Blame Aaron Boone as the cause of this Yankees defeat
Yankees relief pitcher Brooks Kriske looks for the ball from catcher Rob Brantly after throwing a wild pitch in the 10th inning against the Red Sox at Fenway Park on Thursday in Boston. Credit: AP/Elise Amendola
This one is on Aaron Boone.
100%.
The desperate and undermanned Yankees were on the verge of one of their most inspirational wins of the season at Fenway Park on Thursday night when Boone made a decision that led to a 5-4, 10-inning defeat. It may contribute to the eventual end of his tenure as Yankees manager.
If it doesn’t, it should. Otherwise the baseball world is more upside down than we all may fear.
The Yankees were leading the Red Sox, 3-1, in the bottom of the ninth when Boone called on Chad Green for the last three outs.
Here’s the problem, 1: Luis Cessa had utterly dominated the heart of the Boston order in the eighth inning, getting three outs on five pitches. Three groundballs, two of them dribblers by Xander Bogaerts and Hunter Renfroe, that traveled a combined 40 feet.
Here’s the problem, 2: Chad Green is not a reliable closer type. A good reliever, yes, but the ninth inning is a different animal, and Green has not shown that he knows how to master it.
Also, Cessa threw FIVE PITCHES.
Still, Boone followed the modern baseball formula and brought in Green for the ninth. Predictably, maddeningly -- if you’re a Yankees fan -- Green allowed a two-out, two-run, game-tying double to Kiki Hernandez.
Here was Boone’s explanation for why he couldn’t just let Cessa start the ninth after he had thrown five pitches -- FIVE PITCHES -- in the eighth:
"I felt good about Greenie in a save situation tonight," Boone said. "It was going to be Cessa there in the eighth. And, remember, Cessa is coming off two days ago throwing 30 pitches, so I was a little reluctant to throw him out for a second up, especially when I’ve got Greenie sitting there. I'm not going to not send Greenie out there in a save situation when I’ve got him there."
Chad Green apparently has become Mariano Rivera in Boone’s eyes. Because that is the kind of logic you would use to explain why you brought in the best closer in baseball history, not a reliever with a total of seven career saves.
And 10 blown saves after Thursday night.
Imagine what the narrative would have been today if the Yankees had won. They are still without their COVID-19 positive players – most notably, Aaron Judge and Gio Urshela, who both could rejoin the team this weekend – and faced the first-place Red Sox without Aroldis Chapman and Zack Britton because of their recent usage.
So when the Yankees got 5 2/3 dominant innings from Jordan Montgomery wrapped around a 55-minute rain delay . . . and got clutch outs from Syosset-born reliever Sal Romano in his Yankees debut after he was called up earlier in the day . . . and used their newly-formed Little Ball skills to build a late lead with two runs in the eighth . . . and were poised to move to within six games of the Red Sox . . .
. . . It has to be infuriating to Yankees fans that the end result was another heartbreaking loss.
"I’m still pretty sick to my stomach right now," Montgomery said.
It’s possible that the day-after recriminations will fall on reliever Brooks Kriske, who took the loss after allowing two runs and throwing four wild pitches in the bottom of the 10th.
Yes, four wild pitches in one inning. That tied an MLB record.
The Yankees had taken a 4-3 lead in the top of the 10th, thanks to Rob Manfred’s ghost runner and a sacrifice fly by Brett Gardner.
But given the state of the Yankees’ bullpen, that hardly seemed like a big enough lead, and what seemed inevitable became reality when the tying run scored on Kriske’s wild pitch No. 2. The winning run scored on Renfroe’s sacrifice fly to right.
"It sucks to be the one to blow it for the team," Kriske said.
It wasn’t you, Brooks. It was your manager.
FIVE PITCHES. That might end up being the epitaph for the 2021 Yankees.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
