Category: MLB

When he waived his no-trade clause this winter to join the Red Sox, Sonny Gray endeared himself to his new Boston fans by memorably taking a shot at a franchise with whom he did not enjoy his time.

“It feels good to me to go to a place now where it’s easy to hate the Yankees,” Gray said in December, which fans in The Bronx surely will remember on Wednesday when he takes the mound as the biggest obstacle from the Yankees sweeping the wild-card series.

After dropping the opener, 9-0, Tuesday, the Red Sox will give their season to Gray for one of the bigger days of his life. Before the stakes were clear, he was reflective of some of the worst years of his life, which he said snowballed in a way that only became fully apparent in retrospect.

Nearly a decade ago, Gray was shipped from the then-Oakland A’s to the Yankees at the 2017 trade deadline under circumstances that since have come under scrutiny.

Gray has said he “never” wanted to be a Yankee; Brian Cashman later responded that Gray had sent backchannel messages, through the Yankees minor league video coordinator, that he wanted to be in The Bronx and competing for a title.

Regardless, Gray never was happy, did not pitch well and made his discomfort clear to Cashman only after the 2018 trade deadline, when he told Cashman he was surprised he was not dealt away and never wanted to be a Yankee in the first place.

After that season, Cashman dealt Gray to the Reds, ending a 1 ¹/₂-year tenure in which Gray pitched to a 4.51 ERA and was hit particularly hard, by opponents and fans, at Yankee Stadium.

And so four teams and eight seasons later, Gray pondered why New York and the Yankees were such a terrible fit.

“I came from Oakland, and Oakland to here,” Gray said as part of a nearly three-minute reflection. “I think that maybe during my time [in New York] there was a lot of outside this, outside that, unfamiliarity with me and my situation and my family.

“It’s kind of like one of those things that you have a snowball or whatever, right? And there’s a snowball that kind of starts rolling down a hill. If you don’t ever stop it, then the snowball just gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and it picks up traction and it just gets more snow. And it just continues to go down this thing. And then the bigger the snowball gets, the harder it is to stop it or take a step back.”

The longer Gray stayed in New York, the worse it became.

He was showered with boos June 30, 2018, after lasting just 2 ¹/₃ innings and giving up seven runs to these same Red Sox. He was out of the rotation by August of that year.

“It just took me to get away and get myself into a different environment and then reflect on those things, right — reflect on what was good, what was bad, what didn’t work. And that took some time,” said the 36-year-old, who has been either good or great with five other franchises and was miserable with the Yankees. “But I do know that playing here made me a stronger person, made me a better man, a better husband. Ultimately, it made me a better pitcher, a better baseball player. And that’s kind of what I take from my time here.”

His time as a Yankee is over. His time as a Yankees rival will reach its culmination Wednesday.

What kind of reception is he expecting?

“I think it will be a playoff energy on the road, playoff atmosphere on the road,” Gray said. “As far as reception, this or that, it will be what it will be. I’m not going to sit here and try to control something that I can’t control because I ultimately have no control over that.

“It will be what it will be, and I’ll just do my part to be ready to go out there and compete and to pitch and to go win a game.”

SAN DIEGO — The crowd stood on its feet Tuesday night, watched the bullpen gate open in center field, and there he was, No. 44, strolling onto the field.

Joe Musgrove first started walking, and then as the scoreboard showed his face, began jogging to the mound. He stopped, tugged at his belt, pounded his right fist into his glove, and then skipped to the mound as his San Diego Padres teammates stood on the top step of the dugout cheering.

Everyone else in the sellout crowd of 47,084 at Petco Park was giving their homegrown hero a standing ovation, too.

The playoff game was long decided by the time Musgrove entered in the ninth inning, with the Padres routing the Chicago Cubs, 8-0, in their biggest postseason shutout in franchise history in Game 1 of their wild card series against the Chicago Cubs.

Now, even after Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado homered in the first inning, even with ace Michael King flirting with a no-hitter into the seventh inning, with the Padres out-hitting the Cubs, 13-3, this was the moment this fans had long awaited.

It had been two long years, Oct. 2, 2024, to be exact, when they last saw Musgrove step onto the mound.

Musgrove underwent Tommy John surgery after he walked off the mound in that 2024 postseason game against Atlanta, missed the entire 2025 season, and believed he’d be ready to start this season. Then, came the heartbreak. Setback after setback. He believed at times he could be back, and other times wondering if he’d ever even pitch again.

“I've been through a lot of a lot of headaches and a lot of negative thoughts over the last year and a half," Musgrove told a handful of reporters Tuesday night at his locker “You know, a lot of it's self-inflicted. I get into these ruts of just feeling like I'm letting people down, and I'm not holding up my end of the deal.

“But you know, the work and the effort I'm putting in is really all I can control."

Musgrove, who was told two days ago that he’d be on the playoff roster, began warming up in the eighth inning. His legs felt like jelly. He could feel his heart pounding against his chest. He hadn’t felt nerves like this since, well, maybe the night of Apri 9, 2021, when he threw the first no-hitter in Padres history.

