Boone defends pulling Fried as Yanks fumble lead

Aaron Boone’s in-game pitching decisions were under the microscope yet again after he pulled starter Max Fried amid 6⅓ scoreless innings and the New York Yankees‘ bullpen faltered in a 3-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox in Game 1 of the American League Wild Card Series on Tuesday night.

Boone said he had planned to lift Fried after the sixth inning, but Fried inducing a double play and sitting on 99 pitches prompted him to reconsider and let his ace left-hander get one more out in the seventh.

Fried did that, and then Boone went to his bullpen. Luke Weaver walked the first batter he faced and allowed a double and Masataka Yoshida‘s pinch-hit two-run single. David Bednar gave up back-to-back hits in the ninth inning, which gave Boston some breathing room.

Boone defended his decision on the basis that Fried faced increased pressure in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings and had to work hard to get through them.

«I felt like his command was not as good those final few,» Boone said. «He’s just making so many big pitches, and his stuff was good. He gave us what we needed and felt really good about the outing he put forth, but I felt pretty convicted. Especially we got the double play, it’s like, ‘Let’s go get one more hitter and be good.'»

Fried allowed four hits and threw 63 of his 102 pitches for strikes, and the Yankees led 1-0 on Anthony Volpe‘s solo home run. Fried beat Jarren Duran in a race to first base for the final out he recorded and felt he «had enough in the tank for whatever the team needed.»

«I definitely felt good at the end, coming out feeling good,» Fried said. «I’m going to stay in until I get the ball taken from me.»

Boone made that call and handed the ball to Weaver, who has not been the same since returning in June from a stint on the injured list with a strained left hamstring. The right-hander had a 1.05 ERA in his first 24 appearances before getting hurt and a 5.31 over his final 40 games.

«I’ll take Weave there at the bottom of the order, especially with an out in the books,» Boone said.

Weaver started off Ceddanne Rafaela with two strikes before walking him in an 11-pitch plate appearance. It snowballed from there with Nick Sogard doubling and Yoshida driving in two. Weaver didn’t record an out and exited with the Yankees trailing.

«They put a good approach together, put the ball in play and found the holes,» Weaver said, describing his pitching as competitive. «I know there’s a lot of disappointed people, including myself, but I just got to be better.»

There were plenty of pregame decisions questioned too, with left-handed hitters Ben Rice, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Ryan McMahon not in the lineup against Boston starter Garrett Crochet, who got 23 outs before fellow left-hander Aroldis Chapman recorded the final four to close it out. Crochet retired 17 consecutive batters after Volpe homered.

After turning to Nestor Cortes in the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers last year — with Freddie Freeman hitting a walk-off grand slam in Game 1 on Cortes’ first pitch — and making other calls to the bullpen that didn’t work out, Boone put himself in position to be second-guessed again.

He expressed no regret about the decisions afterward, other than lamenting that Weaver had not gotten Rafaela out.

«I felt good about him going through there: Sogard and then probably a pinch-hit lefty there,» Boone said. «They played a couple hits on him where [he left it] maybe just a little up with a couple of the pitches more than he wanted.»

It’s a familiar script for the Yankees, whose bullpen ERA of 4.37 ranked 23rd out of 30 teams. That could have been forgotten if they scored after loading the bases with no outs in the ninth, but Chapman got out of the jam against his former team.

New York had scored in 25 of its previous 28 innings when loading the bases with no outs.

«One hit there and we tie the game,» said Paul Goldschmidt, who singled to begin the rally that fell short. «Unfortunately it didn’t work out, but a good job to give ourselves a chance.»

The Associated Press contributed to this report.