Will Warren answered a key Yankees question after Green Monster ate Giancarlo Stanton

The New York Yankees strode into Fenway Park on Sunday Night Baseball having already accomplished their mission this series, defeating both Lucas Giolito and Brayan Bello in taut, well-played games. In a three-game set that could've overwhelmed them, they instead largely silenced the Boston Red Sox, securing their seventh win in their first 11 tries of a 12-game "season-defining" gauntlet. Now, facing Garrett Crochet, their chances for the sweep were slim, but all they had to do was -- oop. Nope. Never mind.

At least the Yankees, bludgeoned in the very first inning on "getaway night" before having to fly to Minneapolis, answered one important question very early in this one. With a rotation humming like this one, and a difficult potential Game 3 start decision coming around the corner ... no, Will Warren should not be the choice.

He should be proud of his growth this season. He's been mostly effective at limiting damage and incurring strikeouts with the sweeper. But his very worst work has been reserved for primetime - 1 1/3 innings, seven earned runs against the Dodgers; eight runs and 10 hits in four innings against the Blue Jays - and that tradition continued on Sunday.

The night started ominously, with Giancarlo Stanton finding out first-hand that left field in Fenway Park isn't deep enough, losing a tussle with a gigantic wall and turning a possible flyout into a leadoff Jarren Duran triple. There was no good choice between where to rotate Stanton and Aaron Judge throughout this set. This choice, tonight, was the wrong one.

Yankees' Will Warren should be the last choice for potential playoff start

Alex Bregman predictably cashed in the leadoff spark, banging a ribbie single, but from that point forward, the onus was all on Warren to clean things up and escape with a sliver of hope. Instead, he got his brains bashed in.

Pitchers aren't defined exclusively by their worst starts, but with razor-thin margins this time of year, Warren notably has three flat-out awful starts against top competition in the spotlight on his resumé. They haven't been just bad or a little off; they've been catastrophic. Warren allowed five runs on five consecutive hits and two productive outs, then allowed Carlos Narvaez to leave the yard dead to center to put the exclamation point on his master's thesis.

Luis Gil should make a playoff start if the Yankees play the Red Sox. Cam Schlittler deserves a nod (or continued evaluation), too. Given the evidence at hand, and the lingering suspicion that Warren's stuff might even tick up in a bullpen role, Sunday's start closed the book on one option in this ongoing debate.