“It was the most nervous I’ve been," Musgrove said, “pitching with an eight-run lead."

Now, coming in just to record the final three outs in mop-up relief, he felt as if he were on the mound trying to save a one-run game in Game 7 of the World Series, with the crowd on its feet screaming.

“I had been visualizing this and going through it in my head," Musgrove said. “So I expected it to get a little loud and people to be excited. But I didn’t expect quite that crazy of a mound."

When Musgrove stepped on the mound, he became only the second player in MLB history to appear in a postseason game directly after missing two entire regular seasons. The only other man to pull off the feat was catcher Clyde McCullough in the 1945 World Series, after missing the previous two seasons serving in World War II.

“I’ve been here before, you know, pitching in the playoffs and pitching a big game," Musgrove said. “So it was just the mental preparation, finding ways to calm down, kind of mentally putting myself in those situations, feeling how the emotions are going to be, and knowing where my mind tends to go in those moments."

NEW YORK — One decision, in either direction, right or wrong, could mean the game or the series for postseason teams. For the Boston Red Sox, it took all of three pitches to find out that a curious decision by manager Chad Tracy has them on the brink of elimination.

After the New York Yankees' 9-0 win in Game 1 of their AL wild-card series, Tracy was asked about his decision to pull starter Payton Tolle after 83 pitches. Tolle didn’t show signs of fatigue when he was replaced by left-hander Erik Miller and went to the visitors’ dugout, giving up five hits, one earned run, one walk, and four strikeouts.

Game 1 was Tracy’s first postseason game as a manager, and before the matchup between the heated AL East rivals, he said he was most excited for the players because of the adversity they had faced this season, earning a playoff spot despite being 14 games under .500 in late June. He took over on an interim basis in April after Alex Cora was fired and led the team to a 77-58 record the rest of the way.

“I thought he threw the ball well. They did an effective job of grinding the count up as well. He had traffic. They put traffic on him. He was able to navigate his way through that. I think he competed extremely well for the time that he was out there and gave us what he could,” Tracy said of Tolle.

"I think the number being up there in the mid-80s, still trying to get through five, probably higher than what you normally see with Payton, and to be expected in an environment like this. But I thought he competed his butt off."

No matter what your worst expectations were for this game, you probably didn’t expect this. Three Padres pitchers combined for a three-hit 8-0 shutout in Game 1 of the National League Wild Card Series.

Padres starter Michael King came out and absolutely dominated the Cubs. Whether he was amped up because of the situation or the Cubs were flat because of their ridiculous situation over the past week, it didn’t matter. It was probably both. The Cubs could do nothing against him and he made the lineup look like minor leaguers.

Meanwhile, the Padres got off to a fast start as leadoff hitter Fernando Tatis Jr. crushed a first-pitch changeup over the center field wall. Pete Crow-Armstrong got some leather on it, but not nearly enough. After Boyd retired Samad Taylor on a bunt attempt, he gave up a second solo home run to Manny Machado, this one into the left-field bleachers. Once again, it was on a changeup. At the end of one inning, it was 2-0 Padres.

Boyd recovered in the second inning and retired the side in order, but then he had to face Tatis and Machado again in the third. Boyd was much more careful with Tatis the second time, but he ended up walking him. After striking out Taylor for the second out of the inning, Machado lined a four-seamer that caught too much of the plate for an RBI double to make it 3-0 San Diego after three.

It might has well have been 10-0 Padres at that point the way King was pitching. Seiya Suzuki reached on an error in the second inning. King walked Crow-Armstrong after two outs in the third and PCA promptly stole second, but the Cubs couldn’t cash in either mistake. Suzuki walked in the fourth and Michael Busch walked in the sixth. But the Cubs were unable to get a hit off King until Nico Hoerner hit a hard grounder down the third base line that Machado couldn’t handle cleanly. It wouldn’t have mattered. Machado would not have thrown out the speedy Hoerner at first and the Cubs had their first and only hit. It was the top of the seventh inning.

By that point, things were out of hand anyways. Boyd gave up his third solo home run of the game in the fourth inning to Xander Bogaerts that banged off the Western Metal Supply Company building down the left field line. Once again, it was off a changeup, but this one was right down the heart of the plate.

Javier Assad came in to pitch the fifth inning and the Padres blew the game open with three more runs. Assad loaded bases with two outs after a leadoff single, a two-out walk and a single to left that the catcher couldn’t score from second base on. Then manager Craig Counsell went to the bullpen and called on Ryan Rolison. A two-run single and a passed ball by Carson Kelly meant that all three inherited runners scored and it was 7-0.

The Padres added another run in the seventh inning to make it 8-0 when Tatis reached on a slow roller of an infield single. He then stole second base and scored all the way from second when Kelly’s throw bounced into left field.

