DOMINGUEZ DOMINATES, WARREN WIPES 'EM OUT

The Yankees crashed the Sacramento party and handed the A’s a cold slice of reality in Game 1, flexing their October muscle with a 10-2 win that felt even more lopsided than the score. Osvaldo Bido danced through early trouble but couldn’t keep the Bronx bats quiet for long. Paul Goldschmidt and Jason Domínguez hit back-to-back solo shots in the third, and Domínguez—aka The Martian—kept orbiting with a sac fly and another blast in the seventh to seal it. The A’s, meanwhile, looked utterly lost at the plate, striking out 12 times and managing just four hits all night. Will Warren, the Yankees’ rookie starter, mowed through the lineup like he’d pitched in the bigs for a decade.

This is what seemed to be Sacramento’s postseason debut, coming into the game, and the Yankees treated it like batting practice. Tyler Soderstrom botched a key play in the second, but the lineup failed repeatedly with runners on, and even the usually reliable Brent Rooker couldn’t get a clutch knock. By the sixth, you could feel the tension shift from anticipation to resignation. The A’s got a leadoff double from Nick Kurtz and still couldn’t bring him home. If Game 1 was a tone-setter, the Yankees just dropped the hammer—and the A’s better find a response fast.