The Yankees dropped a 9-0 shutout on the Red Sox in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series with Aaron Judge nowhere near the lineup, and the only people still clinging to the “they’re finished without him” script are the ones who skipped the box score. Ben Rice went 4-for-5 with two homers and six RBI. Cam Schlittler carved up Boston for 6 1/3 scoreless with 10 strikeouts. The Red Sox managed three hits. Yankee Stadium held 48,437 for a rematch of last year’s Wild Card, and the home team turned it into a coronation without their back-to-back MVP.
Judge has been on the injured list since mid-September with a right calf strain. Boone left him off the 26-man roster entirely after sounding upbeat Monday about cage work and anti-gravity treadmill sessions. Tuesday’s verdict was cleaner: “I don’t think he’s all the way back.” Extra rest for a potential next round. Fine. The offense that ranked middle-of-the-pack in runs and OPS during the regular season just scored nine without him and made it look easy.
Giancarlo Stanton made the roster after his own long calf layoff but stayed on the bench as a pure pinch-hitter option. Trent Grisham too. Neither needed to touch the dirt. The kids and the mid-order did the damage.
Rice Did Not Ask Permission
Ben Rice treated the Red Sox like batting practice. Solo shot to Monument Park in the fifth. Grand slam in the eighth. Six RBI total, tying the franchise single-game postseason mark and the first Yankee to do it since Robinson Cano in 2011. He also doubled and singled home a run. Forty-one homers in the regular season already said he belonged. Tuesday night said he can carry a playoff game when the superstar sits.
Aaron Boone saw it the same way. “He pummeled pitches all night. They went after him a little bit and he made them pay. I mean, some great left-on-left at-bats, the double to right-center smoke, the homer out the front door in Monument Park. And an exclamation point there at the end. Just a big-time night.” That is the manager telling you the depth chart just got rewritten in real time. Austin Wells drove in the first run. George Lombard Jr. collected three hits in his postseason debut as the second-youngest Yankee ever to appear in October behind Mickey Mantle. The supporting cast the primary worry said lacked depth after Rice, Bellinger, and Goldschmidt just piled on five in the eighth alone.
The counter is obvious and fair: one game does not erase a season where the Yankees were better with Judge in the lineup (.621 winning percentage versus .547 without). A compromised Judge still beats most healthy hitters. True. Then look at what actually happened when the decision got forced. Boston’s September offense ranked last in baseball in runs per game, batting average, and OPS. Payton Tolle, the rookie lefty, lasted 4 2/3 and gave up the first run. The bullpen got lit. Roman Anthony left with hand pain. Three hits. Zero runs. The “need Judge” panic ran straight into a lineup that refused to wait for him.
Schlittler Owns This Rivalry Now
Cam Schlittler, the kid from Walpole, Massachusetts, walked into the Bronx and treated his hometown team like a pitching clinic. Six and a third, two hits, one walk, 10 punchouts on 117 pitches. He retired 13 straight at one point. Boone sent him back out for the seventh anyway. “No debate to send him out. I was going to have him go face Contreras no matter what. Probably should have taken him out at that point, but I got a little greedy.” Greedy worked. Two Wild Card starts against Boston now sit at 14 1/3 scoreless innings with 22 strikeouts. Regular season: 14-6, 1.95 ERA. The Red Sox have no answers for him.
Boone summed the whole night without needing spin. “Pretty remarkable. For them to go out and have that kind of night together to start this postseason, [it’s] pretty amazing and kind of hard to grasp a little bit, frankly. But I’m certainly glad we have those two.” Rice and Schlittler. The night belonged to them. The largest Yankees postseason shutout since the 1960 World Series belonged to them. Historical note on best-of-three Wild Cards: the Game 1 winner advances at a brutal clip. The Yankees sit one win from the ALDS and a projected date with the Rays. Max Fried versus Sonny Gray in Game 2. Boston has to invent an offense overnight or this series ends Wednesday.
Judge will get healthy. Stanton will get his October at-bats. None of that changes what Tuesday already proved. The Yankees can bury the Red Sox without the face of the franchise in the dugout. Rice just put six RBI and two bombs on the ledger while the MVP rested a calf. Schlittler just made a Massachusetts kid the villain in Boston. The depth that was supposed to be thin just produced a nine-spot and a three-hit shutout. Game 2 is the only remaining chance for the Red Sox to answer. Everything else is already on the board.
