New York

Yankees

Schmidt landed on the injured list with biceps neuritis during the final week of the regular season and was a long shot to make it back during the later stages of the playoffs. The 30-year-old made just one appearance in the regular-season after making it back from last year’s Tommy John surgery.

Garcia sat out Game 1 against left-hander Payton Tolle, but will be in the lineup with Sonny Gray on the hill. Jazz Chisholm will also start at second base and bat sixth, and Trent Grisham will play center field and bat seventh. George Lombard Jr. will be the only right-handed hitter in the lineup, but there could be plenty of turnover if the Red Sox go to a left-handed reliever out of the bullpen.

Rice took Red Sox lefty reliever Erik Miller deep for a 423-foot blast to straightaway center field with two outs in the fifth inning to give New York a commanding 2-0 advantage with ace Cam Schlittler completely shutting down Boston’s offense. He supplied another insurance run with a bases-loaded RBI single to right field off lefty reliever Alec Gamboa in the seventh inning. Rice had a chance to do even more damage when he came to the plate with the bases loaded again in the ensuing frame, and he didn’t waste it, crushing a grand slam to center field off righty Brayan Bello to complete the multi-homer performance. The Cohasset, Massachusetts native recorded four batted balls with exit velocities over 100 mph as the Yankees cruised to a comfortable win without injured franchise cornerstone Aaron Judge (calf).

Schlittler authored another dominant performance against his hometown team, retiring 13 consecutive batters following a one-out single from Adley Rutschman in the opening frame. The hard-throwing 25-year-old rising superstar hit triple digits on six occasions and generated an eye-popping 24 swinging strikes, including 14 on his fastball alone. He also leaned heavily on his curveball in this one, throwing it a career-high 32 times. He was lifted from the contest after surrendering a one-out single to Wilyer Abreu in the seventh inning on his career-high 117th pitch of the night. Schlittler has been nearly untouchable on the postseason stage, allowing just two earned runs with a 24/1 K/BB ratio across 20 2/3 innings over three starts in the last two years.

Boone added that the determination to leave Judge off the club’s AL Wild Card Series roster was made after meeting with trainers following a live batting practice session at Yankee Stadium on Monday. The 34-year-old franchise cornerstone told reporters last week that he was planning to be ready for the start of the postseason, but that always felt a bit unrealistic after he suffered a calf strain back on September 16. It sounds like there’s a decent chance that Judge returns for the AL Division Series, if New York manages to get past the Red Sox. There should be some additional clarity on his next steps later this week.

Chisholm will not get the nod at second base with left-hander Peyton Tolle on the bump for the Red Sox. Paul Goldschmidt will hit leadoff at first base, and Anthony Volpe will get the start at second with Chisholm on the bench. The full lineup for the Yankees: 1B Goldschmidt, DH Ben Rice, RF Heliot Ramos, LF Cody Bellinger, SS George Lombard Jr., 3B Amed Rosario, 2B Volpe, CF Spencer Jones and Austin Wells behind the plate with Cam Schlitter on the mound.

Cornielle, who was called up Friday, gave up two runs in an inning in his one appearance for the Yankees. Working as a starter, he had a 3.39 ERA and an 89/45 K/BB in 85 innings for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre this season. If he clears waivers, he’ll eventually become a minor league free agent.

Stanton has not played in an MLB game since April 24th. He originally injured his right calf but then suffered a left calf injury during rehab. The 36-year-old has been taking live batting practice and could still give the Yankees a real boost, with the Red Sox set to start left-hander Payton Tolle in Game 1. However, if Stanton is at DH in Game 1, that means one of Luis Garcia and Ben Rice would play first base, and the other would likely sit. Given recent lineups, Garcia will almost assuredly be the one on the bench.

Grisham has been on the injured list with a hamstring strain since September 4th. The outfielder hit just .170/.261/.352 in 45 games since the All-Star break. With the Red Sox also set to use multiple left-handed starters, it remains to be seen if Grisham will be a regular starter for the Yankees in this series.

Despite Judge claiming that he was intending to play, it always seemed like a long shot. The 34-year-old has a calf strain that was expected to sideline him for 2-6 weeks, and he had not done any running in the days leading up to the announcement. Judge will continue to rehab and almost assuredly will be on the Yankees roster for the Divisional series, if they can get there.