BOONE’S QUICK HOOK
@SportsRantNY first guessed Aaron Boone on his decision to pull Luke Weaver after he threw 19 pitches in the 8th and 9th inning. We wanted to see him come back out in the 10th to attempt save the Yankees 3-2 lead over Los Angeles. IF this was the regular season, or if Weaver was a “normal” closer, we’d agree with his decision. However, Weaver has only been a closer for 6 weeks, after a long career as a starter and long reliever. He’s used to trotting back-n-forth out of the dugout and he was the Yankees best shot in the 10th inning, not Jake Cousins who had saved only one game in his career, nor Nestor Cortes who is a starter, coming off an injury and pitching in his first game in 37 days.
Boone was also quick to pull Gerrit Cole in the 7th inning after giving up a leadoff single. Cole is the Yankees physical and spiritual ace and had only thrown 88 pitches. IF Cole stayed in and was able to get out of the 7th, then it would’ve pushed everyone back and Weaver would’ve had the 9th and 10th like the Dodgers did with their closer Blake Treinen.
Boone has been outstanding down the stretch with his major decisions like going with Alex Verdugo in left field, moving Gleyber Torres to the leadoff spot, making Clay Holmes a setup man and inserting Weaver as the closer. But tonight, he appeared to have stuck to a pre-ordained formula rather than going with the flow of the game.
GLEYBER WILL BE GLEYBER
Like Boone, Torres has also been outstanding down the stretch and in the playoffs, but a mental slip up is always imminent, and not blocking Juan Soto’s one-hop throw on Shohei Ohtani’s double was a big one. He almost made up for it by hitting a homer in his next at-bat, which was ruled a double due to fan interference. The fact that it’s questionable whether the Yankees are going to make the qualifying offer to Gleyber in a couple of weeks, is due in large part to these mental mistakes. If he wants to remain in the Bronx, and wear a World Series ring, he needs to bear down and focus for the rest of this series.
JUDGE NEEDS TO RISE
In 2022, Aaron Judge turned down $230m to bet on himself and went out and broke the American League home run record. In his last two full seasons (2022 and 2024) he’s hit 120 home runs and driven in 275 runs. It’s foolish to say that Judge can’t perform under pressure. However, if he wants to win his first ring, he’s going to have to find a way to regain his ability to lay off pitches out of the zone and make hard contact with the ones in it. The Yankees managed to beat the Royals and Guardians with him batting .161 with three extra-base hits and 6 RBIs, but the smart money says they are not going to beat the Dodgers unless he starts to hit like Aaron Judge.
CARLOS RODON
Giancarlo Stanton’s post-season heroics have started to change the narrative of his 7-year Yankee career. Rodon is just finishing up year two, but he has a major opportunity in Game 2 (8:08p Fox) to do the same.
