Cody Bellinger's HR breaks open another Yankees win to eliminate Red Sox in lopsided wild-card series

The New York Yankees have advanced to the American League Division Series. Convincingly.For the second straight game, the club made its rivalry with the Boston Red Sox look far from competitive, winning Game 2 of their wild-card series 9-2 to finish off a sweep. The Yankees will face another AL East foe, the Tampa Bay Rays, in the next round.The Yankees did this without Aaron Judge, whose health still looms over the Bronx. Game 1 of the ALDS is scheduled for Saturday at 6:30 p.m. ET.Wednesday's wild-card Game 2 started as a duel between starting pitchers Max Fried and Sonny Gray but turned into a rout gradually and then suddenly. First came a Luis García Jr. homer to break a scoreless tie in the fourth inning. Cody Bellinger doubled the New York lead in the fifth with an RBI single, right after the Red Sox opted to pull Gray. Luis García Jr. and the Yankees strike first in Game 2! pic.twitter.com/2PgJzL6JfW— MLB (@MLB) October 1, 2026 Then came the sixth inning.It began hopefully for the Red Sox, who scored their first run of the series on a Willson Contreras homer that might or might not have received some help from a fan. Either way, Contreras and Fried exchanged hard stares during a long home run trot. Game on, right? Right?Boston's next lever to pull was bringing in ace Garrett Crochet for his first appearance since April, returning from shoulder inflammation and a lat strain. It was a nice story, one that was soon ruined by Crochet failing to get any of his four batters out. He exited with his team down by two runs, with the bases loaded and no outs.The Red Sox brought in setup man Garrett Whitlock to try to keep the game competitive, but productive outs scored two more runs. Boston then intentionally walked Ben Rice to set up a faceoff between Whitlock and Bellinger.Bellinger made that decision look foolish.Everything that followed was merely procedural for a lopsided Yankees win. The Red Sox made themselves a playoff team after a start so bad they fired manager Alex Cora, and they could do no wrong for one magical stretch in the middle of the season. However, there was once again a clear talent deficit against the Yankees, even without Judge.This is the second straight year that Boston has ended its season in New York, though the Sox at least played a Game 3 last season. This time around, they were outscored 18-2. The Yankees' two starting pitchers, Fried and presumptive Cy Young winner Cam Schlittler, combined to throw 12 1/3 innings with 5 hits and 1 run allowed, with 16 strikeouts.The Red Sox had injuries, of course, their most recent being Roman Anthony in Game 1. And it's not like we can pretend they had the fully functional version of Crochet. Still, this result begs the question of what the plan is under chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, who has appeared to steer the club into the exact kind of tier MLB teams want to avoid in the long term.Yankees fans haven't exactly been thrilled with their team's recent era, either, but they at least get to watch their team play this weekend, with the hope of benefiting from a chaotic American League field this season. New York gets two full days of rest before its series opener against the Rays, against whom they went 6-7 in the regular season.Follow along with Yahoo Sports for live updates, highlights and more as the New York Yankees host the Boston Red Sox in Game 2 of the AL wild-card round on Wednesday.