NEW YORK — The Yankees left Yankee Stadium on Sunday with their loudest win of the season, a decisive edge over their oldest rival and a clearer path in the American League postseason race. What began as a scoreless series finale ended as a 16-1 dismantling of the Boston Red Sox.
The turning point came in the fifth. Ceddanne Rafaela made a diving attempt on a Jazz Chisholm Jr. liner in right-center field, but first-base umpire Edwin Moscoso ruled the ball a trap. Boston challenged. The call stood, and the Yankees had two runners on with nobody out.
Paul Goldschmidt followed with a two-run single before Heliot Ramos launched a three-run homer, his first with the Yankees, to make it 5-0. New York added single runs in the sixth and seventh. Will Warren allowed one run on six hits over seven innings with seven strikeouts to improve to 9-6. Ranger Suárez took the loss after giving up six runs on nine hits in 5 1/3 innings.
Boston scored in the top of the eighth to cut the deficit to 7-1. The Yankees answered with nine runs in the bottom half. Austin Wells hit two two-run homers and finished with five RBIs. Goldschmidt added a solo homer, and José Caballero hit a three-run shot. New York finished with 18 hits and no errors.
The result moved the Yankees to 78-59 and Boston to 74-63. New York took three of four, won the season series 7-6 and secured the head-to-head tiebreaker. The Yankees also opened a four-game advantage over Boston for the top AL wild-card position. That tiebreaker could decide home field if the rivals finish tied and meet in a best-of-three Wild Card Series.
The frustration from the fifth-inning replay did not disappear as the score widened. It remained a subject in Boston’s WEEI radio booth, where play-by-play announcer Will Flemming and analyst Will Middlebrooks kept returning to the disputed play before focusing on Chisholm’s baserunning in the eighth.
WEEI call moves from criticism to retaliation
Chisholm walked to open the bottom of the eighth with the Yankees leading 7-1. He then stole second and third while Jovani Morán pitched to Wells. Both steals were officially credited, pushing Chisholm to 40 for the season.
As Chisholm took third, Will Flemming went beyond criticizing the decision to run and suggested retaliation against Wells, who had not been involved in the steals.
“Wouldn’t you sort of like to see Morán drill Wells right here?” Flemming said.
Wells then hit a two-run homer off Morán, pushing the Yankees’ lead to 9-1. As Chisholm came home, Flemming suggested a confrontation between the pitcher and the Yankees second baseman.
“And Morán should fight Chisholm,” Flemming said.
Flemming also described Chisholm as bush league and criticized how he plays.
“I’m going to say it,” Flemming said later in the inning, “he plays the game the wrong way.”
Middlebrooks points to baseball’s unwritten rules
Middlebrooks did not call for a hit-by-pitch or a fight, but the former Red Sox infielder also objected to the steals. His argument centered on the unwritten convention that teams with large late leads should stop taking extra bases when the defense is not holding runners.
“By the way, you’re up six (runs). It’s the eighth (inning). The team is electing not to hold you on. That’s the white flag, right?” Middlebrooks said. “Normally in that situation, you don’t run.”
He also described Chisholm’s decision as selfish. The exchange became bigger than an unwritten-rules debate because Flemming’s proposed response involved Wells, an uninvolved batter, and then a possible fight with Chisholm.
The score state complicates ‘white flag’ argument
The sequence created an unusual contrast with the idea that Boston had fully conceded. The Red Sox had just scored in the top of the eighth, trimming the Yankees’ lead from seven runs to six. Morán, a regular reliever, remained on the mound when Chisholm ran. Boston did not turn to position player Andruw Monasterio until Wells and Goldschmidt had homered and the margin had grown to 10-1.
The Yankees’ aggression also produced a milestone rather than defensive indifference. MLB’s game log credited both steals, giving Chisholm 40. Wells’ first homer followed immediately. His second made him the sixth Yankees player to homer twice in one inning and the first since Gleyber Torres on Sept. 21, 2022.
The timing is central to the controversy. The Yankees led by six when Flemming objected to the running. By the end of the inning, after Boston continued pitching to New York hitters, the margin had expanded to 15.
Backlash follows the broadcast
Clips of the WEEI call spread quickly on social media after the game. Much of the criticism focused less on whether Chisholm should have run and more on the suggestion that Wells should be intentionally hit.
Stanzo (@ncostanzo24) said the broadcast sounded more like an angry fan than a professional call.
“This sounds more like some angry old dude at a bar than an announcer. Pathetic stuff but I could listen to it all day as a Yankee fan,” the account posted.
Yankees fan GO DJ 2 (@GODJ2) called the booth’s response unprofessional after clips circulated online.
“What a bunch of absolute unprofessional cry baby losers.”
Boston fan c4 (@c4Bostonn) also criticized Flemming and framed the outburst as an embarrassment for the WEEI booth.
“Will Flemming continues to be a crybaby clown. It’s an absolute embarrassment that he’s Castigliones replacement”
Another Yankees account, LombardIsKing (@LombardIsKing_), focused on the suggestion that Wells should be hit because Boston was losing.
“I don’t know how anyone can defend this childish and unprofessional behavior. Saying you wish for a player to get hit? Because you’re losing? This dude might be the biggest crybaby of them all”
Ken Whitehead (@kenwhitehepflc) drew a distinction between privately objecting to the steals and calling for retaliation on air.
“It’s ok to think it But to say it on air is pretty low class”
Conrad, Connie, or Con (@LFGDevils) delivered one of the sharpest assessments of the broadcast.
“One of the most pathetic displays I’ve ever heard from a broadcast crew”
Requests for comment sent to the Red Sox and Audacy, which owns WEEI, had not produced a public response as of Monday morning. The Yankees open a road series against the Los Angeles Angels on Monday night, while Boston returns home to face Seattle. The radio comments remained the lingering flashpoint from a game the Yankees had already settled on the field.
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