Every moment in a game is another opportunity to shift the momentum. And for eight frames, the Yankees had and wasted their chances to do so, but one big inning was all it took to survive and eventually win it in extras. Down 2-0 in the ninth, the Yankees refused to quit, rattled the Braves closer, and ultimately earned the walk-off win, with all the drama you could hope for, and then some. Ryan McMahon’s sacrifice fly in the 10th was the decisive plate appearance.
The only reason why the Yankees
were even in a position to fight for this game until the end was because of their outstanding pitching, led by starter Max Fried. When an ace is on the mound, one break is all that the opposition will get, which often comes in the opening inning. The Braves had theirs at the start of the game and wasted it, allowing Fried to settle in and put zero after zero as we’ve so often seen from him. Atlanta had runners at first and second with two outs when Mauricio Dubón came up to bat and knocked what appeared to be an RBI single on a groundball to center. However, before Drake Baldwin could score, Ozzie Albies was thrown out at third, keeping Fried’s line intact.
Speaking of frustrating outcomes, the Yankees had a massive pile of those. Ryan McMahon worked a leadoff walk in the third only for Tyler Mahle to strike out the side, twice on the heater, once on a splitter to get Ben Rice, whom he struck out in each of his first two at-bats. Then in the fourth, the frustration levels were raised when it was Heliot Ramos’ turn to be stranded after reaching to lead off the frame, in his case with a double. Not only that, Luis Garcia Jr. and Jazz Chisholm Jr. both popped out on the first pitch before Spencer Jones fell victim to Dubón’s superb outfield defense, catching a high flyball to the track in dead center.
Another inning and the same song and dance with an early baserunner abandoned without a prayer of crossing home plate. Ryan McMahon had the old ‘make a great play defensively and record a hit in the next half inning’ thing going for him, but Austin Wells and Grisham stranded him at second. Before an unsuccessful challenge on a strike three fastball in the outside corner up in the zone, Grisham swung right through a tasty 1-0 heater middle in.
The attack plan for Mahle was rather straightforward, with primarily four-seamers and splitters to lefties and sprinkled in some cutters; it was just about beating the Yankees hitters to the spot time and time again. In the sixth, one baserunner equaled no runs, this time with Luis Garcia Jr. stopping at first after a two-out single was followed by a Jazz punchout.
All of these wasted opportunities meant that when Fried ultimately left the mound, retiring Matt Olson on a strikeout to open up the seventh, he did so with the score still tied at 0-0. Fernando Cruz retired the first two hitters he faced. Returning for the eighth inning, though, Cruz threw a hanging splitter to Austin Riley, and the Braves third baseman knocked it out of the park to score the game’s first run.
One run in the context of this game was the equivalent of three to four under normal circumstances, with the Yankees offense entirely unable to generate any action. In the eighth inning, it was the Braves’ turn to waste a run-scoring opportunity when Brent Headrick stranded a pair. Just for good measure, though, Matt Olson doubled the Braves’ lead with a solo shot in the ninth off Tim Hill, Olson’s 33rd homer of the season.
In the bottom of the eighth, Aaron Boone tried to be proactive, pinch-hitting Amed Rosario in place of the struggling Grisham with a lefty, Brooks Lee, on the mound. It didn’t work. Rosario was retired leading off the frame. He also brought in Paul Goldschmidt to hit for Jazz with a couple of men on after back-to-back walks to Luis Garcia Jr. and Ramos, but the veteran couldn’t capitalize, striking out swinging. At that point, everyone is forgiven for thinking all hope is lost, and this is not the Yankees’ night, but there were three more outs to go, the three biggest outs of any one game.
An errant throw by closer Raisel Iglesias on a squibbler from George Lombard Jr. allowed the rookie shortstop to go all the way to third with one out in the ninth. Down to the last out, Wells drove him in for the Yankees’ first and only run of the game. Still, it felt like that classic meaningless run to simply avoid the shutout.
That move to pinch hit for Grisham meant that Rosario was up against a righty with two outs and the tying run in scoring position in the ninth—and he did his part in working a walk and passing the baton to Rice. The Yankees’ best and most struggling hitter in the game answered at a time of need with a single to the wall in right played perfectly by Ronald Acuña Jr. to prevent the runners from advancing any further.
When Iglesias loaded the bases with a hit-by-pitch, manager Walt Weiss decided he wasn’t going to let his closer lose the game, which meant bringing in Dylan Dodd to retire Garcia.
Already an integral part of this comeback effort, having started the rally in the ninth, Lombard helped David Bednar put up a zero in the 10th. The Yankees shortstop made a great play on the hole to throw out Sean Murphy and not allow the ghost runner to advance. Great defense was a big part of David Bednar’s scoreless frame, with Garcia also chipping in with a great catch in short right.
In a game of such drama, the win in the bottom of the 10th could not have come easily. And when José Caballero led off the frame with a strikeout, there were some concerns of it staying at 2-2. Spencer Jones was then intentionally walked; Lombard showed his maturity by earning a free pass, which meant McMahon only needed to get the ball in the air for the win, exactly what he did. Two for three with a walk and a sac-fly, McMahon completed an outstanding performance.
You couldn’t ask for a more marquee pitching matchup than the one the Yankees and Braves will provide on Saturday afternoon, starting at 3:05 p.m. (EST). Two of the greatest pitchers of the 21st century go head-to-head with Chris Sale facing Gerrit Cole.
