If the Yankees come out and win Game 4, no one will remember the butt whipping the Red Sox dispensed in Game 3.
The beauty of baseball is that momentum sways by pitch by pitch, not game by game. So the fact that the Yankees lost 16-1 to the Red Sox in Game 3 of the American League Division Series on Monday night doesn’t really mean too much as far as tonight’s game goes. This looked like an easy Dub for the Yankees when initially sizing up the pitching matchups.
MLB Stat of the Day on Twitter
Boston’s 16-1 win is the largest margin of victory in any @RedSox -@Yankees #postseason game ever. https://t.co/0fWSVeMVb5
Unfortunately, Yankees pitcher Luis Severino was the complete opposite of an ace, getting shelled for six earned runs in three innings of work. Hardly the Game 3 shutdown performance that the Yankees needed. Adding insult to injury, the Yankees record-breaking offense was stifled by Nathan Eovaldi, a former Yankee, and MLB journeyman.
It was just one of those games and thankfully, for the Yankees, it didn’t occur in a decisive ALDS Game 5. The Yankees can put this one behind them, come out tonight and even the series. Or Boston will continue its dominance from the regular season and roll into an ALCS battle with the defending World Series champion Houston Astros, who completed a 3-0 sweep of the Cleveland Indians on Monday.
Houston’s “Big Four” destroyed Indians pitching and are awaiting the winner of the Yankees and Red Sox.
MZY on Twitter
Houston Astros Sweep the Indians and Advance to the #ALCS George Springer: 3-6, 2 HRs, 2 R Marwin Gonzalez: 2-6, 3 RBIs, 2B, R Carlos Correa: 1-3, 3 Run HR, R Alex Bregman: 2-3, RBI, R, 2B, 2 BB Win- McHugh Loss- Bauer
Most informed baseball minds knew that the Boston-NY series would probably go five games, so how they get there doesn’t really matter. The proportion of any single game blowout is inconsequential as well.
Turn back the clock to 2004. The Yankees went up 3-0 on Boston in a best-of-seven ALCS series with a 19-8 drubbing. The magnitude of the loss made the prospects of a Yankees Boston rebounded to win four straight games, becoming the first team in history to do it.
David Schoenfield on Twitter
Don’t give up hope, Yankees fans, you were up 3-0 after this game in the 2004 ALCS: https://t.co/u55YQ6DDHG
People will criticize every aspect of the loss from Aaron Boone’s decision not to pull Severino sooner, to Severino’s decision to start warming up 8 minutes before first pitch.
The New York Times on Twitter
The New York Yankees and their new manager, Aaron Boone, are facing postseason elimination at the hands of their rivals, the Boston Red Sox https://t.co/SANLXvPYA4
The reality is that the Yanks got blitzed and weren’t ready for it. If they come out and win Game 4, no one will remember the butt whipping they took in Game 3.
