Aaron Boone reflected on an overlooked play by the Yankees in Game 1

LOS ANGELES – After a day of external deliberation, there was a decision that Aaron Boone himself struggled with.

It didn't appeal to Gerrit Cole after 88 pitches.

It wasn't about getting Nestor Cortes, fresh from a flexor muscle strain that hadn't allowed him to throw since Sept. 18, to face the Dodgers' best hitters.

Instead, Boone allowed some reflection on whether he should have stuck with Luke Weaver longer.

Boone showed his best bullpen arm in the eighth inning with the winning run in the third inning, and Weaver recorded two outs but allowed the run to score.

He then tore through the Dodgers' lineup in the ninth, throwing 19 pitches in 1²/₃ innings.

“The biggest thing is: Should I send Weav' back for a third?” Boone questioned himself after the Dodgers beat weaker replacements.

But asking Weaver for a third trip to the mound might have kept him out of Game 2.

Boone turned to Jake Cousins ​​to lead off the Dodgers' order, which didn't work as Cousins ​​walked Gavin Lux and allowed a single to Tommy Edman.

With a lunge he then caught Cortes, who withdrew Shohei Ohtani.

But after an intentional walk to Mookie Betts to load the bases, Freddie Freeman hit the walk-off grand slam.

“Nestor, I’m OK with it,” Boone said of his decision to choose Cortes over Tim Hill.

Boone argued that he wanted Cortes with one out in that situation because he wanted a better chance of a strikeout with two runners on base, the winning run on second and the go-ahead run on first.

If there were two outs, he would have chosen Hill, who has more pitches to make contact.

“Even in retrospect, I feel that way [Cortes decision] was the right move with one out,” said Boone, who was rather evasive about the Cole decision.

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The club's star allowed one run on four hits with no walks in six-plus innings on 88 pitches.

He threw a shot in the seventh round, where he defeated Teoscar Hernandez 0-2, but was then unable to knock him out.

After two fouls and three balls, Hernandez singled.

According to Boone, the look of the sign told him Cole was finished.

“After the long at-bat there and the sequence of at-bats — the five, six before that, I just knew I had to get him there,” Boone said before Game 2 at Dodger Stadium.

Boone spoke to Cole on the mound before calling for Clay Holmes, who hit a batter, allowed a sac bunt and got Will Smith to come out before Tommy Kahnle took over in a game that taxed the Yankees' bullpen.

But Boone said he knew when he went to Cole that he would replace the pitcher.

How did he know that Cole, a workaholic, was finished?

“You just have to take my word for it,” Boone said of Cole, who he said is healthy.

The Yankees decided against changing their lineup.

Boone continued to bowl with an unbalanced order designed to get his best hitters in the air as often as possible, losing some of the balance.

With Gleyber Torres batting leadoff, Aaron Judge batting third and Giancarlo Stanton batting cleanup on Friday, the Yankees had right-handers up top and a number of left-handers in the middle and bottom, with Anthony Volpe the only right-hander in the bottom five.

The Dodgers took advantage.

In the sixth, the Dodgers selected Anthony Banda to strike out the Yankees' left-handed hitter.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a single and stole a few bases, and Volpe was intentionally walked in front of an infield single by Austin Wells, but Alex Verdugo struck out.

There was no sign of recovery in the eighth round as Alex Vesia defeated Chisholm and Anthony Rizzo before Volpe was eliminated.

Luis Gil will pitch Game 4 against what looks like a Dodgers bullpen game.

The Dodgers announced that Walker Buehler will start against Clarke Schmidt in Game 3.

The Buehler decision means he would likely start in Game 7.

Judge was named Overall Player of the Year and AL Outstanding Player in voting for the 2024 Players Choice Awards – the only awards in which players are selected by their peers.

The judge beat finalists Shohei Ohtani and Bobby Witt Jr.