There was a big moment in the top of the ninth when Padres manager Craig Stammen called on Joe Musgrove out of the bullpen. Musgrove was a surprise addition to the roster as he hadn’t pitched since 2024. Musgrove struck out Busch with his first pitch and then gave up a single to Suzuki. Next he walked Happ and Hoerner loaded the bases with a single for the Cubs’ third hit. But Pedro Ramírez then popped out and pinch-hitter Michael Conforto struck out to end the game.

People overuse the phrase “must-win” game, but Wednesday’s Game 2 and hopefully Thursday’s Game 3 are “must-win.” The Cubs cannot repeat the lethargic performance they turned in tonight. The offense needs to get into gear and the pitchers need to hit their spots better. Teams that lost the first game of a Wild Card Series under this current format are 1-15. Now there is probably some small-sample size variation there and the Cubs chances are probably a bit better than 6 percent, but under no circumstances is it anything other than a long shot that the Cubs come back and win the next two games. But “long shot” does not mean impossible. So let’s do it.

SAN DIEGO — So much for those five regular-season wins.

So much for the 55 runs, the 23-3 humiliation in July and all the evidence the Chicago Cubs could carry into October suggesting they had the San Diego Padres’ number.

But numbers don’t mean everything, and not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. So on Tuesday night, the Padres started their own count. 

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. 

San Diego opened the NL wild-card series with an emphatic 8-0 victory over Chicago at a roaring Petco Park, riding Michael King’s flirtation with history and first-inning thunder from Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado to move within one victory of returning the favor for last October’s elimination at Wrigley Field.

Everyone expected this to be a close battle between two of baseball’s best teams. Instead it was an ambush. 

King carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning against the highest-scoring offense in baseball, suffocating the Cubs for 6 1/3 innings before Nico Hoerner finally broke up the no-no with a soft grounder to third base that Machado couldn’t field and throw cleanly, allowing Hoerner to reach on an infield single. 

By then, the damage had been done everywhere else.

King struck out Pete Crow-Armstrong and Alex Bregman back-to-back in a perfect first inning. Moments later, Tatis sent Matthew Boyd’s first pitch of the night over the center-field wall.

Crow-Armstrong nearly brought it back, but nearly was about as close as Chicago got in this blowout.

Four pitches into Machado’s first plate appearance, the Padres third baseman launched another homer and Petco Park was shaking beneath 47,084 fans, including actor Bill Murray.

Chicago’s offense limped into October and apparently brought the limp through airport security.

Crow-Armstrong, the presumptive NL MVP, went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts, and King struck out Chicago’s top two hitters — PCA and Bregman — six times in their first seven combined at-bats.

Meanwhile, Boyd’s previous problems against San Diego followed him into the postseason.

Tatis walked in the third and Machado doubled him home for a 3-0 lead. Boyd departed after four innings, having allowed five hits and four runs.

After that, the Padres turned Game 1 into batting practice. 

Xander Bogaerts supplied the evening’s loudest souvenir in the fourth, launching a no-doubt homer into the second deck of the Western Metal Supply Co. building.

Then San Diego ripped the game open with three runs in the fifth.

Jackson Merrill punched a two-run single through the right side with the bases loaded before a wild pitch brought home another run.

By then, this stopped resembling the tense three-game chess match everyone anticipated and started looking like San Diego was settling an old score.

The Padres were baseball’s hottest team over the final month and a half of the season. Tuesday offered compelling evidence that momentum didn’t disappear when the calendar flipped to October.

By the time fans sang “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” the only drama left was whether Chicago could avoid the shutout.

They couldn’t.

San Diego native Joe Musgrove, who has not pitched on a major league mound since the 2024 NL wild-card series, made his triumphant return after two years and closed out the game.

What it means

The Padres needed to plant their flag immediately after Chicago took Game 1 at Wrigley last October.

Consider it planted.

San Diego is now one victory from advancing and turns to Nick Pivetta in Game 2 on Wednesday night. Even more importantly, the Padres never had to touch Adrián Morejón, Bradgley Rodriguez or Mason Miller.

Their three most dangerous bullpen weapons will be rested with Chicago’s season on the line.

Turning point

Tatis’ first-pitch home run.

King had just retired the Cubs in order when Tatis sent Boyd’s first offering toward the center-field wall.

The Cubs never recovered.

Did you see that?

Bogaerts didn’t simply homer in the fourth inning. He sent it to the moon.

His blast landed in the second deck of the Western Metal Supply Co. building, one of those home runs where the outfielder’s only responsibility is to turn around and admire the architecture.

Up next

The Padres can finish the job Wednesday night at Petco Park with Pivetta starting Game 2 at 7 p.m.

Chicago announced that Kevin Gausman, acquired from the Toronto Blue Jays at the trade deadline and dealing with an injured left shoulder, is starting in Game 2.

Guasman inherits a fairly simple assignment:

Save the Cubs’ season.

