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Boone Decision to Use Happ Bites Yankees in Game 2

 RAYS 7 - YANKEES 5 

Aaron Boone's decision to turn Game 2 of the ALDS into a bullpen game turned out to be the worst chess move he could make at the worst time. 


If this were a regular season game, using Game 2 starter Deivi Garcia as the incautious opener wouldn't have garnered much attention - except for a few angry callers on talk radio, and it would have been quickly forgotten. 

However, in the postseason, the decision to pitch Garcia for only one inning only to turn the ball over the veteran J.A. Happ turned out to be a huge mistake, one that could comeback to haunt the Yankees in this series. 

Garcia gave up a solo home run to Randy Arozarena in the bottom of the first inning; big whoop. Arozarena hit a homer in Game 1, and both teams have been hitting homers in this series. It's not like the Yankees can't overcome a 1-0 deficit. 

Instead of allowing Garcia to continue into the second inning, Boone decided to go with Happ, who was lit up like a Christmas tree, allowing four runs on five hits over 2.2 innings, with all runs coming on home runs. First there was a two-run shot by Tampa catcher Mike Zunino in the bottom of the second, and a two-run blast by Manuel Margot in the bottom of the third. Just like that it was 5-1 Rays. 

What did Boone prove by putting in a pitcher whose ERA was 3.07 in the month of September, and whose career postseason ERA is 7.27? What exactly did Boone think would have been achieved? Yes, Happ had not pitched against the Rays this year; and when he did face them last season, he pitched well. But, the facts are the Yankees were in no position to experiment with a bullpen game. 

Not when you are trying to take a 2-0 series lead against a team that was seven games ahead of you in the standings, and was 8-2 against you in the regular season. Boone proved nothing. 

The Yankees did come back, thanks to Giancarlo Stanton's three-run shot - his second homer of Game 2 in fact, and third homer of this series, that cut the Rays lead to 5-4. But that was as close as the Yankees would get. 

The Rays tacked on runs on a Kevin Kiermaier single to center in the sixth, and a Andrew Meadows homer to dead center to push the lead to 7-4. 

The Yankees had a shot at tying the game in the top of the ninth when Rays reliever Petter Fairbanks struggled with his control, walking Gio Urshela and Gleyber Torres. However Fairbanks came back to strikeout Clint Fraizer and Gary Sanchez to stay in the ball game. 

After D.J. LeMahieu singled to drive in Ursehla to make it 7-5, Aaron Judge grounded out to end the ball game. 

All by two runs scored in Game 2 were via the longball. The Yankees hit two homers on Tuesday, both from Stanton, while Tampa Bay hit four. Both teams have combined to hit 12 home runs in this series; a series that is being played in what is notoriously a pitcher park in Petco Park in San Diego. 

Mashiro Tanaka will get the ball for the Yankees in Game, Wednesday night.


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