 it's October 10 2018 the Yankee season is over it ended on a bang bang play at first base in the bottom of the ninth inning with the tying run at second base and now the post-mortem what happened because these games could have been one the series could have been one don't want to take anything away from the Red Sox who are an extraordinary team with the three wins in the series and now have 111 wins on the season that is not to be sneezed at they didn't get there by accident but I thought that what the Yankees did better than the Red Sox would allow the Yankees to win this series but questionable pitching maneuvers and a lack of offense ended their season so let's start for the second straight day with Aaron Boone and it pains me to do this I'm always gonna be honest with you he's a friend the last thing I want to do is criticize him but he's got to be criticized the bases were loaded in the first inning yesterday with C.C. Sabathia not Sandy Kofax in his prime C.C. Sabathia who has to be perfect to get through innings he's got he has Guile he has guts he's an absolute stud but he doesn't have overpowering stuff anymore no one got up in the bullpen with the bases loaded in the first inning and Ian Kinsler came within two feet of hitting a grand slam and demoralizing stadium crowd let's move to the third I thought that throughout this series the game plan the Yankees would have would be to get to the bullpen as soon as possible in fact probably take a starter out sooner than they should rather than later that's not the way it worked out in games three and four they went with Severina way too long yesterday Sabathia hits Ben and Tendi to start the third inning after the game Boone said our plan was to keep him in through Bradley Don Ben and Tendi is the number two hitter in the order Bradley's the number eight hitter in the order you know what could happen in those six batters I'll tell you three runs happened the game happened the one thing that I didn't see from the Yankees in this series was an urgency and the realization that every at bat every out every inning could end your season you mean to tell me you went into this game with a scripted game plan that you were gonna get through the third inning and get CC to pitch to Bradley before you thought about the bullpen now the bullpen was up by Bradley but if they've lost Bradley okay you never to give up three runs and you're gonna bring a reliever in with people on base and the previous day you bring in Lance Lynn with the bases Lord none of it made sense to me Don well the only reason it would make any sense is that like a football team scripting the first 15 plays of a game the Yankees have these games scripted out that's why I would give Boone a bit of a pass because he did the exact same thing the night before don't you learn your lesson but he didn't do it in game what he didn't do the wild card that's what I the opponent was different Michael I think they go into each game and the analytic guy scripted out here's how the game is gonna go and here's how you're gonna manage it so they script every scenario they leave nothing for chance here's the situation if the games to one here's the situation if the game scoreless here's the situation if the first runner gets on they've got it all scripted out and my problem is with that it's still played by human beings you got to get a feel for the game and the other thing I'm sure they scripted this all out thinking the Yankees were gonna score the Yankees weren't scoring that was the problem in in game three we talked so much about it being 10 nothing the fact is that it allowed to be 10 nothing because the Yankees didn't score the first time through the order and again they weren't scoring last night either so you've got to get a feel for we're in trouble here we got to get CC out forget about the script but Michael that's the only explanation for this can you they're so analytically driven that everything is scripted out ahead of time what do you think because seriously it really changed the conversation because if people are upset at Boone and it really wasn't him who had the call it changes everything because they should have pulled him there's no way they shouldn't here's the deal he's making in-game decisions but it's all being planned out so I mean until we're told that Aaron Boone does not make in-game decisions he's got to get some of the blame here there's got to be an urgency you know what Joe Jordy worked under the same limitations last year look how we managed that wildcard game Severino got taken out after one out well in the first inning because you know why because your season can end