Boston Red Sox: 3 stars from dominant Wild Card victory over the Yankees

I said coming into this one that this game was all about Nathan Eovaldi, and how he performed would be key in determining who won this game. Well, it’s safe to say that was the right call, as Eovaldi was spectacular last night against the Yankees, and reaffirmed his status as a big game pitcher.

Eovaldi cruised through 5.1 innings last night, giving up only one run on four hits with eight strikeouts and no walks. Eovaldi has been phenomenal all season long, and last night was no different. When the Sox needed a solid starting outing the most, Eovaldi stepped up and delivered, and it should come as no surprise that Boston is moving on now.

It felt a bit premature for manager Alex Cora to pull Eovaldi after he gave up a solo home run to Anthony Rizzo and a fluke infield single to Judge. It nearly came back to bite him when Ryan Brasier allowed Stanton to absolutely tag a ball off the monster, but the defense came up big. Eovaldi was only at 71 pitches, hadn’t run into any trouble beforehand, and Boston’s bullpen is easily their biggest weakness.

It ended up not hurting them, but it very easily could have. Eovaldi was cruising, and was constantly making the Yankees hitters look foolish. It was clear they had a more aggressive approach at the plate coming into this one, but it didn’t matter because Eovaldi just kept overpowering them.

In a game where both teams were expecting big games from their starting pitchers, it’s not surprising that the team that got a star outing from their starter is moving on. Cole flopped while Eovaldi shined. If it wasn’t clear to you beforehand that Eovaldi is one of the top pitchers in this league, it should be after last night’s standout performance.