Aaron Boone's brutal Game 1 decision gives Cardinals fans nightmarish flashbacks

In 2014, New York Yankees' manager Aaron Boone was an MLB analyst for ESPN. Surely he saw the grave mistake that St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny made in the National League Championship Series. Apparently not.

During Game 1 of the World Series on Friday night, Boone turned to lefty Nestor Cortes in the bottom of the 10th inning with a 3-2 lead, who had not pitched in a game since September 18th, to face Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman. Cortes was able to get Ohtani to fly out to Alex Verdugo in left field (who made an incredible play by the way), but then served up a walk-off home run to Freddie Freeman with the very next pitch.

Back in 2014, the Cardinals were down three games to one to the San Fransisco Giants in the NLCS, and with a 3-3 ballgame in the bottom of the 9th inning, Matheny turned to right-handed Michael Wacha to get the Cardinals to extra innings. Wacha had not pitched in a game since September 26th, and he served up a three-run, walk-off bomb to Giants' Travis Ishikawa.

It is so easy to second-guess a manager's decisions after the fact. Had Cortes or Wacha got the outs they needed when called upon, people may have still questioned the decision, but ultimately it would have been mostly forgotten about or even praised by fans. But in both cases, those who were watching the games saw the trouble that could be brewing, and in both situations, it turned out to be a poor choice.

The Yankees now trail the Dodgers 0-1 in the World Series in a game that I am sure they will feel like they gave away. We'll never know what would have happened if the Yankees went with someone else in that spot, but it does feel like the wrong decision was made.