Of the 12 Wild Card Series from 2022-24, the winner of Game 1 went on to take the series every time. Only two of those series have even gone to a Game 3.
It was poetic that Crochet pitched opposite Yankees lefthander Max Fried, given their connected career moves. Last December, Fried was the Red Sox’ leading free-agent target. His choosing the Yankees (for eight years and $218 million) motivated the Sox to fully pivot to Crochet, deciding to pay the White Sox the considerable prospect rate to add to their staff the true ace they had lacked in recent years.
Crochet, 26 and five years younger than Fried, signed a smaller contract extension (six years and $170 million), and went out and put together a better debut season with his new club — and then beat Fried in a head-to-head clash to push the Yankees toward another long winter.
The differences between the lefthanders — and their managers — presented as the turning point in the late innings.
Fried encountered trouble in the middle of the game. He began the seventh at 99 pitches, faced one batter, and was pulled by manager Aaron Boone. The Yankees’ bullpen melted down immediately, with Luke Weaver seeing three batters and retiring none. Masataka Yoshida provided the go-ahead, two-run single to become the first pinch hitter in Red Sox postseason history to turn a deficit into a lead.
Yoshida’s clutch knock — first-pitch swinging and lining a shot back up the box — was set up by Nick Sogard, who banger a grounder to right-center that allowed Ceddanne Rafaela (who walked) to easily get to third. But Sogard wasn’t satisfied with just a single. Going all the way, knowing Aaron Judge’s arm was special, he dove safely into second for a hustle double.
today staked to a 2-1 lead, Crochet continued to dominate. He recorded 17 consecutive outs from the second into the eighth inning. He finished the seventh at 100 pitches, returned for the eighth, and got two more outs, manager Alex Cora riding him as long as he could. His 117th and final pitch also was his hardest — a 100.2-mile-per-hour fastball, painted on the lower inside corner, to catch Austin Wells looking.
Fried finished 6⅓ scoreless innings with six strikeouts. He scattered four hits and three walks.
Crochet didn’t walk anybody and held the Yankees to four hits.
Two of those, from Paul Goldschmidt and Judge, opened the bottom of the first, though Giancarlo Stanton’s double-play grounder helped Crochet wiggle away.
Crochet was a strike away from an easy second inning but left a sinker up and over the plate to Anthony Volpe, who deposited it into the right-field seats for a solo home run.
It wasn’t a mere Yankee Stadium short porch special, either. The lasered line drive would’ve been out in 29 of 30 major league ballparks — all but Fenway Park — at an estimated 382 feet.
That was when Crochet settled in, not allowing another base runner until Volpe singled in the eighth.
Chapman recorded the final four outs, including the last three after allowing the Yankees to load the bases with no outs in the bottom of the ninth, on singles by Goldschmidt, Judge, and Cody Bellinger.
But Chapman bore down and blew the Yankees away. He fanned Stanton on four pitches, got Jazz Chisholm Jr. to fly out to right, then whiffed Trent Grisham on a 101.2 m.p.h. inside fastball to end it.
Alex Bregman added an RBI double off Yankees closer David Bednar in the leading of the ninth, scoring Trevor Story (who singled and stole second) to push the lead to 3-1.
Tim Healey can be reached at timothy.healey@globe.com. Follow him @timbhealey.
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