Inside Yolk

Man, we were sooooo close to getting the Yankees eliminated from the 2025 MLB Postseason in just two games, but we will have to wait at least one more night for Yankees fans to once again realize that we’re not in the 1990s anymore. Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera are not walking through that door, but on Wednesday night Austin Wells did walk through that door. He hooked a Garrett Whitlock changeup down the right field line to score Jazz Chisholm all the way from first base and break a 3-3 tie. David Bednar pitched a one-two-three ninth to earn the save and schedule a sure-to-be dramatic Game 3 for the evening after Yom Kippur.

Up until that RBI by Wells, the Red Sox had an answer to everything the Yankees were doing. New York got on the board first with a Ben Rice two-run dinger in the first that came on the first Postseason pitch that he ever faced. Trevor Story responded to that with a two-RBI single with the bases loaded in the third, and he also canceled out Aaron Judge’s fifth-inning RBI single with a solo shot in the very next frame. Story came up with the bases loaded and two outs again in the seventh, but his 102 mph line drive was tracked down by Trent Grisham in center field to keep the score tied 3-3. Just one batter earlier, Chisholm made a diving stop to keep Masataka Yoshida’s single on the infield and prevent Nate Eaton from scoring from second base.

The first day of the 2025 MLB Postseason is in the books, and that leaves us with four teams facing do-or-die elimination games today. Boy, did that escalate quickly. We’re only on the first day of October and already the Cinderella Guardians and powerhouse Yankees are being pushed to the brink. How did this happen?

Well, Cleveland ran into an ace at the top of his game in Tarik Skubal. The Cy Young favorite struck out 14 Guardians in seven and two thirds innings with three walks and just one run allowed when Angel Martinez raced around from second base to score on an infield single by Gabriel Arias in the fourth inning.

Martinez’s mad dash evened the score after the Tigers used a pair of two-out hits and an error to get a run across in the first. Detroit would score the winning run in the seventh when Riley Greene led off with a double and was driven in by a safety squeeze bunt perfectly executed by Zach McKinstry. That type of play is how you win games when your ace is shoving on the mound and you know just one run can make a big difference.

That run only held up because of Will Vest getting out of trouble in the ninth, though. Jose Ramirez led off with a ground ball up the middle and ended up on third base when Javy Baez made a diving stop and saw his throw to first get by Spencer Torkelson at first base. However, Vest buckled down and struck out George Valera before getting a comebacker from Kyle Manzardo that got Ramirez stuck between third and home. Vest tagged out Ramirez easily, which set up the game-ending pop-up by C.J. Kayfus and a 2-1 victory for the Tigers.