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4 Wild card games yesterday. In chronological order:

Braves 5, Phillies 3

• Chris Sale and Jesús Luzardo were both good. Luzardo’s bullpen let him down big time. Because his bullpen has been so bad this season, Phils manager Don Mattingly put Jhoan Duran out there for a 9-out save. He did not get 9 outs. Duran got Will Brennan’d by Austin Riley, who hit a 3-run homer off him in the middle of his second inning of work. There ended up not being a 9th inning for PHI to pitch, because they did nothing in the top of the 9th and lost.

White Sox 6, Astros 3

• I’m gonna be a bit dramatic here and say the Astros didn’t really respect their opponent heading into this game. The White Sox have many flaws, but their hitters are both pesky and good. Houston apparently thought they could pepper them with garbage relief arms and succeed. This bullpen game strategy did not work one bit for Houston, who probably should have given up 13 runs. CWS could not really hit with RISP which kept this one way closer than it should have been.

Yankees 9, Red Sox 0

• Payton Tolle pitched well. The Boston bullpen behind him got shelled. We expected the Sox bullpen to stink this week—we thought those socks would be White.

Padres 8, Cubs 0

• The Cubs have baseball’s best offense and worst pitching. Only the latter individuals showed up Tuesday night. The Padres looked awesome in this game. Michael King was so good that they only needed to score 1 run, which they had 1 batter into the game. King allowed just 1 hit, an infield ground ball to Manny Machado whose attempt at making a spectacular play… didn’t happen.

And now something fun:

Perhaps the main reason the Yankees survived so much missed time by Aaron Judge this year was their starting rotation.

For all of its success, though, there was no guarantee that their main arms would be available — at the same time — until recently.

It has only been the past month in which Tuesday’s Game 1 starter in the wild-card series against Boston, Cam Schlittler, Game 2 starter Max Fried and potential Game 3 starter Gerrit Cole, along with Carlos Rodón, have been able to take all their starts consistently.

“It’s something that I was looking forward to when I first signed here,’’ Fried said Tuesday before the Yankees’ 9-0 win of joining Cole and Rodón in the team’s rotation. “It took a little bit longer than anyone probably would have expected. But also we were able to add another really, really quality arm in Cam. He’s obviously been doing great things.”

Even with Cole and Rodón out of the rotation as they recovered from elbow surgeries they underwent in 2025, and Fried hitting the injured list twice with a bone bruise in his left elbow, the Yankees still put up the best ERA among starters in the majors (3.30).

But since all got healthy, the rotation put up an ERA of 3.09, with some help from Will Warren.

If the Yankees advance to the ALDS to face the Rays — and beyond — Rodón will no doubt return to the rotation, which would give the Yankees a chance against anyone.

“It starts with starting pitching keeping you in the game,’’ Fried said. “We take a lot of pride in being able to put our best foot forward, and we have a lot of confidence in all those guys that are going to be able to take the ball.”

The task of the rotation will be tougher with Judge out for at least the wild-card series with a strained calf and with Giancarlo Stanton limited to pinch hitting after missing almost the entire season with calf injuries of his own.

“Gerrit coming back from surgery, that was a big boost,’’ Fried said of Cole’s return in May from Tommy John surgery. “I know how important it was for me and Carlos to try to make as many starts and to be healthy throughout the whole year like we did last year. And we definitely were frustrated by the fact that we had to go on the IL a couple of times. But this was the goal. The goal was to make sure that we were in a good, built-up position and healthy going into September into the playoffs.”

And that’s where they are, although they were unable to catch the Rays to avoid the wild-card series.

Fried has been a significant part of it.

In his final eight starts of the regular season, Fried had a 2.09 ERA over 43 innings.

He is showing no effects of the bone bruise in the elbow that was diagnosed in May and sidelined him for over two months — and then sent him back to the IL for two weeks in August.

“I would say that the command has gotten a lot better,’’ Fried said of his performance since his return. “I think just the pitching, to the not pitching, to getting back into it again, [made me] a little bit rusty. But over my last couple [starts], I felt normal. I feel like the same me. I’m not really worrying about my health going into the start.”

Tuesday's Game 1 of the Wild Card Series between the Yankees and Red Sox went as expected.

Both starters, Cam Schlittler and Payton Tolle, lived up to their hype, allowing just one run between them through the first four innings. However, things shifted in the fifth. 

After Tolle got the first two outs on eight pitches, Red Sox manager Chad Tracy came out to pull his talented young left-hander after 83 pitches. The 23-year-old wasn't as dominant as he had been for most of this season. The Red Sox skipper said the Yankees did a good job of making Tolle work and had a lot of traffic on the bases, which the southpaw navigated out of with minimal damage, but there were a few factors in Tracy's decision. 

"He competed extremely well for the time he was out there," Tracy said. "He gave us what he could. The number being up in the mid-80s, still trying to get through five [innings], probably higher than what you normally see from Payton, and to be expected in an environment like this, but I thought he competed his butt off."

Tracy decided to use left-hander Erik Miller to face Ben Rice and finish the fifth. Rice came into the at-bat with a double in the first inning before Tolle struck him out swinging in the third. However, Rice smashed a 97 mph sinker over the heart of the plate that traveled 423 feet to straightaway center field for his first home run of the night, and put the Yankees up 2-0. 

