It doesn’t get much better than The Rivalry, especially in postseason baseball. Having this series for the second year in a row is a true treat for the game of baseball, even if this one was much less cinematic than the last one. There’s something poetic about a guy making his postseason debut in this rivalry, something we saw across the board with guys like George Lombard Jr. and Spencer Jones this year, and even Cam Schlittler and Ben Rice last year. It’s not just rookies who can experience this;
vets can too.
Take Luis García Jr., a seven-year major league vet. He might only be 26 years old, but he’s experienced plenty of empty Octobers as a big leaguer, being unlucky enough to make his big league debut for the Washington Nationals in 2020, just after their World Series championship.
He played 708 games as a National, all in the regular season. He never experienced a competitive team. So imagine the joy he must’ve felt when he, a Yankees fan growing up in the Dominican Republic after being born in New York City, was traded to the contending Yankees in early August ahead of the Trade Deadline. Was the fit a bit wonky? Sure, but on a team that was drowning offensively, any help was nice.
He did well as a Yankee down the stretch, albeit trading blistering hot and ice-cold stretches. He got a raw deal entering his first-ever postseason as a big leaguer with his struggles against left-handed pitching and the presence of Paul Goldschmidt as the steady platoon bat at first base. Hence, he spent Game 1 on the bench, except for one at-bat against Wyatt Olds in which he hit into a double play with the bases loaded.
Game 2 was going to be his opportunity, at least in this series. With Ranger Suárez looming in Game 3, if the Yankees couldn’t close out their biggest rivals, this was the only game he knew he was going to have at least three at-bats to set the tone for his postseason legacy. You could tell he was dialed in from the start, as even when his first at-bat ended in an out, it was laced at 108.5 mph right at Wilyer Abreu in right field. All good, just need to get more air under it.
I’m not sure if that was his prerogative in his second at-bat, but that’s exactly what he did off Sonny Gray to break the ice in the fourth, walloping a 1-2 sweeper that stayed just high enough for him to belt it over the fence for a short porch homer to give the Yankees a lead they would not relinquish.
In his next at-bat, he was put into a tough situation. A quick hook by Chad Tracy saw Boston’s nasty lefty, Erik Miller, come into the game in a big spot in the fifth inning. Aaron Boone could’ve made the call to put Paul Goldschmidt in, but he elected to stick with García. Whether it was his personal trust in the matchup or acknowledging a higher-leverage situation was possible against a guy like Garrett Crochet or Aroldis Chapman, we’ll never know. García smacked a 0-1 sinker into left field for a single, but the inning ended on an aggressive send by Luis Rojas. That kind of swing is what you love to see in a tough matchup.
He wouldn’t come up again in any type of leverage, but would add another scorched single off a demoralized Garrett Whitlock at the end of a six-run sixth inning. All in all, García finished 3-for-5 with the home run, one of several great outings on the roster, but it was the tone he set with his fourth inning home run that earned him these honors.
When you’re playing a team facing elimination, it’s absolutely necessary to throw the first punch so they start to feel the pressure. Both Max Fried and Gray were on their game to start, so it was clear that whoever could make one of them blink first would be on their way to a Wednesday night win.
For García, his homer that broke the ice put even more pressure on a comatose Red Sox offense that only felt like they had life after Willson Contreras’ first-row homer with two outs in the sixth. Even then, the Yankees buried two of Boston’s best pitchers, Crochet and Whitlock, in one of the best offensive innings of the season immediately after.
This was an absolute mugging of a series. One where the superior team, with home-field advantage, played like they were disgusted they even had to share a field with the team on the other side, knowing they were better than this. Starting on Saturday, they’ll truly get a chance to prove they are better than the Wild Card team they were through 162.
