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Did New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone just have his \u201cGrady Little moment\u201d?<\/p>\n
Two outs from winning Game 1 of the World Series 3-2 on Friday night, Boone turned to left-handed pitcher Nestor Cortes, who hadn\u2018t pitched in 37 days, to save the game by facing the top of the Los Angeles Dodgers\u2019 order.<\/p>\n
It failed miserably \u2014 and could raise uncomfortable questions about Boone\u2019s job security if the Yankees do not win the World Series.<\/p>\n
Although Cortes got Shohei Ohtani to fly out in foul territory for the second out, the Yankees walked Mookie Betts to load the bases to pitch to Freddie Freeman, who proceeded to launch a walk-off grand slam. Dodgers 6, Yankees 3 in 10 innings.<\/p>\n
On Thursday\u2018s ESPN \u201cBaseball Tonight\u201d podcast, MLB insider Buster Olney was asked which manager, Boone or the Dodgers\u2019 Dave Roberts, was more \u201cvulnerable\u201d in terms of his job security. While Olney thought both were safe and would get extensions in the offseason, he left one caveat \u2014 the type that played out Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they are equally vulnerable,\u201d Olney said. \u201cIt sounds like a cop-out but I think they are in a really great position now that they\u2018ve reached the World Series. … The Yankees getting back to World Series for the first time since 2009.<\/p>\n
\u201c(But) I do think that if there\u2018s a Grady Little moment. Like if there\u2019s one major decision in a big spot that turns out to be decisive, that fuels talk radio, especially for Aaron Boone. Then, yeah, potentially that manager could be more vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boone turned to Cortes, who last pitched Sept. 18, over Tim Hill, a funky left-handed reliever with a 3.36 ERA in the regular season and one earned run allowed in 5 2\/3 innings in the postseason. Additionally, he was a player who at least had been pitching in competitive games, unlike Cortes who was resting and rehabbing his flexor tendon strain (which will likely require surgery) over the past month-plus.<\/p>\n
In Game 7 of the 2003 AL Championship Series, former Boston Red Sox manager Grady Little kept in Pedro Martinez in the eighth inning against the Yankees with a 5-2 lead. Five batters later, the score was 5-5 and the Yankees would win via an 11th-inning Boone home run to knock out Boston, ultimately losing to the Marlins in the World Series.<\/p>\n
The decision that drew heavy criticism was keeping Martinez in at 115 pitches with one batter on and left-handed slugger Hideki Matsui up, five outs from advancing to the World Series. The score was 5-3. Little could have called on lefty Alan Embree. Instead, Matsui hit a double and Jorge Posada doubled to score two more. The rest, as they say, was history.<\/p>\n
Little was fired less than two weeks later, though the Red Sox say his insistence on a multi-year deal played a factor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Did New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone just have his \u201cGrady Little moment\u201d? Two outs from winning Game 1 of the World Series 3-2 on Friday night,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1443,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\n