeter. 

In his very first postseason at-bat, Lombard looped a single into shallow center just out of the reach of racing second baseman Nick Sogard. In his next, he chopped an infield single to the left side on a play former Yankees prospect Caleb Durbin could not make.

And after a fielder’s choice in the seventh, Lombard stroked a single to center in the eighth and came around to score his second run of the game. 

So a player whose name already had evoked Mantle became the fifth player in franchise history to record at least three hits in his playoff debut, a feat most recently accomplished by Bernie Williams (who had three hits in Game 1 of the 1995 ALDS against the Mariners). 

It was just one postseason game, but Lombard — spotless defensively — again showed the spotlight was not too large. 

“The whole clubhouse — all the guys, the coaching staff — I think the comfort and the confidence comes from the preparation and the work we put in,” Lombard said. “So that’s the biggest thing: Just be prepared, put in the work and just let things handle themselves on the field.”

NEW YORK – Aaron Judge was nowhere to be found on the field at Yankee Stadium. Yet “M-V-P!” chants still resonated through the raucous ballpark.

Judge did not join his teammates on the baseline for pregame introductions. But a total team effort pulled the Yankees through in a virtual must-win game.

There’s still no certainty if or when Judge will take the field this postseason. But for one night, perhaps the most important night of the playoffs – Game 1 of the best-of-three American League wild card series – the Yankees proved they could survive without their three-time Most Valuable Player.

Perhaps that’s because Cam Schlittler has become their most important player.

Schlittler tormented the Boston Red Sox for the second consecutive year in the wild card round, this time getting a massive assist from fellow New England product Ben Rice, the Walpole ace and the Cohasset crusher laying waste to the team they couldn’t avoid growing up.

This time, Schlittler took a two-hit shutout into the seventh inning and Rice drove in six runs as the Yankees moved a massive step toward advancing to the AL Division Series with a 9-0 trouncing of the Red Sox on Tuesday, Sept. 29.

Game 2 is Wednesday night, Boston’s Sonny Gray pitching to save the Red Sox’s season against Yankees lefty Max Fried. Tuesday’s final score might have you believe Game 1 was a laugher.

It was anything but, Schlitter nursing a 1-0 lead into the fifth and a 2-0 lead into the seventh, with Rice quietly laying waste to the Red Sox bullpen until his final, big blast.

That came in the bottom of the eighth inning, a garbage time grand slam off Brayan Bello to make it 9-0 and bring winter nearer New England.

It was Rice’s fourth hit and he tied a Yankees franchise record with his six RBIs, the fifth to do it and the first since Robinson Cano in 2011. Rice, the Dartmouth grad and erudite soul of the Yankee clubhouse, does not necessarily fit the mold of past Yankee greats.

In another fashion, he and Schlittler are both fitting right in.

“If you want to be a legend,” Schlittler said Tuesday, “you’ve got to do it in the postseason.”

Doesn’t he know it. Schlittler’s die was cast in the decisive Game 3 of the 2025 wild-card round, when he struck out 12 Red Sox over eight innings and talked mad smack after, chiding Red Sox fans for goading him on social media.

A year later, Schlittler’s tone mellowed only a bit, noting his good friends from up north came down for the game and while they are Red Sox fans, knew not to poke the bear.

His pitching dominance was nearly identical, though.

Cam Schlittler did something Tuesday night in the Bronx that put him in spectacular pitching company. 

Already a talent so sublime he qualifies as a rivalry separator in the blood feud that is Yankees-Red Sox, Schlittler’s going for bigger than just Sox-killer status: He’s blooming into postseason royalty, too.

The Yankees beat the Red Sox, 9-0, at Yankee Stadium and Schlittler delivered 6.1 scoreless innings, allowing two hits while striking out 10. Going back to last October when he first shredded Boston, he now has two scoreless playoff starts with at least 10 strikeouts in his career, something only five pitchers have accomplished.

