The Yankees did not just beat Boston twice. They spent two nights making a case for how Brian Cashman built this October roster, and Gerrit Cole made sure that message landed.
After Wednesday’s 9-2 win at Yankee Stadium completed a two-game Wild Card Series sweep, Cole turned the clubhouse celebration into a public nod toward the general manager. His point was simple: the Yankees have enough different answers to keep winning.
“You’ve got to go out and buy the tools,” Cole said via Chris Kirschner. The roster looks really good at this point.
We’re very competitive, and we have a lot of different ways that we can beat you. A lot of credit goes to a lot of people in this building.”
That versatility showed up again Wednesday. Cody Bellinger, who stayed with the club in free agency, delivered the big swing with a three-run homer in a six-run sixth inning.
Luis García Jr., acquired during the season, had already opened the scoring with a fourth-inning homer. Bellinger finished with four RBIs, and the Yankees turned a one-run edge into a runaway.
Max Fried did the rest on the mound, working six innings of one-run ball to pick up the win. Sonny Gray was tagged with the loss, and no pitcher earned a save.
The sixth inning kept stretching the gap. Spencer Jones got things moving by reaching on a wild-pitch strikeout after a successful replay challenge.
Rookie George Lombard Jr. added an RBI single, and Austin Wells chipped in with a sacrifice fly. It was the kind of inning that mixed power, speed and simple run production - the exact formula Aaron Boone needed from a lineup built in different ways.
Tuesday’s opener had already pointed in that direction. The Yankees rolled to a 9-0 win behind Cam Schlittler and Ben Rice. Schlittler struck out 10 over 6 1/3 scoreless innings, while Rice homered twice and drove in six runs, according to Field Level Media’s game report.
Put the two games together and the shape of the roster becomes hard to miss. Schlittler and Fried combined for 12 1/3 innings, or 37 outs, while allowing one earned run.
That works out to a 0.73 ERA. One starter came from inside the organization.
The other arrived via free agency. The Yankees got impact from both routes.
Cashman’s hand in that mix is easy to trace. He re-signed Bellinger in January on a five-year, $162.5 million deal. He also acquired García from Washington in August for four pitchers, according to Associated Press and Reuters reporting on those transactions.
There was another layer to the roster discussion, too. The Yankees did not land Adley Rutschman, who instead joined Boston.
Cashman pursued him but could not match Baltimore’s price, according to the AP’s deadline reporting. That doesn’t erase the effort; it just means the Yankees ended up with a different answer at catcher, with Wells still part of the solution.
The sweep also gave weight to the development side of the equation, and Brandon Tierney was among those making that point after Game 1. He said:
“Because everywhere you looked, it was somebody that his organization drafted and his organization developed.”
Tierney singled out Schlittler, Rice and Lombard, while also crediting Damon Oppenheimer and the scouts who identified Schlittler at Northeastern. He said criticism involving Jasson Domínguez and Anthony Volpe should not crowd out those successes.
He stuck with his broader criticism, but also said the results deserved a fresh look:
“But you’ve got to give credit where it’s due and how things are shifting and they’re shifting.”
Tierney also praised Cashman’s combative style in interviews, saying:
“It’s fun and I really respect that. He’s a scrapper.”
And he imagined Cashman’s response to the critics after Game 1, adding this as his own characterization, not a reported Cashman quote:
“Last night was a night where Cashman’s saying bleep you. Bleep you.”
Now the Yankees move on to Tampa Bay for a best-of-five series starting Saturday, carrying a roster that won this round with veterans, young players and the kind of lineup depth that keeps showing up in different forms.
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