BEN RICE. 2-0! pic.twitter.com/PgXWZtTKcI

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) September 30, 2026

The move and the immediate aftermath led to questions about Tracy's decision. And he elaborated on his thought process and chalked it up to Rice getting one off of Miller.

"Not necessarily just the pitch count," Tracy said. "You’re trailing already. You’re moving third time through the order. Rice had already hit a double in the gap off of him. And you have a nice lane there for Miller and obviously, he got him. Felt like it was time to go."

"As a competitor, as a starting pitcher in this league, you want to go as long as you can every time," Tolle said after the game. "But with what our bullpen has done all year, I believe they are going to make the right decision. I want to go as long as I can, but I understand those guys picked me up a lot this year."

Despite the Rice homer, Boston was only down two runs with plenty of time to make a comeback. But it was a jolt that the Yankees needed at the moment.

"That was electric. That insurance run, that was huge for us. A little bit of breathing room," Spencer Jones said after the game. "He smoked that ball. We were super fired up about it."

That electricity was taken out on the Boston bullpen, which couldn't keep the score close. The Red Sox wound up using five relievers, who allowed eight runs, including a grand slam to Rice that put the game away in the eighth. 

With the loss, the Red Sox face elimination in Game 2 on Wednesday night. The team has faced adversity all season long to get to this point, but they understand the challenge they face.

"That’s why Tolle was out there; that’s why Schlittler was out there. Trying really hard to get Game 1 and now you have to win two in a row," Tracy said. "You have to be aggressive and try to win as many moments as we can. Because now we have to win two in a row to keep our season alive." 

"I haven’t heard the fat lady sing yet," Tolle said. "We’re going to keep going out there. I believe in us. It’s going to be fun to watch these guys compete tomorrow."

Former Yankee Sonny Gray will take the mound for Boston, looking to force a deciding Game 3. 

Superstar captain Aaron Judge was absent from both the Yankees lineup and the pregame player-by-player introductions due to a calf injury, which kept him off the team's Wild Card roster. 

Slugging DH Giancarlo Stanton and CF Trent Grisham were available off the bench to pinch-hit, but both remain somewhat sidelined by injuries of their own.

With lefty hurler Payton Tolle starting for the Red Sox, two everyday lefty batters (Luis Garcia Jr. and Ryan McMahon) were benched in favor of righty platoon options (Heliot Ramos and Amed Rosario).

Ramos, Rosario, and the three lefty pinch hitters, who were eventually subbed in (Grisham, Garcia Jr., and McMahon), batted a combined 0-for-7 on the night.

None of it mattered.

The Yankees offense knocked Tolle out of the game in the fifth inning, then proceeded to bludgeon Boston's bullpen and cruised to a commanding 9-0 win to take Game 1 of their best-of-three Wild Card series.

Ben Rice will steal the headlines with his two home runs - including a late grand slam to put the game well out of reach - and six RBI. However, multi-hit nights from George Lombard Jr. and Austin Wells in the bottom half of the Yankees batting order deserve plenty of plaudits as well.

Lombard made his playoff debut in front of a frenetic crowd in the Bronx, and delivered with a terrific 3-for-4 night at the plate, coming around to score two runs.

"It's really cool," the 21-year-old said following his first taste of postseason baseball. "It's definitely an honor and 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."

Wells, meanwhile, drove in two runs with a single and a sacrifice fly, finishing his night having gone 2-for-3, plus a walk for good measure.

"The runs added up there at the end, but I think the guys did a great job of extending the lineup," said the catcher postgame. "Great at-bats up and down [the lineup], waiting for great pitches, being stubborn in the box, getting into some of their bullpen guys."

Wells, of course, struggled mightily during the regular season with a career-worst .624 OPS, but has looked much more poised at the plate lately.

With both Stanton and Judge missing from the Yankees lineup in 2026, the team was just 52-43.

In those games, the Bronx Bombers hit for a .690 OPS and tallied a shade over 4.2 runs scored per game. For reference, across the 2026 regular season, MLB teams averaged a .718 OPS and 4.48 runs scored per game.

 If Wells can tap into his form from years prior this fall, and if Lombard's unflappable plate approach carries onward, they could be real X-factors to ignite a Yankees offense, which had been searching for answers without their big boppers in the lineup.

"We'll have a chance to close it out [in Game 2], but it's one win," concluded manager Aaron Boone. "We got the blinders on, but it's a confident group."

"If we can play our game, we can beat anyone."

BEN RICE BRINGS THE HAMMER DOWN!

A grand slam and the Yankees lead 9-0! pic.twitter.com/42w0x95BAD

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) September 30, 2026

NEW YORK — Boston Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony left Game 1 of the American League wild card series against the New York Yankees in the fifth inning, and his availability for Game 2 is uncertain.

Anthony, the leadoff hitter, struck out to start the game, but whiffed again when he came up in the third; he was replaced by pinch hitter Andruw Monasterio in the top of the sixth inning.

