Yankees beat Red Sox 9–0 at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night to take a 1–0 lead in their American League Wild Card Series, a best-of-three format in which the first team to win two games advances. Right-hander Cam Schlittler struck out 10 across 6⅓ scoreless innings, and designated hitter Ben Rice hit two home runs, including a grand slam, to finish with six runs batted in. Boston must win Wednesday to keep its season alive.
The fourth-seeded Yankees hosted the fifth-seeded Red Sox in the best-of-three round, and the pairing has fresh history. Last year the two clubs met at the same stage, Boston won the opener, and New York took the next two games, becoming the first team since MLB expanded the first round in 2022 to lose a Wild Card opener and still advance, according to ESPN. This year the early edge belongs to the Yankees.
Yankees beat Red Sox as a tight game breaks open in the seventh
Through six innings the game was tight. Austin Wells’ two-out single in the second gave New York a 1–0 lead, and Rice added a solo home run to center field in the fifth. Boston starter Payton Tolle, in his first career postseason start, kept the Red Sox within reach, allowing five hits and one earned run over 4⅔ innings, according to MLB.com and box-score data.
The game broke open late. Rice’s bases-loaded single in the seventh made it 3–0, and a further run scored despite a double play that limited the damage, per NESN’s game blog. In the eighth, Wells’ sacrifice fly brought home George Lombard Jr., and Rice then hit the grand slam that made it 9–0. Rice finished 4-for-5 with a double, and New York outhit Boston 12 to 3.
Schlittler extends his run against Boston
Schlittler is the main reason the Yankees beat Red Sox hitters so comprehensively. He threw a career-high 117 pitches, allowing two hits and one walk. He is now 4-1 with a 0.47 ERA in six career starts against Boston, regular season and postseason combined, according to MLB.com. Last year he pitched eight shutout innings in the deciding third game of the same round, when New York eliminated the Red Sox 4–0.
Both men grew up in Boston suburbs, Schlittler in Walpole and Rice in Cohasset, as MLB.com noted, so two of the night’s biggest performances for New York came from players raised in Red Sox territory. Schlittler has said in the past that he wanted to play for the Yankees, according to ESPN’s coverage of last year’s series.
Boston’s bats and the schedule for Game 2
Boston managed three hits: Wilyer Abreu, Adley Rutschman and Trevor Story, who doubled, according to box-score data. The Red Sox went hitless in their only at-bat with a runner in scoring position. MLB.com noted the club, managed by Chad Tracy, had been searching for offensive form for weeks before the loss.
Game 2 is set for Wednesday, September 30, at Yankee Stadium, with a scheduled first pitch of 8 p.m. ET. Boston will start Sonny Gray, and New York will counter with left-hander Max Fried, according to MLB.com. If Boston wins, a deciding Game 3 is scheduled for Thursday, October 1, also in the Bronx, and the series winner moves on to the Division Series.
What is still unresolved
One game does not settle a best-of-three series, and the fact that the Yankees beat Red Sox by nine runs says little about how Wednesday will unfold. Fox reported that Aaron Judge is not on the Yankees’ Wild Card roster and will miss the series; HCN did not find an official team statement on the reason in the sources reviewed, so the cause of his absence is not covered here. New York won Game 1 without him.
The arithmetic is simple: New York needs one more win, Boston needs two. The Red Sox used six pitchers in Game 1, while the Yankees needed only three, a difference in workload that could affect bullpen decisions on Wednesday, though neither club had announced its plans in the sources reviewed. HCN will update this story as Game 2 develops.