Quick Hit- Yanks Out-Classed In Game 1

October 4, 2025

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This is actually a slow hit. I wrote this innings before the game ended.

Blue Jays win Game One by the score of 10-1.

Some quick thoughts:

• I have been praising Aaron Boone for weeks, but he did a bad job in this game. There were a host of mistakes made. Pinch running Caballero mid-at bat was one. That showed he wasn't prepared. He was minutes behind the action. Bringing in Luke Weaver was another. Weaver shouldn't be pitching in big spots. At all.

• If the Yankees lose this series, blame can go, again, to Boone, at least for the first loss which in a short series can be devastating. I think the announcers said that the winners of the first game win 75% of the time in a short series.

• All that being said, the game was lost when it was 2-0, the bases were loaded, there were no outs and Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger, Ben Rice, and Giancarlo Stanton came up and did basically nothing. (Bellinger walked.)

• Aaron Judge is great. His regular season numbers are tremendous. But, until he come up big in a postseason, I'm sorry, he does not knock Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, or Mickey Manle off the Yankees' Mount Rushmore.

• If there was such thing as "momentum," the Yankees had it with that bases loaded situation. If "momentum" had any power, the Yankees would have had a big inning.

• If Giancarlo Stanton actually had the ability to become super human in the postseason, the Yankees would have broken the game open.

• Again, I root for Giancarlo Stanton, but, for a guy who supposedly has the ability to always come up big. There are plenty of instances where he didn't:

  • 2018 ALDS .222/0/0 (4 games)

  • 2019 ALDS .167/0/1 (3 games)

  • 2022 ALDS .125/2/6 (5 games)

  • 2025 ALWC .091/0/0 (3 games)

• One would think if Stanton was a superhero, the Yankees would be better than 7-6 in the 13 post season series he's played in. Joe DiMaggio was 9-1 in 10 postseason series. Reggie Jackson was 11--6. But even they weren't always great in the biggest games. Joe D. hit .111 in the 1949 World Series.

• I always push back at these "narratives" that are repeated over and over in the papers, on the radio, and everywhere that are simply things that people say that really have no meaning. The truth is Giancarlo Stanton has had some remarkable post seasons. He's been great at times. For me, that's good enough. I won't pretend he's more than that.

• Here's another thing I push back againt - When the fans of one team in the playoffs say the other team really stinks. "Red Sox ____" (I still think of the word blanked out as inappropriate, and I don't use it.). That was heard in the stadium in the previous series. Actually, the Red Sox don't stink. They were in the playoffs. I hate when the fans resort to that. And, if one thinks about it, if the other team really does stink that bad, what delight is there in beating them? All you're saying is "We beat a really bad team." Is that something to chant about? It makes no sense. Fans should say, "Red Sox are great, but we're greater." Now that would be saying something. "Let's Go Yankees!" is a much better chant than "Red Sox _____."

• I'm still confident that the Yankees will win the series.

• Let's Go Yankees!

• Full re-cap in the morning from Mike Whiteman.

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