IS JUDGE ALREADY FINISHED? OHTANI AND CUBS WIN, BUT YANKEES IN BIG TROUBLE
They fell short of the American League’s No. 1 seed and are playing the Red Sox, who rallied behind Garrett Crochet and could eliminate Aaron Judge while leaving manager Aaron Boone’s future in doubt
Boos were voiced — what else? — at Yankee Stadium. Garrett Crochet happened to grow up in Mississippi, but he understood the magnitude of the messianic rivalry. There he was Tuesday night, pitching in the eighth inning and carrying a lead for the Red Sox, who went on to finish a 3-1 victory. Just imagine if Crochet eliminates Aaron Judge and the Yankees in the Bronx and creates doubts about the future of manager Aaron Boone.
Such is the position of an American League Wild Card series that shows the peskiness of the Red Sox and how endangered the Yankees have become. One more Boston win ousts the Yankees and continues to leave Judge’s career without many postseason heroics. In five starts against Crochet this season, he is 3-for-16 with 11 strikeouts.
The MVP cannot continue to ache after his magnificent regular seasons are over. He has one more opportunity to electrify an autumn. He singled against Aroldis Chapman in the ninth, but the Yankees failed to score against the ageless fireballer.
“I felt confident the whole way,” said Crochet, who retired 17 straight batters and is 4-0 against the Yankees. “I feel like in this environment, it’s really hard to feel any sort of fatigue except mental. I felt locked in. There was a lot at stake.”
“You could see it in his eyes that he wanted it bad,” third baseman Alex Bregman said. “It was special. That’s what the big guys do. That’s what Cy Young-type guys do.”
Said Judge, who should know the winner of the first game has advanced in all 12 Wild Card series: “It’s a tough one, especially when (Crochet) comes out and does his job. He’s the best pitcher in the game.”
How fascinating to see Crochet deliver after the Chicago White Sox traded him away last December. He urged the Red Sox by wearing a business casual outfit to New York, while teammates were very relaxed. “This could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for some guys on this team, so I think that we should treat it with the dignity that it deserves,” Crochet said. The White Sox have lost 324 games in three years and should please go away. The city should be a one-team town, right?
The wildest whim about the Cubs? They think they’ll win another World Series. Amazing, isn’t it, when Shohei Ohtani reminded us of his transcendence with two home runs for the Dodgers — in a 10-5 victory over Cincinnati that might prevent him from a starting pitching assignment in a possible third game. His second cranker soared 454 feet. The Dodgers and Cubs? Anthony Rizzo was hired to be an ambassador, narrating a hype video with the city looking resplendent. Eddie Vedder flew in and sang in the seventh inning — “Do The Evolution” or “Alive” would have worked, but he blasted “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” and handed out guitar picks to his new section buddies. And Pete Crow-Armstrong?
When he recently watched his predecessors win it all nine years ago, he said, “F— it. Time to lock in again.”
In Game 1 in what would be a 13-victory crawl, all the Cubs needed were home runs from Carson Kelly and Seiya Suzuki, incredible relief performances against the San Diego Padres and a special moment from a forgotten memory of a prominent family. Dansby Swanson is secondary in his household, watching wife Mallory grab national commercial time for the soccer community. Tuesday, he was balletic at shortstop, saving runs in a 3-1 victory by catching a ball over his shoulder.
“Right off the bat, I thought it was going to fall in there, but Dansby got a nice drop step, went out and made what ended up being probably the play of the game,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said.
“I can probably haul in a catch or two,” said Swanson, speaking of football.
The Cubs are renewing their compassion within Wrigley Field. Nine years have passed since their only championship since 1908, but they play efficient baseball and deal with injuries — Cade Horton, Kyle Tucker — and should take down an opponent with starting pitching issues. What would be next? A series in Milwaukee, a smaller town with a much smaller payroll, with disdain that might burn down lanes on Interstate 94.
“Simply put, it was fantastic,’’ Suzuki said. “You just felt the passion of the fans, them cheering us on. I was really moved by it. With the postseason, it’s a different animal.”
“We’re very spoiled here,” Nico Hoerner said. “To be able to play playoff baseball here is an incredible feeling. We’re got a lot more.”
How intriguing — we’re only in Day 2 — if Los Angeles and Chicago reached the league championship series. A sport that might die in 14 months, when the collective bargaining agreement expires, deserves one chance to entice two of America’s three biggest markets. The Dodgers won behind Blake Snell, who struck out nine before an abominable bullpen took over and created bad humor in the stands.
We could do so much worse than a final four involving Ohtani, Cal Raleigh and whatever mixture is spurring the Cubs. It still could be Crow-Armstrong, who said, “I feel like I was made for fall baseball.” The beauty of this fall: We’re already fastened into Wrigley Field, Yankee Stadium and Dodger Stadium.
Baseball was fortunate to re-enact the Yankees and Red Sox. In New York, Boston fans were restricted from buying tickets on Ticketmaster’s page. “Yankee Stadium is located in the Bronx, New York. Orders by residents outside New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania will be canceled without notice and refunds given,” said a warning. This is what happens when Red Sox fans chanted Sunday, “Yankees suck! Yankees suck!”
“I think it’s the best rivalry in all of sports,” said Boston’s Trevor Story, who grew up in Irvine, Texas.
The weirdest rivalry — Tigers vs. Guardians, yum — only was compounded when Detroit blew a 15 1/2-game lead and let Cleveland win the division. The rulebook allowed the series to happen because the Guardians won the AL Central and had to face the worst wild card. Let’s thank the rulebook, which demanded the No. 4 seed Yankees play the No. 5 seed Red Sox. Despite Judge’s predicament, it’s much better watching a prime-time replay of the old shenanigans — Pedro Martinez vs. Don Zimmer, Jason Varitek vs. Alex Rodriguez, Bucky Bleepin’ Dent — and let the Midwesterners play ring toss.
Before you bury the Tigers, remember they possess one of the game’s great pitchers. Tarik Skubal hit David Fry in the face, but he overcame a scary hospital visit and threw 14 strikeouts Tuesday in a 2-1 win. “It means a lot to take the ball in Game 1,” he said. “To have the trust in our whole organization, it means a lot. And it doesn’t really matter how we got here. We’re up 1-0 in a best of three.”
And they could advance Wednesday. Last week, they were bums. Now they could play Raleigh and Seattle in the next round.
What a shame if Judge isn’t part of the show He is 33. We’re waiting.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.