NEW YORK — Austin Wells hit a tiebreaking single with two outs in the eighth inning and the New York Yankees avoided elimination with a 4-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox in Game 2 of their American League wild-card series on Wednesday night.
Game 3 of the best-of-three set will be played Thursday in New York, and the winner will advance to face the top-seeded Toronto Blue Jays in the AL Division Series on Saturday.
Boston reliever Garrett Whitlock (0-1) got the first two outs in the eighth before Jazz Chisholm Jr. walked. Following a mound visit, Wells put the Yankees ahead when he lined a full-count changeup down the right field line.
Chisholm scored from first, sliding in headfirst just ahead of the throw from right fielder Nate Eaton.
“Going through my head, I am already running, so any ball that an outfielder moves to his left or right, I have to score, in my head,” Chisholm said. “That’s all I was thinking.”
Well said, “Just got a pitch to put in play. He was making some tough pitches there throughout. I felt I made a decent swing on one of his best pitches.”
Boston manager Alex Cora said of the plate appearances by Chisholm and Wells, “They’re pretty good at-bats. The walk to Jazz, I don’t know where that pitch was. Then Wells put (together) a good at-bat, hit it down the line. That happened.”
Chisholm didn’t start the series opener against Garrett Crochet because of the lefty-lefty matchup and appeared to express displeasure at the decision by manager Aaron Boone.
New York’s Ben Rice hit a two-run homer in the first inning off Brayan Bello and had two hits in his postseason debut. Aaron Judge hit an RBI single in the fifth as the Yankees beat the Red Sox in the postseason for the second time in the past 11 meetings since Game 3 of the 2004 AL Championship Series.
Trevor Story drove in three runs off New York starter Carlos Rodon. He hit a two-run single in the third and blasted a game-tying homer to open the sixth.
Rodon allowed three runs on four hits in six-plus innings. The left-hander struck out six and walked three.
The New York bullpen followed with three scoreless innings.
Fernando Cruz retired Story on a warning-track fly ball with the bases loaded to end the seventh. Devin Williams (1-0) started a 1-6-3 double play on pinch hitter Nathaniel Lowe in the eighth before striking out Carlos Narvaez to end the inning.
David Bednar struck out two in the ninth for his first career postseason save.
“It has been two great games, these first two,” Boone said. “You know, a lot of big plays on both sides. … I thought our defense tonight was really, really good. Turned a couple big-time double plays, did some good things on the bases, a homer by Benny to get us rolling.
“And then the bullpen closing it down after Rodo gave us enough there, even though he struggled a little bit in the seventh to get us through six, set us up and able to hang on.”
After struggling in the final weeks of the regular season, Bello allowed two runs on four hits in 2 1/3 innings. He walked one and struck out none before getting pulled after 28 pitches, resulting in the Red Sox using six relievers.
“It was so important for us to jump out to an early lead and make them go to their bullpen right away and use all of their guys,” Rice said.
–Larry Fleisher, Field Level Media
