Yankees Game 2 lineup vs Brayan Bello makes Game 1 decision look even dumber

We've talked enough about the New York Yankees' Game 1 malfeasance against the Boston Red Sox in the Wild Card Series. But we're going to talk about it some more. Because ... we still don't get it, especially with the reveal of the Game 2 lineup.

It's no secret Garrett Crochet is that much better against lefties, but he was also dominant against righties! The matchups felt like they didn't matter at all. The move felt like playing your best talent and then utilizing the matchups off the bench as the game progressed.

But Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman went with Option 1: bench two of your best hitters in Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Ben Rice in addition to your best defender in Ryan McMahon and then have zero right-handed hitters on the bench for late-game switches vs Crochet and eventually Aroldis Chapman.

The Yankees lost because of it. For Game 2, they'll go with their normal lineup against starter Brayan Bello, a right-hander. Makes sense, right? Of course it does! The best guys should be on the field, whether they are righty or lefty. You're not benching Aaron Judge or Giancarlo Stanton against an ace right-hander, are you?

But looking deeper into the numbers, it's just funny to see Bello has almost identical numbers against righties and lefties:

• vs right-handed hitters - .243/.302/.342 (.644 OPS)
• vs left-handed hitters - .232/.322/.364 (.684 OPS)

You wouldn't call a 40-point OPS advantage anything to write home about, right? Looking even closer, Bello has had an near-equal matchup sample size vs righties (289 plate appearances) and lefties (411 plate appearances).

Looking at Crochet's numbers ... he had an insane disparity vs righties and lefties. Yes, he dominated the lefties, but throwing more righties at him legitimately did not matter, even though the lines look wildly different.

• vs right-handed hitters - .229/.279/.374 (.654 OPS) in 663 (!) plate appearances
• vs left-handed hitters - .166/.193/.262 (.455 OPS) in 151 plate appearances

You could certainly say that Crochet's dominance against lefties was actually overblown because he faced them so few times. If he's dominating the best right-handed hitters in the sport to the tune of that line, then what made the Yankees think starting inferior hitters like Jose Caballero and Amed Rosario was going to make a difference? It's fair to give them a pass for Goldschmidt because the veteran got two hits and provided better defense, but removing 57 homers and 145 RBI from the lineup with Jazz and Rice in one fell swoop felt insane at the time. And it was insane. It's more insane the more you think about it.

Weighing sample sizes should be what an analytics team does, right? Maybe they missed the fine print. Or maybe they just didn't care. We'll find out in 20 years when the exposé comes out on the failures of the Yankees from 2010 until whenever it ends.