Way back in 2004, the New York Yankees became the first team in MLB history to take a three-game lead in a best-of-seven postseason series, only to collapse and lose the next four in a row, as they fell to the Boston Red Sox in that year’s American League Championship Series. The two-out-of-three wild card series isn’t quite the same, and it has been around only since 2022.
Nonetheless, the Yankees in 2025 finally extracted some measure of revenge by becoming the first team to come back to win after losing the first game, eliminating the Red Sox this time around.
But the Yankees’ sense of vindication may be short-lived. In the division series, facing AL East pennant winners the Toronto Blue Jays, the Bronx Bombers after Sunday’s 13-7 drubbing at Rogers Center now teeter on the edge of a sudden end to their season, if they lose the third game on the best-of-five series on Tuesday. The Yankees were outscored 23-8 in the first two losses, and saw starters Luis Gil in game one, and Cy Young candidate Max Fried in Game 2, combine for a dizzying ERA of 14.29.
The Yankees now have two games in Yankee Stadium and must win both just to even the series. But according to analyst Esteban Quiñones of Pinstripes Nation, a “blunder” by much-maligned manager Aaron Boone not only cost the Yankees the second game of the series, but may contribute to a season-ending loss in the third one as well.
“The afternoon unraveled when Yankees manager Aaron Boone made a surprising pitching change with the game still within reach. New York trailed 5-0 in the fourth inning when starter Max Fried, already struggling, allowed two more baserunners,” Quiñones wrote on Monday. “Instead of using one of his tested bullpen arms, Boone summoned Will Warren, a rookie starter who had not made a relief appearance all season and had not pitched since Sept. 26.”
Warren entered the game with two on and none out in the fourth inning and proceeded to allow those two inherited runners to score — bringing Fried’s tally to seven runs in three innings. Warren allowed six runs of his own over the next 4 2/3 innings of his outing, four of them on a grand slam by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the fourth.
Reporter Justin Shackil of the Yankees’ cable network YES called Boone’s move to bring in Warren, “one of the most curious decisions of this postseason.”
While Warren’s prolonged outing kept the rest of the Yankees relievers fresh for Game 3 — when they would all be rested due to Monday’s travel day anyway — “saving relievers for a later game while conceding the current one was not sound playoff strategy,” Quiñones wrote.
Though the Yankees were already down 5-0 when Boone pulled Fried in favor of Warren, the Yankees notched two runs in the sixth inning and another five in the seventh, offering the tantalizing possibility that the game could have been won for New York with better work from the bullpen, and a decision by Boone to use his actual relievers rather than a rookie starter making his postseason debut.
MORE MLB: Aaron Boone’s ‘Laissez-Faire Attitude’ Ripped After Yankees’ Humiliating Sweep
