NEW YORK _ I don't know why that happened either. Maybe Mike Harkey should have tried dialing Aaron Boone?
Harkey, as the Yankees' bullpen coach, is normally the one who answers the phone out there. Gets the pitchers to warm up, opens the gate, sends them off to the mound.
But Monday night, during a crucial Game 3, the phone didn't ring. And by the time it did, it was too late. Was the line busy? Someone using it to order a pizza?
Having Domino's deliver to the Yankees' bullpen would have been more logical than what actually transpired in the fourth inning, when Boone came off as criminally negligent in managing the swing game of this Division Series.
Boone stayed too long with a sub-par Luis Severino, whose warmup routine apparently was cut short due to a scheduling mixup. It definitely looked that way. And when Sevy did get the hook, Boone left the Yankees' precarious fate up to Lance Lynn _ rather than someone with a prayer of limiting a bases-loaded, none out jam _ and that was the gasoline that made this 16-1 dumpster fire of a Yankees' loss possible by night's end.
Everybody knew Severino had nothing. Zip. Nada. His opening pitch to Mookie Betts was hit 400 feet to dead-center, a loud flyout, and the Red Sox just kept making solid contact, over and over. At the end of three innings, it was a miracle the Yankees only trailed, 3-0, with the runs scoring on a comebacker off Sevy's glove, a sacrifice fly and a fielder's choice grounder.
That didn't tell the story, however. Severino wasn't long for this game, and the longer he stayed in, the worse it was going to get for the Yankees. As the Red Sox hacked away at him, the Stadium grew increasingly restless _ except for Boone, who was intent on staying the course.
The Yankees' bullpen remained quiet until five batters into the third inning, when Xander Bogaerts' single put Sox at the corners, and finally prompted Boone to get Lance Lynn throwing. Moments later, Rafael Devers' groundout made it 3-0, and Steve Pearce put another scare into Sevy by launching a flyout to the center field warning track.
That easily could have been it for Severino. We've heard Boone repeatedly talk about his "aggressive" bullpen strategy for these playoffs, and the Yankees made it a mantra in their first three games, with only Masahiro Tanaka lasting as long as five innings. And there was nothing wrong with that. When you have a bulllpen stocked with shutdown relievers, it makes sense to use them liberally _ especially with numerous off days for rest.
We get sending Severino out for the fourth. The Red Sox had the bottom third of the order coming up, and maybe Boone was hoping Sevy could steal an out or two on his way to the shower. With CC Sabathia going in Tuesday's Game 4, Boone no doubt felt he was going to need plenty of relievers to back him up, and that's probably why he was hesitant to get any of the big guns up.
But Boone quickly ran out of excuses in the fourth when Severino melted down faster than a popsicle in a microwave. Single by Brock Holt. Nothing. Another single by Christian Vazquez. Still no Boone _ though some angry noises were bubbling up from the crowd. Incredibly, Severino then followed by walking Jackie Bradley Jr. _ the No. 9 hitter _ to load the bases.
Only then did Boone climb the dugout steps. And when the manager got to the top, he surely felt like turning around as the Stadium fans let him have it, as they did Severino in serenading his exit with a fusillade of boos. Why wait? Severino should have been pulled after that Holt single, tops. But to let the Red Sox load the bases before making a move was akin to baseball suicide.
Not only that, Boone didn't call on one of his best arms to put out the fire in an attempt to keep it close. Instead, he summoned Lynn and the move went sideways in a hurry. Lynn's first five pitches were balls _ Betts walked to force in a run and Andrew Benintendi followed with a bases-clearing double that put the Sox up, 7-0. A Bogaerts RBI single ended Lynn's awful cameo, and that's when Boone called on Chad Green, who let in two more runs.
Just like that, Boone turned a 3-0 game into a 10-0 catastrophe, and now the Yankees face elimination Tuesday night. It's up to Sabathia to save the season, and maybe he can do a better job than Severino. Somebody should make sure Boone stays awake just in case.
