Alex Cora doing what Aaron Boone didn't won the Red Sox Game 1 of Wild Card Series

Being an MLB manager can be a thankless job. It feels like they get very little credit for pushing the right buttons and all of the blame whenever anything goes wrong. Overreactions are incredibly common when discussing managers, but saying that Alex Cora out-managed Aaron Boone in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees doesn't feel like an overreaction. It's just the simple truth.

Both Cora and Boone tagged their aces, Garrett Crochet and Max Fried, to start Game 1 at Yankee Stadium, and each starter delivered ace-like performances. What happened late in the game as things got tight with the score and pitch count, though, is what separated Cora from Boone.

With the Yankees up 1-0 in the top of the seventh, Boone pulled Fried, who had delivered 6.1 innings of shutout ball on 102 pitches. Admittedly, his command was spotty at times, but 6.1 scoreless innings in a postseason game is extremely impressive, and with the No. 8 and No. 9 hitters due up in the order, I assumed Boone would lean on his $218 million man to keep his team in front entering the seventh-inning stretch.

I was wrong, Luke Weaver was pressed into action, and in what felt like an eye blink, Masataka Yoshida gave the Red Sox the lead with a two-run single.

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Aaron Boone made wrong decision to pull Max Fried

I get why the move was made. Fried was not quite at his best, even while he was able to keep Boston off the board, Fried had just gotten a left-handed hitter out, and his pitch count was elevated. To those arguments, may I present to you Fried's paycheck? May I present to you the results? May I present to you the batters due up?

Did the Yankees not sign Fried to go beyond his limits and get the Yankees through that seventh inning? It's not even as if he was at an unreasonable pitch count - Fried had thrown 102 or more pitches 11 times during the regular season, and had done so in two of his last three regular season starts.

I would've understood pulling Fried if the Red Sox had runners on base. I would've understood pulling Fried had a batter like Alex Bregman or Trevor Story were to be due up. I would've understood pulling Fried if he were at around 120 pitches. None of these things was the case in this scenario, though. Weaver has to get these outs too, but wouldn't you have trusted Fried more than Weaver, who has had an inconsistent season, in that spot?

It's easy to say in hindsight, but it did feel like Boone made the wrong decision to pull Fried at the time, and it only looks worse when realizing Cora made the opposite decision with his ace.

Alex Cora stuck with his ace and it worked

Cora let Crochet get through 7.2 innings and throw a career-high 117 pitches. To boot, pitch No. 117 was arguably his best of the night, as he painted a 100 mph fastball on the inside corner to strike out Austin Wells looking.

Cora wanted his ace, Crochet, to go above and beyond where he normally does to squeeze as many outs as he possibly could have. Clearly, it worked beautifully. Sure, Crochet was more dominant than Fried, making it an easier decision, but the Red Sox could've easily gone to a guy like Garrett Whitlock to set up for Aroldis Chapman earlier instead of pushing Crochet past his previously defined limits.

The postseason is the time for the stars to win you games. At the end of the day, I want to win or lose the game with my best on the mound. Cora felt the same way by using only Crochet and Chapman in this game. Boone, on the other hand, was unwilling to ride or die with Fried, and it cost him.

Aaron Boone is not solely to blame for Game 1 defeat

I believe the Fried decision was a bad one, and it obviously played a role in the team's loss, but Boone really shouldn't be blamed for this loss.

First and foremost, it's really hard to win a game scoring only one run. Yes, Crochet and Chapman are very good, but the Yankees had their chances to score runs. They had a golden opportunity to score in the first inning before Crochet got settled in, and loaded the bases with nobody out in the ninth against Chapman. They failed to scratch a single run across the plate either time.

Second, while I believe Fried should've stayed in, there's no excuse for Weaver to pitch as poorly as he did. I mean, allowing guys like Ceddanne Rafaela and Nick Sogard to reach base in a crucial spot is just inexcusable. David Bednar, New York's closer, allowing an insurance run after retiring the first two batters he faced in the ninth inning, again, was inexcusable.

The Yankees had to play better than they did to beat a formidable Red Sox team, and they did not. Boone didn't put them in the best of positions in the seventh, but the rest of the game was simply played poorly by New York.

Cora doing what Boone didn't is what people will discuss, and understandably so, but for the Yankees to come back and win the series in an unlikely fashion, they're going to have to play much better.