Red Sox manager Chad Tracy revealed what led to the decision to remove Anthony, who had his hand wrapped during his at-bats, and said that this latest injury was different from the one that put him on the injured list earlier in the year.

"There were a couple of check swings in each of the at-bats that bothered it. And swinging through the last second at-bat, swinging through, like, after the check swings, he still felt discomfort on the swings," Tracy said.

"I don't know yet. We're still talking through. The game just ended but it's difficult. Obviously it flares up on him and becomes uncomfortable, and you have to make a move there. So we'll see what the next steps are, but yeah, it was difficult."

You never know who you're going to catch at a baseball game, let alone the wild card series.

Petco Park in San Diego seats up to 39,860 and during Game 1 of the National League wild card series between the Padres and Chicago Cubs, one of those in attendance was longtime Cubs fan Bill Murray.

Murray can't be happy right with what's going on in San Diego. The Cubs were down 4-0 in the top of the fifth inning.

Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado homered in the first inning to get things going. In the third inning, Machado hit a RBI double that brought home Tatis. Xander Bogaerts sent a blast 399 feet to left field to give the Padres a 4-0 lead.

All the while, the Cubs were still searching for their first hit.

Murray, 76, is from Evanston, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago and has been a Cubs fan ever since. Murray made a career as a comedian and actor, widely known for starring in films such as Ghostbusters, Stripes, Caddyshack and Scrooged. He also made an appearance in the 1996 film Space Jam, alongside Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes.

Murray's ties with Chicago sports goes way back. He's a full-time Chicago fan, especially the Cubs.

During the 2016 World Series between the Cubs and Cleveland, Murray had a memorable moment where he led fans at Wrigley Field in "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh inning stretch.

Murray witnessed the Cubs' 2016 World Series title, which broke a 108-year drought.

Murray has to hope that the Cubs can muster up some magic in Southern California sooner rather than later.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Longtime Cubs fan Bill Murray seen at NL wild card game at Petco Park

That game, SUCKED!!!!!! It started as a genuinely disappointing evening and then morphed into a level of disaster I haven’t seen from the Red Sox in New York on a single night since the pre 2004 days. Just a complete flaming train wreck in every way possible!

The entire lineup looked like trash, Payton Tolle was outdueled by Cam Schlitter, the Sox were using low leverage relievers in the late innings, and if all that wasn’t enough, Roman Anthony left the game in the top of the sixth inning, with (potentially) yet another non contact injury that involved him simply swinging a bat.

This is horrible news for the night, horrible news for the series, and probably horrible news for the big picture (but we’ll have plenty of time to get into that in the coming months).

For now, all we know for certain is this was a complete debacle from soup to nuts, and we might as well jump right into the studs (LOL) and duds.

Studs (really scrapping the bottom of the barrel here)

Adley Rutschman: Ten pitch base hit in the first inning, and he generally put in more competitive at bats than anybody else, even with a pair of strike outs.

Nick Sogard: For his defense. A beautiful double play in the seventh inning didn’t make a lick of difference in the outcome of tonight’s game, but at the time, it did force the Yankees to use Paul Blackburn for five outs. It also should have forced them use use David Bednar to close things out, but we’ll get to why that didn’t happen below.

Duds (Pretty much everybody)

The entire lineup (outside of the first inning at bat by Rutschman): Just a complete dogshit performance by all the bats tonight! Strikeouts galore, no real approach, and they didn’t even come close to sniffing a run. Not only did they get shut out, but they only got one man to second base. Abysmal!

Alec Gamboa: Faced four guys, didn’t get any of them out. Took a bad situation when he entered in the seventh and made it even worse.

Brayan Bello: When Bello entered the game, there was still a chance the Yankees would need to use David Bednar in the ninth. That all melted away on on this Ben Rice grand slam, which was his second home run and fourth hit of the night.

Any good news?

Not really. Since this best of three Wild Card format was implemented in 2022, there’s been 16 of them. So far, the winner of Game 1 has gone on to win 15 times. However, the one time it didn’t happen was last year when the Red Sox blew a 1-0 lead. At least now, the Sox have a chance to turn the tables (if you really, really want to look on the bright side).

Of course, that’s going to require them figuring out how to hit Yankee pitching, which they haven’t done in earnest for a year and a half.

As we saw in last year’s Wild Card Series matchup against this very Red Sox team, winning Game 1 — even in a best-of-three series — doesn’t actually guarantee you victory. However, you’d still rather win it than not. You’d also especially rather win it in fairly easy fashion and leave your opponent looking for answers. While there’s still one more game to win, the Yankees couldn’t have gotten this year’s Wild Card Series off to a better start.

A year after shutting down Boston in a memorable AL Wild Card Series Game 3, Schlittler put in another gem, this time around in Game 1. Over 6.1 innings, Schlittler allowed just two hits and a walk while striking out 10 batters. No Red Sox batter even got beyond first base while the Yankees’ ace was in the game.

