The Yankees never uttered the words publicly when asked about the team they most preferred to avoid for the Wild Card Series. After brawling their way back to the brink of the AL East title, and surging through September, the defending AL champs wouldn’t admit to fearing anyone.

But everyone understood the all-too-familiar danger lurking in the same division, the bitter age-old rival up in Boston, spearheaded by one of the game’s most lethal lefthanders, Garrett Crochet.

Just what the Yankees didn’t need — another band of rowdy Red Sox overachievers, managed by their chief pinstripe antagonist, Alex Cora.

And Tuesday night’s Game 1 turned out to be everything that Aaron Boone & Co. dreaded about this matchup. From Crochet’s dominant playoff Picasso to Cora’s brilliant deployment of Masa

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