Will Warren, Yankees rout Red Sox to clinch season series

The Yankees didn't just beat the Red Sox this weekend, they buried them. A 16-1 blowout in the series finale gave New York 3 of 4 in the set and, more importantly, the season series at 7-6 — the tiebreaker that could decide who hosts a playoff series if these two end up level in the standings down the stretch. Boston, already fighting for a wild-card spot, now sits 4 games back with 25 to play.

Will Warren was the story before anything else went haywire. He carried a shutout into the eighth inning, striking out 7 and allowing just 1 run all day, easily his best start of the season. Barstool's Eric Hubbs was tracking it inning by inning, admitting "every inning you survive with Warren today feels like a prayer," which says plenty about how shaky this Yankees rotation has looked at times this year.

Eric Hubbs

@BarstoolHubbs

Every inning you survive with Warren today feels like a prayer. One down.

Warren wasn't doing it alone. Jazz Chisholm Jr. put together the kind of game that swings a series — a defensive gem in the infield, a heads-up dash on the bases, and offense to match. Hubbs called out the glove work specifically, framing it as exactly the kind of impact play a lineup needs when the bats aren't cooperating.

Eric Hubbs

@BarstoolHubbs

If you're not gonna hit, you gotta make an impact in the field. Great play by Jazz

The actual flashpoint came in the fifth inning, when Chisholm ripped a sinking liner to right-center that Boston's Ceddanne Rafaela dove for. First base umpire Edwin Moscoso ruled it no catch on the field, the play went to review, and replay showed the ball in Rafaela's glove — but his hand turned as he slid, leaving no definitive angle on whether it touched grass first. The call stood. Rafaela insisted afterward, "I know I made the catch," and Red Sox manager Chad Tracy called the outcome frustrating, but nothing was overturned.

That's the play Barstool Baseball had Marty Mush break down on camera, ruling it a trap and no catch under the letter of the rule, even as Red Sox fans flooded replies insisting otherwise.

Barstool Baseball

@StoolBaseball

Red Sox fans don’t believe this was the correct call @martymush is here to teach the rules

Whatever the review crew saw, the inning blew open right after it. New York piled on with a big fifth and then an even bigger eighth, with Austin Wells going deep twice, Heliot Ramos connecting for a three-run shot, and Paul Goldschmidt and José Caballero also going yard in the decisive frame. Dave Portnoy summed up the Yankees fan mood succinctly after the catch call went New York's way, calling it "a fucking catch" worthy of a World Series highlight reel — before turning around and jokingly "protesting" the whole result back to 0-0 out of pure spite for Yankees fans in his mentions.

For Boston, the loss stings beyond one bad afternoon. A weekend that opened with real stakes — a shot to gain ground and flip the tiebreaker in their favor — ended with the Red Sox getting outclassed on the mound and buried at the plate, and a controversial non-catch will be the easy scapegoat in the retelling. But as Hubbs put it, Boston fans can point to Rafaela's play all they want; deep down, their team just didn't show up against a Yankees staff that's quietly been the best in baseball.