Wild Card Round IGT - Red Sox at Yanquis, 8:00 PM, NBC

[Frayed Knot]

The six AL playoff teams are a definite case of Big Three/Little Three. The big boys [TBR, NYY, BOS] are a combined 71 games over .500 while the little three are just a collective +14. And one of those Big Three will be eliminated in the 1st round and two of the three are guaranteed to be gone prior to the ALCS.

And so it starts with these two. Boston calls on Payton Tolle, the immense [6' 6" / 250] rookie left-hander, just two years removed from being drafted (2nd round  - 2024) who went 9 - 6, 3.03 / 1.096 in 26 starts. Yanx counter with likely AL CY winner Cam Schlittler.

And then maybe the bigger news is will/how much Aaron Judge plays.

Yanx won 7 of 13 during their regular season play.

[Frayed Knot]

Aaron Judge will NOT be on the Yanx' roster for the first round vs Boston.

[MFS62]

Gee. What a shocker. The game is on over-the-air TV in prime time.

Whoda' thunk it?

Later

[Gwreck]

As a New Yorker, there’s much that I find offensive about the Yankees but the fact that they’re profitable for TV broadcasts is not one of them.

New York is where the most people (and most baseball fans) live and thus its teams are more likely to get the most important viewing windows.  This benefits the Mets too (and especially as an attendee) in years in which they make the postseason.

[Frayed Knot]

The good news is that I found a linnk on 'Bet MGM' where I can bet on from which section the fan who assaults the first opposing player comes from.

[Centerfield]

1-0 bad guys. I feel like Boston might be the best chance to knock them off until the WS.  

[Centerfield]

They’re going to win the fucking WS. Fuck 2026. 

[metirish]

OMFG , I watched the first few innings, it was still 1-0 when I went to bed,  this booth never shut up ,not to mention one half inning of music just playing as they talked , I know they want to appeal to the casual fan but my God can you at least call balls and strikes?

[Frayed Knot]

I fell asleep with the Yanx up 2 - 0

Woke up to the Grand Slam making it 9 - 0 ... then immediately wen to bed.

 

In the four years / 16 playoffs that these best-of-three matchups have existed, the team winning the first game went on the win the series 15 times with 11 of those series being 2 - 0 sweeps. Only the BoSox last year won game one (vs the Yanx) but then lost the next two.

 

Ranger Suarez vs Gerritt Cole Sonny Gray & Max Fried in game two. Same bat time, same bat channel as last night.

[metirish]

There are way too many different people talking here 

[Frayed Knot]

Not content with a three man booth, networks now routinely go to three-man, and now they've set up a permanent guy on the sidelines so it's essentially a four man booth even if one of them isn't physically in the booth.  So you've got the p-b-p man, Joe Girardi, Lou Merloni, plus Anthony Rizzo somewhere in the expensive seats.

I almost always prefer just a two-man team but TV never subscribes to the less-is-more theory.  Their mantra is too often, bigger-is-better, and really big is better still.

[Frayed Knot]

Nice of Boston to finally contribute to the scoring before this series is out.

[Frayed Knot]

It's like Boston's entire season was that 32 - 5 stretch from June 25 thru August 7th

Prior to that they were 32 - 46 and they went 23 - 24 after that point [55 - 70]. And that before & after team is the one they've been looking like these last two days.

[Fman99]

Big bummer.  I hate when the MFYs win or advance