And those pitchers are something else – Justin Verlander did it three times and Sandy Koufax, Randy Johnson, Kevin Brown and Cliff Lee did it twice each. Aces all.

"It's very well known that if you want to be a legend, which is obviously the goal, you've got to do it in the postseason,” said Schlittler. “Go out there and have dominant starts and put the team in the position to win.”

The Yankees can advance Wednesday with a victory in Game 2 of the best-of-three AL Wild Card Series. Schlittler knows, as he put it, “the job isn’t finished yet.” But he also said, “We’re heading in the right direction.”

Schlittler will win the AL Cy Young Award later this year following a remarkable regular season. He’s also got a 0.47 ERA in six career starts against the Red Sox, including his eight scoreless innings last October. Tuesday night, he demonstrated numerous times how good he is, to the point where his teammates were marveling afterward.

Anthony Volpe, who started at second base after only playing shortstop behind Schlittler, was agog. "From second base, watching some of these righties, I never had that angle,” Volpe said.

“Some of the swings were so far away from where he was throwing the ball."

Schlittler, who had a 1.95 ERA during the regular season, featured his curveball nearly three times more than usual. The pitch was landing for called strikes or swing-and-misses – he finished four of his strikeouts with it – and it was the perfect antidote for the times Red Sox hitters tried to guess early at his high-90s heat.

Aaron Boone noted that Schlittler and catcher Austin Wells excelled at picking spots to use the curve.

“I thought they did a really nice job of using that off of some guys selling out to the four-seam,” Boone said. “He was filling up the strike zone with it, too, so he was able to get strikes with it if he needed to and, obviously, chase. And then the fastball was great.”

“The amount of miss and weak contact I'm getting with that (the curve), I’m feeling like I'm in a really good spot with it,” Schlittler said.

“Cam was obviously awfully good,” added Boston manager Chad Tracy. “The fastball shapes are well-documented. He’s throwing hard. He also had a good curveball. You know it’s there, but he used it a little bit more often. He landed it, if he wanted to, for strikes. He was able to get it beneath (hitters’ bats) for swing and miss.

“We weren’t able to do much with him.”

When Schlittler finished off the sixth inning with a strikeout of Adley Rutschman on a cutter, he matched his career high with 107 pitches. Boone sent him out to start the seventh and he retired Willson Contreras, Boston’s most dangerous hitter. But then he gave up a hit to Wilyer Abreu and came out of the game.

“No debate to send him out there,” Boone said. 

After Contreras? “I probably should have taken him (out) at that point, but I got a little greedy.” 

The Yanks were trying to squeeze every last out from Schlittler, especially since they took 10 pitchers on the Wild Card roster so they could maximize their hitting options against Boston.

They got 19 outs on 117 pitches from Schlittler. It was plenty, especially considering the way their bats came alive late – Schlittler’s fellow New Englander, Ben Rice, homered twice, including an eighth-inning grand slam.

The pair enjoys beating their hometown team – both are from the Boston area. “It adds like a cool little layer to it,” Rice said of their shared geographical background and success against the Red Sox. “For Cam, too.”

“I mean, we love it,” Schlittler said.

They’ve got to beat the Sox one more time this week to advance. There’s plenty more work Schlittler wants to do.

He wants to be a legend, after all. Pitching like this, he’s well on his way.

San Diego Padres pitcher Michael King was on the way to etching his name into MLB record books, flirting with a no-hitter against the Chicago Cubs during Game 1 of the National League wild card series at Petco Park.

The dream ended on Nico Hoerner's infield single with one out in the seventh inning, with third baseman Manny Machado unable to pick up the ball cleanly.

There have been three no-hitters in MLB postseason history, most recently the Houston Astros' combined no-hitter in the 2022 World Series. Don Larsen (1956 perfect game) and Roy Halladay (2010) are the only other pitchers to have accomplished the feat.

King finished with eight strikeouts in 97 pitches in seven innings, getting the win in the Padres' 8-0 victory.

Here are all of the no-hitters pitched in MLB postseason history: