Aaron Boone cost the Yankees victory (again)

After losing the first game of their Wild Card series to the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees are already in a precarious situation.

And this is largely due to manager Aaron Boone.

Indeed, for several weeks now, the entire baseball world has been aware that the Bombardiers don't have an excellent relief bullpen. Yet, despite the fact that Max Fried was dominant on the mound, Boone took him out of the game with one out in the seventh inning and no runners on.

What's more, batters eight and nine would come to the plate, and Fried had just given Jarren Duran a run for his money. Sure, the left-hander had 102 pitches on the clock, but he'd surpassed that mark no fewer than eight times this year, including in his most recent start against the Chicago White Sox.

The next hitter was Ceddanne Rafaela, who was 0 for 2 against Fried in that game and 2 for 12 in his career. Conversely, Rafaela hit two home runs in six at-bats against Luke Weaver, Fried's replacement in the game.

Not to mention the fact that the right-handed hitter has a batting average of .260 against right-handed pitchers and .220 against left-handed gunners. He was the third-worst right-handed hitter in MLB to get on base against left-handed pitchers with a low OBP of .265.

Yet Boone retired his left-hander, his best pitcher, to get a shaky right-hander in recent weeks instead.

And so it happened.

Aaron Boone is good at making the worst baseball decisions of all time… takes his ACE Max Fried out… throwing a shutout?? Luke Weaver IMMEDIATELY blows the lead? Fried's gem wasted by a horrendous Manager
pic.twitter.com/2jM4Vzt8RK

– John Frascella (Football) (@NFLFrascella) October 1, 2025

In the other dugout, skipper Alex Cora let Garrett Crochet throw 117 pitches, the most by any of the 434 starting pitchers in the last six playoffs. Then he handed the ball to his number-one reliever, Aroldis Chapman, for a four-out save.

It was old-fashioned baseball, as it should be. Cora totally outcoached his opponent.

In addition to last night's episode, let's remember that just last year, Boone sabotaged Game 1 of the World Series, possibly costing his team the title. And those are just two of many examples.

How long will managerial responsibility for some of the Yankees' playoff losses be tolerated in the Bronx?

This content was created with the help of AI.