The Yankees are going home early, but Aaron Boone insists it is not because of the controversial pitching plan they used for Game 2 of the ALDS.
Shortly after the season ended with a 2-1 loss to the Rays on Friday night in San Diego, Boone defended the team’s decision to use Deivi Garcia as an opener followed by J.A. Happ in Tuesday’s Game 2 loss.
“I don’t regret Game 2,” Boone said. “I’m sure there’ll be people who take it to, ‘If we just started a guy and went with him, we win the game.’ That’s kind of ridiculous.
“All over the league, things like this are done and done really effectively, and we’ve done them really effectively.”
But in the biggest moment, holding a 1-0 series lead, the Yankees did not do it effectively. The 21-year-old Garcia gave up a solo home run in the first inning before Happ was tagged for four earned runs in 2 ²/₃ innings of the 7-5 loss. It was a move that sparked plenty of backlash outside the organization.
“I dissect everything, usually on a nightly basis, and will certainly look back and reflect on things,” Boone said. “But I don’t have that many regrets.”
The decision to go with the opener — a move that has become more popular around the league in recent years after the Rays started the trend — pushed Masahiro Tanaka back to Game 3, and he struggled in an 8-4 loss. Jordan Montgomery was then forced to start Game 4 and came up with a gutsy effort to help secure a 5-1 win that set up Friday’s do-or-die Game 5.
The Yankees still had their $324 million arm — Gerrit Cole — on the mound Friday, and he delivered 5 ¹/₃ innings of one-run baseball before Aroldis Chapman gave up the game-winning home run in the eighth inning.
“It was just a great back-and-forth series with another great team that has a chance to go win a world championship,” Boone said. “It came down to basically the last inning of the series. I don’t think anyone’s surprised by that necessarily. We came up short.”