Playoff Eve Thread (Red Sox v Yankees)

[Maxbialystock]

3 hours ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

All Sox/Yankems PO games will be televised on ESPN at 6:08 PM EST.

Thanks. 

[Maxbialystock]

5 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Sox went 9-4 against NYY this year and 4-2 @ NYY. Sox went 2-1 vs Fried and 2-1 vs Rodon. 

 

Nice!

[iortiz]

If Cora is congruent with his “matchup lineups” we must expect heavy loaded right handed bats. 

[iortiz]

I’d go…

2B González 

3B Bregman

SS Story

DH Refsnyder

CF Rafaela

RF Eaton 

1B Sogard

C Narvaez

LF Duran

[MADSTORK]

Yanks sweep

not enough offense in lineup, you might not score a run vs fried

You don’t need 18 pitchers on the roster in a 3 game series. If your starters can’t give you 6 to 7 minus LG you don’t deserve to be there in first place 

Campbell Should be up, hit well back in AAA another bench bat with some pop

I’ll quote the great “Tito Francona “

Good luck with that…

 

[moonslav59]

Surprised the troll made an appearance.

Not surprised at what he said.

[jad]

20 hours ago, Old Red said:

Like I said earlier that playing in the postseason is uncharted waters for most of these Red Sox players, and anything can happen. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Red Sox get swept, and it wouldn’t surprise me if the Red Sox do the sweeping. At any rate I’m glad it’s against the Yankees, but wished it would have been in a frenzied Fenway Park.

You mean, like one of the teams winning two games in a row?  Yeah, I think that's possible.

 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

Can't think of a more one-sided postseason Sox-Yanks match-up. Closest was the 1999 ALCS, when the rag-tag Red Sox lost to a NY powerhouse in the middle of three straight championships.

This '25 Sox team scrapping and scraping to barely get in to face NY reminds me of that '99 version that came from behind to win a best-of-5 ALDS over a loaded Cleveland club.

Boston dropped the first two on the road and also lost its best player, Nomar Garciaparra, to injury. In Game 3, NESN's own Lou Merloni started at shortstop and had two hits to help win, and then the Sox exploded with 24 hits and 23 runs to even the series.

The finale was another slugfest, with the Sox trailing 8-7, after 3 innings. But Tribe Manager Hargrove, who intentionally walked Nomar to set up a Troy O'Leary grand slam in the 3rd, did it again in the 7th. O'Leary also did it again, launching a 3-run shot for what proved to be the game-winner.

Key move was when Sox Manager Jimy Williams brought in ace starter Pedro Martinez with a cranky back for the final 6 frames. The first six hitters in Cleveland's batting order were Hall of Famers or borderliners: Lofton-Vizquel-Alomar-Ramirez-Thome-Baines.

Pedro threw a no-hitter.

 

[Yaz Fan Since 67]

20 hours ago, bkzwhitestrican said:

Looking forward to multiple four hour games filled with angst and s***** takes by broadcasters. 

Good point, this sucks all the way around.  Having a playoff team play every playoff game on the road is total ********, and I'd be saying this if the Sox had home field.  I get rewarding 162 games and all but this is insane.  

[mvp 78]

9 hours ago, MADSTORK said:

Campbell Should be up, hit well back in AAA another bench bat with some pop

 

In fact, he did NOT hit well. 

[Yaz Fan Since 67]

4 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

In fact, he did NOT hit well. 

Thanks, I was just going to look up Campbell's AAA numbers.

[Chris_JP11561]

The Yanks are nothing less than the DREAM matchup for the Sox! 9-4 record over New York in the regular season, 66 runs versus their 51. That is called being OWNED! BOSTON WINS IN TWO GAMES, LEAVES PEOPLE WEEPING IN AGONY IN THE STADIUM!

[Deja Doh]

17 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Sox went 9-4 against NYY this year and 4-2 @ NYY. Sox went 2-1 vs Fried and 2-1 vs Rodon. 

 

For 5 of those 9 wins we had Yankee killer Devers in the lineup (he hit 3;homers in first 6 games).  We also had Anthony for most of the 13 games.   That said, our offense needs to step it up.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

It's inevitable it will all come down to a Game 3 showdown between two rookie starting pitchers: Early and Schlittler. 

Fans in the Bronx won't know who to boo louder: their guy from Northeastern and Walpole or the kid from Virginia...

[mvp 78]

28 minutes ago, Yaz Fan Since 67 said:

Thanks, I was just going to look up Campbell's AAA numbers.

799 OPS. Lots of damage off FB's below 92 mph and nothing faster. 🫠

[Maxbialystock]

12 hours ago, iortiz said:

I’d go…

2B González 

3B Bregman

SS Story

DH Refsnyder

CF Rafaela

RF Eaton 

1B Sogard

C Narvaez

LF Duran

That's almost exactly what I was mulling last night, especially Eaton in RF for Abreu.  Too bad the Sox don't have another righty bat to put in LF.  

[bkzwhitestrican]

1 hour ago, Yaz Fan Since 67 said:

Good point, this sucks all the way around.  Having a playoff team play every playoff game on the road is total ********, and I'd be saying this if the Sox had home field.  I get rewarding 162 games and all but this is insane.  

I think it was the only way they could increase the wild card from a single play-in game (how it was a few years ago) to multiple games without creating too large of a break for the teams with a bye. But I hear ya. I also have a gripe with the lack of re-seeding in MLB playoffs (Yanks tied for the best record in the AL but don't get rewarded for it). Oh well. Should be a good series though, hope you guys lose 😉

[Maxbialystock]

Thanks everyone for a bunch of opinions and insights.

Like several of you I'm nervous as heck about tonight because I think winning this one with our ace is essential.  

