3 adjustments Aaron Boone must make for Yankees to rebound in Game 4

The New York Yankees were one strike away from a commanding 3-0 lead in the ALCS. But two instantly iconic home runs later, this series is back up for grabs, with an all-important Game 4 on tap on Friday night. Will the Yankees pick themselves up off the deck and regain control? Or will momentum carry the Cleveland Guardians to another victory?

The answer depends, in large part, on what adjustments Aaron Boone decides to make. While there's plenty of blame to go around after Game 3, a lot of it has to fall on Boone, whose decisions — from lineup construction to bullpen management — largely backfired in the loss. It's yet to be seen whether he'll learn from those mistakes, but here are three changes the Yankees skipper must make to help his team bounce back.

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3. Chain Austin Wells to the bench

Boone is already halfway there, finally starting Jose Trevino over Wells in Game 3. The outcome was mixed: Trevino got New York on the board early with an RBI single, but he followed that by arguably costing them one more with a base-running blunder, and he failed to keep the Guardians' running game in control all night.

Still, he's the best of two less-than-ideal options for Boone in Game 4, because while Wells is the team's future at catcher, he's downright unplayable at the plate right now. Wells was brought off the bench to pinch-hit in Game 3 and tallied two more strikeouts, running his total over the past six games to a whopping 12 — more than half of his 23 plate appearances in that span. Even more concerningly, just about all of those Ks have looked the same: Pitchers are challenging Wells with fastball after fastball, and he's swinging through them at an alarming rate. Wells' power upside and defense are enticing, but Boone can't afford to give him another at-bat in this series.

2. Get more aggressive with the bullpen

In Games 2 and 3, Boone let starters Gerrit Cole and Clarke Schmidt face the top of Cleveland's order for a third time. And while it's yet to cost New York on the scoreboard, that's more due to luck than anything else: Cole allowed two singles, two walks and a sac fly before Clay Holmes came in and put out the fire, while Schmidt gave up a hard lineout to Steven Kwan and a double to Jose Ramirez before Tim Hill retired Josh Naylor to end the threat. It's clear that the Yankees don't have a ton of relievers that Boone can trust right now, and it's hard to blame him. But he needs to be willing to use all the arms at his disposal, and with volatile righty Luis Gil on the mound in Game 4, he can't afford to let the game get away from him early.

1. Let the actual first baseman play first base

It's hard to know just how much Anthony Rizzo's fractured fingers are bothering him, but he's swung the bat well when's played, and he offers much more both offensively and defensively than utility man Jon Berti. Boone opted to play the platoon game in Game 3, giving the right-handed Berti a start against Guardians lefty Matthew Boyd. But Berti couldn't take advantage at the plate and booted multiple ground balls at first, a position he's hardly played at the Major League level. Rizzo struggles against lefties, but Berti struggles against just about everyone, and now is not the time to get too cute with your matchups.