As for the offense, they were dealing with a pretty good pitcher themselves in Boston’s Payton Tolle. While they eked across one run against the lefty, once they got into the Red Sox bullpen, the floodgates opened. Led by a massive game from Ben Rice — four hits and six RBI — the Yankees crushed Boston’s bullpen for eight runs. What was once a pitchers’ duel morphed in to a laugher, the Yankees pulling away late to take Game 1 of the series 9-0.

While the Yankees couldn’t cash in on a Rice double in the first inning, they did get on the board in the second. After George Lombard Jr. singled after working the count, Anthony Volpe recorded a single two batters later. There was some consternation that Lombard was held at second on the single, but it didn’t end up mattering in the end as Austin Wells singled two batters after that, semi-comfortably scoring Lombard.

The Yankees had some other slight opportunities against Tolle, but weren’t able to cash in. With two outs in the fourth, Chad Tracy made his move to the bullpen, brining in Erik Miller for Tolle. The Yankees took immediate advantage of that, as Ben Rice took a Miller offering deep to dead center field. It cleared the fence and went into Monument Park to double the Yankees’ advantage.

Despite being up over 100 pitches, the Yankees brought Schlittler back out for the seventh. He got one quick out, but then gave up a single to Wilyer Abreu for just the second hit of the day for Boston. That’s what brought Aaron Boone out of the dugout to go to the bullpen. Paul Blackburn came in and got Ceddanne Rafaela to ground into an inning-ending double play, with the throw just beating Rafaela to the bag.

While that seventh inning didn’t see Boston draw closer, it did hammer home the need for insurance runs. They Yankees went on to get some in the bottom of the frame. Singles from Spencer Jones and Wells and a walk from Paul Goldschmidt loaded the bases before Boston had recorded an out. Rice then added another RBI, this one just a single that scored a run. Luis García Jr. was then sent up as a pinch-hitter and looked like he might’ve plated another couple by poking through a single. However, a great diving stop by Red Sox second baseman Nick Sogard instead turned it into a double play. Another run did score, but it prevented the Yankees from putting up an even more crooked number for the inning.

Blackburn remained in for the eighth and threw another scoreless frame. He did allow the first Boston runner to reach scoring position when Trevor Story doubled, but he stranded him there to keep the shutout intact.

After getting robbed of some further insurance in the seventh, the Yankees got plenty more in the eighth. After George Lombard Jr.’s third hit of the day, the Yankees again benefited from some walks, as Ryan McMahon and Jones reached base on them. Wells then hit a semi-deep fly ball to right field that was enough for Lombard to tag up and score. Following a Goldschmidt walk to reload the bases, Rice delivered the killer blow. He added to his big night with a grand slam to put the game out of reach.

With the 1-0 edge, the Yankees will go for the series victory tomorrow night, also at 8:00 p.m ET. Max Fried for the Yankees and Sonny Gray for the Red Sox are expected to be the starting pitchers.

Box score

Cam Schlittler authored another playoff gem against Boston and Ben Rice had four hits, including a grand slam and a solo homer, as the Yankees beat the Red Sox, 9-0, Tuesday night in Game 1 of their AL Wild Card Series. 

Here are the key takeaways...

-Schlittler has now made two playoff starts against the Red Sox and has allowed no runs and just seven hits in 14.1 innings. He’s struck out 22 and walked only one. In six career starts against Boston, including the postseason, he has a 0.47 ERA, allowing only two earned runs in 38.2 innings.

-Schlittler’s strengths are his three fastballs – a four-seam, a cutter and a sinker – and they were in fine form Tuesday. The first pitch he threw in the game lit up the scoreboard radar gun at 101 miles per hour and he used his heaters and their differing movement patterns to flummox the Red Sox. But his curveball was also a weapon. He jacked up its usage – most of the season it was at 10 percent of his arsenal, but it was nearly three times that on Tuesday – and it was a fine finishing pitch. He completed four of his 10 strikeouts with the pitch and felt so good about it he occasionally threw it twice in a row. Overall, Schlittler got 24 swings-and-misses during his outing, according to Baseball Savant, an indication of how dominant he was.

-Schlittler needed 22 pitches to navigate the first inning, mostly because of a 10-pitch battle with Adley Rutschman that ended up with a one-out, bloop single. Schlittler then retired the next 13 batters before issuing a two-out walk to Jarren Duran in the fifth. Schlittler iced Trevor Story on a harmless fly to center to end the inning, threw a 1-2-3 sixth and then the Yankees had a decision to make. The last pitch of the sixth, a cutter that wiped out Rutschman for strikeout No. 10, was Schlittler’s 107th, matching his career high attained in his dominant start against Boston to close out the 2025 Wild Card Series. Aaron Boone sent Schlittler out to start the seventh and he got one out before giving up a single to Wilyer Abreu. Then Boone came to get him and Schlittler departed to a standing ovation from the sellout crowd of 48,437, many of whom were chanting “M-V-P, M-V-P.”