Our Sox struggled at the end and the Yankees breezed.  However that breeze was helped by playing 12 games against three teams with losing records. 

The Sox meanwhile played two postseason teams in their final 6 games.  In fact, they took 2 of 3 at Toronto, which has the best record in the AL.  The Jays have a good offense, but were held to 1 run in each of the first 2 games--one week ago!!--by Sox pitching.  

For tonight I do expect Cora to stuff the lineup with righty bats.  

 

[Old Red]

Bregman is sick, and did not travel to NY with the rest of the team. Was driven in car.

[mvp 78]

15 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Bregman is sick, and did not travel to NY with the rest of the team. Was driven in car.

He practiced on the field yesterday with the team. Don't know how limited he was/is. 

[Old Red]

1 minute ago, mvp 78 said:

He practiced on the field yesterday with the team. Don't know how limited he was/is. 

According to TC Bregman did practice, but they are trying to keep him away from the rest of the team as much as possible.

[FredLynn]

This year just getting into the playoffs was good enough for me. Next year it won't be good enough. We should be all in next year (in fact we should have been all in THIS year) and be competing for a ring. I would at least like to beat the Yankmees but its going to be difficult with Gio out.

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, FredLynn said:

This year just getting into the playoffs was good enough for me. Next year it won't be good enough. We should be all in next year (in fact we should have been all in THIS year) and be competing for a ring. I would at least like to beat the Yankmees but its going to be difficult with Gio out.

Agreed. Winning the first two would be nice.

We better be "all in" this winter, especially in light of the quiet trade deadline, and some clear needs going into 2026, as well as some clear logjams of talent.

We have a lot of pre-arb and early arb players on the roster, as well as low cost, up front, young players locked up for many years. Even our one big eyesore contract (Masa) kinda improved his value in September. Hicks is overpaid, but not a huge contract.

In my opinion, we should concentrate of getting fewer high quality players over one or two more players at lower quality. We could accomplish this by making 1-2 big trades and 1-2 big singings, totally 3-4 major additions. I'm not against adding some low cost depth players we'd stash in AAA, like Eaton, Toro and others like this year, but no more adding 5-6 barely better than average outlook additions.

If I had to add 3:

1. Big RHB (3B, 1B, 2B, DH) Bregman does not count as a big bat, but he could be #3.

2. Solid #2 SP'er

3. 3B, 2B, 1B (see #1 and get another position from his)

If I got 4:

1. BIG RHB (3B, 1B)

2. Solid #2 SP'er

3. 2B 

4. 1B or 3B (see #1)

[iortiz]

4 hours ago, FredLynn said:

This year just getting into the playoffs was good enough for me. Next year it won't be good enough. We should be all in next year (in fact we should have been all in THIS year) and be competing for a ring. I would at least like to beat the Yankmees but its going to be difficult with Gio out.

I agree getting to POs was enough this year, but going for all? I don't think so.  We have a lot of inexperienced youth and the rotation is short, mostly now with Giolito out. 

[Kimmi]

5 hours ago, Maxbialystock said:

Thanks everyone for a bunch of opinions and insights.

Like several of you I'm nervous as heck about tonight because I think winning this one with our ace is essential.  

Our Sox struggled at the end and the Yankees breezed.  However that breeze was helped by playing 12 games against three teams with losing records. 

The Sox meanwhile played two postseason teams in their final 6 games.  In fact, they took 2 of 3 at Toronto, which has the best record in the AL.  The Jays have a good offense, but were held to 1 run in each of the first 2 games--one week ago!!--by Sox pitching.  

For tonight I do expect Cora to stuff the lineup with righty bats.  

 

For the postseason, you can pretty much throw away anything that happened during the regular season.  In a short series, anything can happen.  To state the obvious, it would be huge if we can win Game 1.

[Old Red]

1 minute ago, Kimmi said:

For the postseason, you can pretty much throw away anything that happened during the regular season.  In a short series, anything can happen.  To state the obvious, it would be huge if we can win Game 1.

Like I’ve mentioned before that many on the Red Sox are in uncharted waters just playing in the postseason, and that includes Crochet plus he’s never thrown this many innings before, so yes anything can happen.

[iortiz]

5 hours ago, Maxbialystock said:

Thanks everyone for a bunch of opinions and insights.

Like several of you I'm nervous as heck about tonight because I think winning this one with our ace is essential.  

Our Sox struggled at the end and the Yankees breezed.  However that breeze was helped by playing 12 games against three teams with losing records. 

The Sox meanwhile played two postseason teams in their final 6 games.  In fact, they took 2 of 3 at Toronto, which has the best record in the AL.  The Jays have a good offense, but were held to 1 run in each of the first 2 games--one week ago!!--by Sox pitching.  

For tonight I do expect Cora to stuff the lineup with righty bats.  

 

Honestly I'm not that anxious or nervous like other years since I did not expect too much from this 2025 Red Sox. I think they already achieved their ceiling and despite all the injuries plus trading Devers. This was a very good rebuilding year. 

Next year they have to pull the trigger though. They need at very least 2 elite bats at 1B and DH while keep developing Campbell, Mayer, Anthony, Abreu, Narvaez, Password and even Casas. The future is pretty bright and exciting if you ask me. The WS door is officially open for the next 5 years IMO,

[Yaz Fan Since 67]

1 hour ago, Old Red said:

Like I’ve mentioned before that many on the Red Sox are in uncharted waters just playing in the postseason, and that includes Crochet plus he’s never thrown this many innings before, so yes anything can happen.

This is exactly why I felt it was important for this team to make the playoffs. I'm also in the camp that believes we are playing with house money, I sure didn't see a playoff team in April. 

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

9 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Surprised the troll made an appearance.

Not surprised at what he said.

He's mad I tell ya.