This is the baton pass the Yankees envisioned.
Six-plus innings of solid, if not special, pitching from Carlos Rodón. Fernando Cruz escaping, roaring, jumping and pounding his way off the mound. Devin Williams inducing the ground ball he needed and de-batting Red Sox batters. David Bednar showing no nerves in nailing down an October save.
The Yankees bullpen, a group that entered October under scrutiny and bent in Tuesday’s Game 1 loss, bounced back in preserving what became a 4-3 victory Wednesday in The Bronx that forced a Game 3.
“We just happened to have a bad moment in September like everybody does,” Cruz said of a group that had struggled. “But everybody knows who we are and how we operate. We have a really, really good unit.”
None more passionate than Cruz.
The righty inherited a two-on, none-out jam in the seventh in a tie game.
He first got a break, Ceddanne Rafaela popping up a bunt for an out, before getting Nick Sogard to fly out. Masataka Yoshida sent a hard ground ball up the middle that second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. knocked down. He was not able to record an out but did prevent at least one run from scoring.
“That was the game right there,” said Cruz, who then watched Trevor Story launch a deep fly out to center, prompting a celebration that will be seen for decades if this Yankees season ends with a victory.
Facing center field, he bounced his way toward the plate as the ball was in the air. When ball hit glove, he shouted and began pounding his chest. He did a 180-degree spin to face the dugout and unleashed a fist pump that would have knocked out anyone in the vicinity. He strutted his way to the dugout, where manager Aaron Boone joked he “almost got out of his way.”
“This is something that I’ve been dreaming [about], that I’ve been imagining since I was a little kid,” said Cruz, a 35-year-old from Puerto Rico. “I’m an emotional guy. I’m passionate about what I do, and I love what I do. I love doing it for my guys. And it’s time to make that known.”
Those who followed Cruz’s lead did so effectively, if comparatively quietly.
Williams allowed a leadoff single to Alex Bregman in the eighth, which worried fans who had watched the offseason pickup implode too many times in a season that ended with a 4.79 ERA.
But he was able to get Nathaniel Lowe to ground into a double play before unleashing an air-bending changeup to Carlos Narváez, who whiffed and helicoptered his bat and nearly struck Nate Eaton in the on-deck circle.
“He has just stacked a lot of good outings and just pitching with a lot of confidence, but getting in the zone more and having a presence with both pitches,” Boone said of Williams, who is pitching his best at the right time of the season.
Next came Bednar, who along with Luke Weaver had allowed runs that loomed large in the Game 1 loss. But the closer struck out two before watching Rafaela’s deep fly ball to right fall into Aaron Judge’s glove with his back to the wall.
“Never a doubt,” Bednar said with a smile after his first career playoff save.
He has pitched two days in a row and expended plenty of pitches and energy. How about a third?
“Absolutely,” Bednar said.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
