A day late: Tim Hill promptly made Aaron Boone’s decisions look even worse in Game 2

The New York Yankees lost Game 1 of the World Series in heartbreaking fashion. Losing any World Series game, especially with the ending being a walk-off grand slam, hurts, but this loss felt extremely avoidable.

The Yankees scored only three runs in 10 innings, had a couple of defensive blunders, and saw their manager, Aaron Boone, make several questionable decisions.

Blaming the manager for a loss is never ideal and often feels like the easy way out, but it really did feel like Boone played a major role in their Game 1 defeat. His decision to pull his ace, Gerrit Cole, when he was dealing and under 90 pitches, was tough to fathom, especially when the erratic Clay Holmes replaced him on the mound. That was only one of his strange decisions.

The one Yankees fans (rightfully) can't get over was Boone's decision to turn to Nestor Cortes, a pitcher who hadn't been used in over a month as he was out with injury, in the bottom of the tenth inning with the game in the balance.

Cortes entered the game when the Dodgers had two runners on base and the lethal top of their order due up. The southpaw got Shohei Ohtani to fly out (thanks to a great Alex Verdugo catch), but after an intentional walk of Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman drilled the walk-off grand slam, handing Los Angeles a crucial Game 1 victory.

The decision to use Cortes at all in that spot was strange on its own, and doing so when they had Tim Hill, a left-handed reliever, available, was even weirder. Hill was dominant for New York in his 35 regular season appearances, and had been even better in October. Boone bypassing him for a rusty starter was really tough to defend. Sure enough, it took Hill no time to prove Boone was wrong for using Cortes over him in Game 2.

For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop between now and the MLB offseason.

Tim Hill proves Aaron Boone's controversial decision was wrong in the first chance he got

Hill entered the game in the bottom of the fifth inning with the Yankees trailing 4-1. The Dodgers had a runner on first base and one out, with the red-hot Freddie Freeman due up. Yes, the same Freeman who ended Game 1 with the grand slam and who launched another home run off of Carlos Rodon in Game 2.

The southpaw not only got Freeman to pop out, but struck out Tommy Edman one batter later. Hill got Freeman, the hottest hitter in the World Series thus far, and he got Edman, the NLCS MVP who also homered in Game 2.

As if that wasn't enough, Hill would start the sixth inning for New York and continue to look impressive. He got Kiké Hernandez to line out and Max Muncy popped out after him. Boone would take Hill out of the game after he got Muncy, but what a job he did. He retired all four batters he faced, including Freeman (and Edman).

Would Hill have succeeded in Game 1 if he was brought into the game instead of Cortes? I mean, for all we know, Ohtani could've found a way to end the game against Hill and not even require Freeman to come up to the plate. Freeman also could've gotten to Hill. I mean, he's a superstar.

Hindsight is 20/20, but Hill had been dominant with the Yankees, and had surrendered a total of two runs (one earned) in seven appearances and 5.2 innings this postseason. Had Hill been struggling, then sure, using Cortes might not have been quite as abysmal, but the Yankees chose to use a rusty starting pitcher who hadn't been used in a month and isn't used to coming into a game in that tight of a spot instead of a left-handed reliever who had been dominant for them for months.

Again, we don't know what the result would've been had Hill taken the ball in Game 1, but Boone's process was extremely questionable going to Cortes. Hill retiring Freeman and the three following hitters he faced makes Boone's potentially series-defining decision look that much worse.