Yankees Rizzo 1B Judge RF Stanton DH Gallo LF Torres 2B Gardner CF Urshela 3B Higashioka C Velazquez SS SP: Cole Red Sox Schwarber DH Hernandez CF Devers 3B Bogaerts SS Verdugo LF Renfroe RF Plawecki C Dalbec 1B Arroyo 2B SP: Eovaldi
That's why a do or die game is so scary. Yankees had won 6 straight vs Boston and just recently swept them in Boston.
One game playoffs work in football and basketball (think March Madness). That's because in football, the best teams win 80%+ of their games, and in basketball it's around 70%. In baseball, a 100-win season amounts to a 61.3% win rate. Furthermore, the frequency of the league's worst upsetting the league's best in the first two sports is very low. In baseball, it's relatively common over a sample size of one game. Just like the D-Backs took that game against us in September. One more thing: In the first two sports, you have your entire team going, so all your stars are helping to avoid an upset. In baseball, there are four starting pitchers (starters are typically the team's best pitchers) who sit the whole game. So then you have a situation where so much is riding on one player - your starter happens to be off his game like Cole was yesterday, and it's season over, see you next year. I hope Scherzer is sharp tonight.
Yankees-Red Sox is one of those matchups where I wished a meteor would come down and strike both teams. Lose-Lose would have been nice.