-With Aaron Judge not on the roster for this series because of a calf injury, the Yankees perhaps needed a hitter to step up, and Rice did just that on Tuesday. He was 4-for-5 with six RBI and all four of the hits were clocked at 106.4 miles per hour off the bat or harder. The grand slam off Brayan Bello was 108.6 mph. Between Rice and Schlittler, a big night for the Yanks' Massachusetts natives against the Olde Towne Team, eh?

-The Yankees have a lefty-leaning lineup, but they’ve been successful against left-handed pitching this year. Southpaw Payton Tolle started for the Red Sox and the Yanks’ victory means they are 36-20 in games started by left-handers, including the regular season. Lefty hitters helped Tuesday night. Austin Wells, who batted .122 against lefties, knocked in the first run with an RBI single and Rice delivered insurance with his 12th homer against a lefty pitcher this year. He also hit a 110-mph double off Tolle. He hit the grand slam off righty Brayan Bello.

-The Yanks didn’t get anything out of their first three at-bats with runners in scoring position, but cashed their fourth with a hit from a perhaps-unlikely source: Wells. With two outs in the second inning, Wells swatted a single into right field to score George Lombard Jr. from second base for a 1-0 Yankee lead. Wells had a poor season offensively and was particularly bad against left-handed pitching, going 11-for-90 against lefties.

-The Yanks were set up for damage in the fourth inning when Lombard reached on a tough chopper to third that was scored a base hit. Amed Rosario followed with a walk on a 3-2 pitch that became ball four when he successfully challenged the original strike call. But things flattened from there, even as Boston started its bullpen churning. The Red Sox clearly thought Anthony Volpe would bunt, because they slid their corner infielders in. Volpe swung and fouled out and then Spencer Jones hit a soft liner to the left side that Caleb Durbin easily snared. Lombard got too far off the bag at second and Durbin threw over for an inning-ending double play. After two more failed at-bats with runners in scoring position, the Yanks were only 1-for-7 in such situations early.

-Tolle lasted 4.2 innings for the Red Sox, allowing just one run and five hits – four singles and Rice’s first-inning double. He walked one, struck out four and threw 83 pitches (58 strikes). Boston manager Chad Tracy took Tolle out with Rice waiting to hit. In came fellow lefty Erik Miller and Rice punished the Red Sox, smashing a 423-foot homer over the center field wall that was clocked at 108 miles per hour off the bat. Rice’s longball, the second postseason home run of his career, gave the Yanks a 2-0 lead that seemed much wider because of the way Schlittler was pitching.

-Rice later added an RBI single in the seventh inning and the Yanks got a fourth run on a double-play grounder, too. In the eighth, Wells made it 5-0 with a sac fly and Rice connected for his slam in that inning, too, a 408-foot drive.

Game MVP

Schlittler. He threw 6.1 scoreless innings, allowing only two hits and a walk. The Red Sox never got a runner past first base against him. He struck out 10 and threw a career-high 117 pitches, 77 of them for strikes. Boston’s 1-2-3 spots in their lineup were 1-for-9 against him with seven strikeouts.

Highlights

Cam Schlittler starts Game 1 off with a K pic.twitter.com/u3VdvJxsFU

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) September 30, 2026

Three strikeouts for Cam Schlittler in the first after a successful Austin Wells ABS challenge pic.twitter.com/V7X44ouZ3j

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) September 30, 2026

Four strikeouts for Cam Schlittler in 2 innings

He’s generated 11 swing and misses pic.twitter.com/pLHesL783f

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) September 30, 2026

George Lombard Jr. singles in his first postseason at-bat pic.twitter.com/0OfOKFWzcc

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) September 30, 2026

Austin Wells opens the scoring in Game 1! pic.twitter.com/11NGVmZyZ6

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) September 30, 2026

Cam Schlittler is up to 6 Ks in 3 innings in Game 1 pic.twitter.com/RyWngkIWhC

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) September 30, 2026

BEN RICE. 2-0! pic.twitter.com/PgXWZtTKcI

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) September 30, 2026

Cam Schlittler. pic.twitter.com/8SRIIYJ654

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) September 30, 2026

Paul Blackburn gets the double play! pic.twitter.com/gO4HizgMa9

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) September 30, 2026

Ben Rice with an RBI knock to make it 3-0! pic.twitter.com/Dv4DfM4Wyo

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) September 30, 2026

Nick Sogard with the diving stop to start the double play, but Austin Wells comes into score to make it 4-0 pic.twitter.com/jHJI6ym9Tc

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) September 30, 2026

Another RBI for Austin Wells on a sac fly pic.twitter.com/YPhYsoqNC1

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) September 30, 2026

BEN RICE BRINGS THE HAMMER DOWN!

A grand slam and the Yankees lead 9-0! pic.twitter.com/42w0x95BAD

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) September 30, 2026

Up next

The Yankees have a chance to sweep the best-of-three series against their archrivals on Wednesday at 8:00 p.m.

Max Fried takes the mound for New York, squaring off against former Yankee Sonny Gray, who enjoyed an excellent 2026 regular season with Boston.