The fourth inning was pure hell for the Yankees Monday night, and euphoric for Red Sox fans. Luis Severino, who was so strong in the AL Wild Card game, put three men on to open the inning. Lance Lynn came on in relief and immediately walked in a run, then gave up a two-run double. He was yanked having recorded just one out, and with men on first and third. Chad Green gave up an RBI single and then a two-run triple before recording the final out. The score was 3–0 headed into the inning, and 10–0 by the time the bottom half of the inning rolled around.
The contest was effectively over then, but there’s no mercy rule in playoff baseball, and so the Red Sox added six more runs before the game finally ended, with the score at 16–1. The 15-run loss will go down as the most lopsided in Yankees playoff history:
Along the way they gave up the very first cycle in MLB playoff history, to Boston’s Brock Holt, who completed the feat with a two-run dinger off of Austin Romine, who you will note is not a pitcher:
The Yankees had maybe the best bullpen in baseball during the regular season, but they weren’t quite so pristine as the season wound down—a first half ERA of 2.61 jumped to 3.98 in August and all the way up to 4.31 over September and October. All they did Monday was give up 10 hits, five walks, and nine runs over five nightmarish innings, before Aaron Boone called upon Romine to work the ninth. Six different Red Sox batters had at least two hits; 11 of the 12 Red Sox batters who stepped into the batter’s box got on base at least once. Yankees pitchers held Boston’s incredible offense mostly in check through the first two games, surrendering a total of seven runs in Boston, but the Red Sox were a safe bet to break out at some point. The Yankees will have to hope their foes got it all out of their system in Game 3.