Yankees: Why Red Sox fans need to stop whining about Joe West mistake

Feel your feelings, Red Sox fans. We’re here for ya. It wasn’t too long ago New York Yankees fans were in the same boat: at home, on Sunday Night Baseball, trying to avoid the sweep against … you.

Remember that? Rougned Odor worked a full count and the next pitch was about six inches outside but was called a strike to end the inning rather than load the bases for Clint Frazier? That was right in the thick of the Bombers’ 0-7 start against you guys.

Heartbreaker. Boston certifiably owned New York for the first half of the season and it wasn’t even close. But then things … normalized.

0-7 turned into 9-10 after two sweeps: one at Yankee Stadium and the latest at Fenway Park. And what just happened on Sunday Night Baseball certainly needs to be discussed.

Because we simply won’t sit here and listen to you complain about home plate umpire Joe West’s missed call on that Aaron Judge “strikeout.” That certainly played a role in the loss, but it hardly defined it. You had done NOTHING up until that point to deserve the win … and neither did the Yankees.

That is, until Judge ripped a two-run double and Giancarlo Stanton hit another home run at Fenway to deflate the home crowd. That’s three in a row. What did the Sox do? Oh, they recorded 11 hits (10 of which were singles), went 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position, made bad bullpen decisions, and took the late lead because of THREE straight Yankees mistakes (a bone-headed Aaron Boone pitching change and two errors).

Hey Red Sox fans … Joe West isn’t the reason you lost to the Yankees.

You got the win you absolutely didn’t deserve “stolen” from you? Even if Judge struck out, Stanton was coming up with two outs and runners on second and third. With the way he was hitting, we’d like to think there was a good chance he would’ve delivered in some capacity to either tie the game or take the lead.

But even if that didn’t happen, you, again, had a 7-0 lead in this season series. MLB’s schedule for you was about as favorable as it could be with three against the Yankees at home and then six against the Orioles and Nationals.

In the first game of this series, your 2021 ace Nathan Eovaldi decided to put forth his worst start of the season and that one was never in reach. On Saturday, the bullpen failed you in tremendous fashion. All you had to do was get Brett Gardner out and the inning was over. Instead, you walked the bases loaded and gave up a grand slam.

And then after West’s missed call — which was actually hard to decipher in real time but couldn’t be reviewed, even though it was obviously the wrong call in slow motion — you gave up a double with two strikes to lose the lead and then surrendered a home run to make the deficit nearly insurmountable.

And you actually almost got a gift in the bottom of the ninth when West decided to call this Aroldis Chapman strike that was right down the middle a ball. He rung up DJ LeMahieu and Aaron Judge earlier in the game on wrong calls, too.

It went both ways for most of the night, but the final blow just happened to be delivered when you didn’t want to rise to the occasion and the Yankees did.

And if we want to talk about West’s overall performance on the evening … it actually benefitted the Red Sox. Once more, we are sorry your team didn’t rise to the occasion. We know how it feels. The Yankees have done it for most of this year.

You’re still in the playoffs with the easiest schedule remaining. The Yankees have to hold into that top spot (or any of the spots!) with the challenge of facing two American League contenders. That’s not enough for you?

Then you should have done a better job of trying to win any of the three games this weekend without leaving it up to chance.

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