Boooo-ne!

By ALEX LENNEBERG

I’m sitting here a few days after the New York Yankees were eliminated by the Boston Red Sox in game 4 of the American League Championship Series, or ALCS, playoffs, and I still can’t wrap my head around some of the decisions manager Aaron Boone made. The Yankees should be moving on to play the Houston Astros. The team had way too much talent to be eliminated this early. No disrespect to the Boston Red Sox, who won 108 games this year to the Yankees’ 100, but the Yankees had more potential and more assets to win the World Series.

In the do-or-die wild card game, Aaron Boone was very lucky that his all-star reliever Dellin Betances is one of the best pitchers in baseball. Starting pitcher Luis Severino had one job: pitch 4 scoreless innings and then turn the game over to one of the most skilled bullpens in baseball. Severino was shaky in his first few innings but managed to pitch four scoreless innings. Any manager with a bullpen like the Yankees would have been satisfied and taken Severino out. Boone chose to keep him in for unknown reasons. Severino gave up two quick singles to put multiple runners on base with no outs. Thankfully, the stellar Dellin Betances helped the Yankees escape trouble, saving Boone and covering for his bad decision.

Fast forward to game 3 of the ALCS against the Red Sox, and the rivals are tied 1-1 in the series. Once again, Luis Severino was pitching for the Yankees. Once again, all he needed was 3 or 4 good innings and the bullpen could’ve taken over. Severino had given up 3 runs in the first 3 innings, a bad sign considering losing the game put them in a major hole for the series. Instead of turning to his solid bullpen after 3 innings, he brought Severino back out. Severino proceeded to load the bases with no outs, and instead of bringing in one of his five studs to cover it up, Boone brought in Lance Lynn, a starting pitcher, with the bases loaded and no one out. Lance Lynn was their second to last pitcher on the depth chart, yet Boone thought it was a good idea to bring him in for arguably the most important situation of the year. Lynn went on to give up a bases-clearing double and only got one out. I still wonder what was going through Aaron Boone’s mind when he brought in Lynn.

The next day, game 4 and  the Yankees down 2-1 in the series, veteran CC Sabathia stepped onto the mound. This could be the 38-year-old Sabathia’s last year, and he recently hasn’t gone very deep into games, so Boone had to expect to go to the bullpen early, realizing that a loss would end their season. Sabathia got the first 2 outs, then gave up 2 hits and a walk to load the bases. Most good managers would at least warm up the bullpen in case it got out of hand, but no relievers were in sight. Luckily, Sabathia got Ian Kinsler to fly out to right field. Fast forward to the third inning where Sabathia hits Andrew Benintendi with a pitch to lead off the inning, which was not a good sign. The next batter Steve Pearce hits a single to advance Benintendi to third with no one out. Still, no pitchers warming up in the bullpen. J.D. Martinez, arguably the best hitter in the MLB this season, comes to the plate and hits an RBI sacrifice fly to put the Red Sox up 1-0. Finally, David Robertson begins to warm up, but has no shot at coming in that inning. CC Sabathia went on to give up an RBI double and an RBI single in that inning to give the Yankees a 3-0 deficit. Why did Boone leave Sabathia in? There was no reason not to warm up a reliever sooner in such an important game. At that point, the damage was done and the Yankees went on to lose 4-3. There is no excuse for leaving CC Sabathia in against a lineup that hits very well off soft-throwing lefties, and he was clearly struggling. Inexcusable.

Also in game 4, rookie third baseman Miguel Andujar was absent from the lineup. He lead the team with a .297 batting average and set a rookie record with 47 doubles this year. He was their best hitter all season. Why was he on the bench? Andujar was one of their most consistent hitters and a true presence in the lineup. To be fair, Andujar has his fielding weaknesses, but their inability to score was in part because Boone chose to sit his best hitter in the biggest game of the year. Again, inexcusable.

I don’t understand how Aaron Boone made the same mistake in back-to-back days. He rode his starting pitching way too long twice and it came back to bite him twice. You would think he learned from the embarrassment the previous night when he left Sabathia in. All season long, the Yankees have had a dominant bullpen, yet Boone elected to leave in his starting pitching. While I am still baffled by his decisions, I don’t believe Boone should lose his job. However,  he definitely needs to learn from this postseason experience and fix the mistakes that ultimately ended the Yankees’ impressive season.

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