NEW YORK — The ball left Ben Rice‘s bat and settled 408 feet away in the right-center bullpen at Yankee Stadium. For the Boston Red Sox, it was the final blow of a long night.
Rice grew up in Cohasset, Massachusetts, about 25 miles from Fenway Park. He wore a Yankees jersey to first-grade picture day. On Tuesday night, he put the Red Sox on the edge of another October exit.
The pitcher who set it up grew up in Walpole, about 25 miles on the other side of Fenway. Cam Schlittler rooted for Boston as a kid. Now he is the Red Sox’s worst matchup.
Two Massachusetts natives, both mid-round draft picks signed by the same Yankees scout, Matt Hyde, turned Game 1 of the AL Wild Card Series into a rout.
Schlittler threw 6 1/3 scoreless innings. Rice went 4-for-5 with two homers and six RBIs. With Aaron Judge sidelined by a strained calf, the Yankees never needed him.
A pitchers’ duel turns into a runaway
For four innings, it was a pitchers’ duel. Red Sox rookie left-hander Payton Tolle, 23, was the youngest Red Sox postseason starter since Babe Ruth in 1918.
The Yankees broke through in the second. Austin Wells lined a two-out single to right, scoring rookie George Lombard Jr.
Tolle lasted 4 2/3 innings, allowing one run on five hits. He took the loss. Boston turned to left-hander Erik Miller with two outs in the fifth. Rice hit his third pitch, a 96.8 mph sinker, 423 feet into Monument Park for a 2-0 lead.
The Yankees pulled away in the seventh. Reliever Alec Gamboa faced four batters and retired none. Rice lined an RBI single to right, and another run scored on Luis García Jr.’s double-play grounder.
In the eighth, Wells added a sacrifice fly. Rice then launched his grand slam off Brayan Bello, the 16th in Yankees postseason history.
The final was 9-0 before 48,437 fans in the Bronx. It gave the New York Yankees a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series.
It was also history. The nine-run margin was the Yankees’ largest postseason shutout win since the 1960 World Series.
Schlittler, the winning pitcher, allowed two singles and one walk with 10 strikeouts. He retired 13 straight batters at one point and did not allow a runner to reach second base. His 117 pitches were the most by a Yankees postseason starter since CC Sabathia threw 121 in 2012.
Paul Blackburn escaped the seventh with an inning-ending double play, and the bullpen closed out the shutout. The Yankees outhit Boston 12-3. Lombard, 21, had three hits in his postseason debut.
Boone, Rice and the clubhouse react
Yankees manager Aaron Boone has watched the Massachusetts storyline follow both players for two seasons. He was asked what it meant to see them star together on the opening night of October.
“For them to go out and have that kind of night together to start this postseason, pretty amazing,” Boone said.
Rice, who tied the franchise postseason record for RBIs in a game, was asked what he would remember most.
“I’ll remember getting a W versus the Red Sox. There’s nothing better than that,” Rice said.
Behind Schlittler, the outfield had little to do. Center fielder Spencer Jones described the view.
“I got one fly ball. Didn’t touch another one,” Jones said.
Wells, behind the plate for Schlittler, said the right-hander thrives against Boston.
“Any time he’s going out there, he’s got the most confidence. Now, back to back years, great outings against them in the playoffs. That’s just what he’s going to do,” Wells said.
Whitey Ford territory and 18 silent innings
The last time the Yankees won a postseason game by more than nine runs without allowing one, Whitey Ford was on the mound.
Ford threw two shutouts against Pittsburgh in the 1960 World Series. The Yankees won Game 3 by a 10-0 score and Game 6 by a 12-0 score. Tuesday’s nine-run margin is the largest in a Yankees postseason shutout in the 66 years since.
The Red Sox have now gone at least 18 straight postseason innings against the Yankees without a run. Schlittler shut them out over eight innings in last year’s decisive Game 3, a 4-0 win. Tuesday made it back-to-back playoff shutouts in the Bronx.
Across those two playoff starts, Schlittler has thrown 14 1/3 scoreless innings with 22 strikeouts, one walk and seven hits allowed. Including the regular season, he is 4-1 with a 0.47 ERA in six career starts against Boston.
Rice joined an exclusive list. He is the fifth player to drive in six runs in a Yankees postseason game and the first since Robinson Canó in 2011. He is also the first Yankee with a multihomer playoff game since Giancarlo Stanton in Game 2 of the 2020 ALDS.
Red Sox one loss from elimination
Game 1 winners have advanced in 15 of 16 Wild Card Series since the format began in 2022.
The lone exception was last year’s Yankees, who lost the opener to Boston and came back to win.
Max Fried (5-5, 2.80 ERA) starts Game 2 for the Yankees at 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday against Sonny Gray (18-5, 2.72). A win sends the Yankees to the ALDS against Tampa Bay, starting Saturday.
Schlittler was not ready to celebrate.
“The job’s not done,” Schlittler said.
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