Jazz Chisholm didn’t leave much room for interpretation after the Yankees finished off the Red Sox. In the middle of a loud, post-Wild Card celebration, he went right at the next challenge, telling NJ.com colleague Randy Miller, “I’m guaranteeing” that the Rays would be the next victims.
That kind of swagger has become part of the Yankees’ identity right now. It isn’t just Chisholm talking.
The whole team is riding the wave that came from not merely beating Boston, but flattening it. New York swept the Red Sox out of the first round and did it with authority, controlling every phase of the series while even Aaron Boone outmaneuvered Chad Tracy.
Now the scene shifts to Tropicana Field, where the Division Series brings a much different test. The Yankees won’t be living off the same numbers they posted against Boston, when they hit .382 against Red Sox pitching.
Aaron Judge’s absence could matter more here if his injured calf still isn’t 100%. And unlike the quick work in the Wild Card round, this matchup figures to be a grind.
Still, the Yankees have a weapon that travels: their rotation. All four starters are healthy and peaking, and Boone will wait another 24 hours before revealing the order.
Even so, the likely shape is clear enough. Cam Schlittler, the American League’s best hurler, is expected to take Games 2 and 5.
Gerrit Cole hasn’t pitched since Sept. 23, so he’d be lined up and rested for Game 1 on Saturday at the Trop. Carlos Rodon, fresh off an eight-inning shutout masterpiece against the Rays on Sept. 22, would get Game 3.
It’s a group that gives New York real muscle on the mound. Boone didn’t oversell it when he said, “I feel great about those guys.” He was just stating the obvious: the Yankees finally have their pieces in place at the right time.
That wasn’t the case for much of the season. Three of those starters - Cole, Rodon and Max Fried - spent time on the injured list in 2026, while Schlittler was the only one who made it through the summer clean. But the Yankees built for October, and this is what that plan was supposed to look like.
Boston had its moments during the season, including a 14-game winning streak from July 3 to July 20 and the 32-5 stretch that run fueled between June 25 and Aug. 7.
None of it mattered once the Yankees got hold of them. The Red Sox looked ordinary next to New York, and their lineup was especially quiet against Schlittler and Fried, batting .119 while scoring just one run in 12 1/3 combined innings.
Tracy’s decisions didn’t help. In both games, he pulled Payton Tolle and Sonny Gray at the exact same point, with Boston down 1-0 in the fifth.
His first mistake was panic. His second was sticking with Erik Miller in back-to-back spots, and the left-hander gave up traffic in three of the six batters he faced, including the first of Ben Rice’s two home runs on Tuesday.
Tracy tried to explain it this way: “Our bullpen’s been great all year. … I was trying to be aggressive and create tough matchups. It just didn’t work out.”
Gray wasn’t buying it.
“I’m the best pitcher in the American League third time through the order. I think that’s a fact,” Gray said. “I would have liked to have been trusted in that moment.”
The Yankees also showed they weren’t as vulnerable to left-handed relief as the scouting report suggested. Even without Judge, they went 15-for-35 against southpaws in the series. Tracy eventually had to admit, “(The Yankees) swung the bats extremely, extremely well.”
The question now is how much of that carryover lasts. Cody Bellinger, whose three-run homer in the sixth sealed Boston’s fate, said, “You usually give yourself one night to enjoy it. There’s an off day (Thursday), and then it’s right back at it.”
Nobody in the Yankees’ clubhouse is pretending the Rays will be easy. Chisholm’s promise was about winning the series, not sweeping it.
And the Yankees know exactly what they’re walking into at the Trop: the majors’ best home record at 55-26, a pale roof that makes fly balls hard to read, strange acoustics that turn the place into something like an indoor warehouse, and hard, fast turf that rewards contact hitters. Tampa Bay built around that environment with a lineup full of bat-to-ball types who had the lowest strikeout ratio in the majors.
Still, the confidence is real. The Yankees have earned it, and they’re carrying it straight into a building they know can be a trap.
In that very same Trop where Chisholm says - no, guarantees - the Yankees will come out on top.
I’m with him.
Yankees in five.
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