The Good, Bad, and Ugly From the Yankees 9-0 Win in Game 1 of Wild Card Series

Not too much to complain about with the biggest shutout postseason victory in the history of this rivalry.

New York Yankees designated hitter Ben Rice set the tone for his club hitting two home runs in the 9-0 Game 1 win. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The New York Yankees kicked off their postseason journey in a big way on Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium, crushing their longstanding rival, the Boston Red Sox, 9-0 in Game 1 of the AL Wild Card Series.

The Yankees received a dominant performance on the mound from Cam Schlittler and at the plate from Ben Rice, who hit a grand slam in the bottom of the eighth inning to put a bow on the Game 1 victory.

That being said, there wasn't much to complain about from Tuesday night's win. However, we still took the time to highlight the good, the bad, and even the ugly from Game 1.

The good

New York Yankees pitcher Cam Schlittler was outstanding on the mound Tuesday night, leading his team to a 1-0 series lead. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Ben Rice

One of the best individual postseason performances in franchise history, Rice went 4-for-5 with two home runs, six RBIs, and a double. All four balls he put in play were absolutely scalded at over 105 mph.

There were some missed opportunities early in the game that the Yankees didn't capitalize on, which allowed the Red Sox to stay close. But every time Rice had a chance to do damage, he made Boston pay.

His massive home run off Erik Miller in the fifth gave Schlittler more breathing room, his RBI single in the seventh tacked on another run for the bullpen, and his grand slam finale off Brayan Bello in the eighth put the nail in the coffin and saved David Bednar for tomorrow.

A perfect day for the lifelong Yankee fan from Massachusetts.

Cam Schlittler

If not for Rice's record-breaking brilliance, the absolute grit Schlittler showed in this one would be the defining performance of the game. Maybe his repeated dominance over his childhood team makes it feel normal.

One year after his coming out party in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series last year, Schlittler had a hell of an encore, tossing 6.1 shutout innings with 12 strikeouts to just one walk and two hits. He managed a career-high 24 whiffs. Despite Boston not giving him any easy outs, he made them look helpless all night.

The best part might be the fact that he threw a career-high 117 pitches, showing that when push comes to shove, he can put it all on the line to secure a victory.

George Lombard Jr.

A 21-year-old rookie playing Derek Jeter's position in his postseason debut at Yankee Stadium against the Red Sox. Seems like a tough cookie, eh?

Don't tell that to George Lombard Jr., who didn't look overmatched at all. His at-bats got progressively better, sawing off a 3-2 cutter from Payton Tolle for a single to center field in the first, getting a fortunate hop on an infield single in the fourth, and eventually tattooing a 108.6 mph sinker to the wall in right-center field to cap his three-hit day.

Even better? He was clean at shortstop. There were no overtly hard plays, but the moment can get too big for some people. This game wasn't broken open until late, so small mistakes can loom large. There were none from the shortstop position.

Austin Wells

Maybe the most criticized player in the organization, nobody needed a big Game 1 more than Austin Wells. The veteran catcher looked outstanding all night, just as he has been offensively since breaking out of his dreadful slump back in early July.

In an ideal world, they wouldn't have Wells, who has just a .436 OPS against lefties, out there, but the team doing nothing at the deadline left them handcuffed. Naturally, against one of the game's best young lefties, Wells opened the scoring with an RBI single.

He added a second RBI with a long sacrifice fly in the eighth to help tack on enough runs to ensure Bednar would not come in. Between those two at-bats, he worked a full count before popping out and lined another single to right field off lefty Alec Gamboa.

Most importantly for the backstop, however, was his clean defense. He stole a strikeout for Schlittler in the first with ABS and had a great game plan for the Yankees' ace on Monday. A+ game for him.

The tack-on offense

Early in the game, this was in the "bad" category, as the Yankees began just 1-for-7 with RISP. They constantly left Tolle off the hook, but when they got to the softer part of the Boston bullpen, they feasted.

12 hits, five walks, and nine runs against a great pitching staff is just outstanding work. In the last few innings, it didn't matter who was coming to the plate; it was a good at-bat. Even the worst outcome of those final innings, Luis García Jr.'s double play, was ticketed for center field before an outstanding play by Nick Sogard.

The bad

New York Yankees outfielder Heliot Ramos went 0-for-3 in his Yankee playoff debut on Tuesday night. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The platoon bats

Someone had to eat the "bad" section. The reasoning for guys like Paul Goldschmidt, Heliot Ramos, and Amed Rosario to play on Monday was absolutely sound, but none of them really produced the way the Yankees did. The ultimate irony is that the non-platoon bats did better in theoretically bad matchups.

Those three, along with Anthony Volpe, to be completely fair, went a combined 1-for-10 with three walks and three strikeouts. The rest of the team went 11-for-21 with two walks and just one strikeout.

That's baseball, Suzyn.

Aaron Boone

If you want to be completely fair with baseball analysis, you have to acknowledge good managing that leads to bad results and bad managing with good results. I personally didn't agree with a few of Boone's decisions on Tuesday night, but they didn't matter because the 26 ballplayers put together an incredible game, something that they have significantly more control over.

Starting Rosario, who's been downright bad against lefties in 2026 and is putrid defensively, was a choice that didn't hurt them. He pulled him at the right time, sensing that Tolle was running out of bullets, but he refused to deploy the rest of the bench aside from García. There were some spots I would've liked to see someone like Jazz Chisholm Jr. or Giancarlo Stanton in as a pinch hitter, for example.

The biggest gripe of this game was getting too cute with Schlittler. Bringing him back out on 107 pitches to get an injured Willson Contreras is a fine move, but he got cute by letting him face Wilyer Abreu, who worked a good at-bat and lined a single to right-center field, bringing the tying run to the plate.

Paul Blackburn did his job, but he's a volatile reliever who's struggled with inherited runners. I would've preferred having him face Abreu, even if it's a platoon disadvantage. All in all, they won, so none of this actually matters.

The ugly

The Boston Red Sox ended up on the wrong side of the scoreboard as the New York Yankees hammered their bullpen on Tuesday night. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Boston Red Sox

Nobody wearing pinstripes deserved this category. It was a fundamental disaster on the side of the Red Sox on Tuesday night, no ifs, ands, or buts. From Tolle's short-ish outing to a terrible bullpen, to a dead lineup, to bad moves by Chad Tracy.

Hey, I won't complain if they decide to do this again on Tuesday night, though.

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