NEW YORK – The great Max Fried Debate might rage throughout a cold winter in Yankees Universe.

On the victorious Boston side, there was no such handwringing about lifting your ace lefty in Tuesday night’s tense, and theatrical, best-of-three AL Wild Card opener.

Before a revved-up sellout crowd at Yankee Stadium, Red Sox manager Alex Cora treated Game 1 like an elimination game, riding Garrett Crochet into the eighth inning at 117 pitches, with 11 Ks.

Fried exited at 102 pitches with one out in the seventh, only to watch the Yankees’ skinny one-run lead evaporate in the span of three Boston batters against Luke Weaver.

“I want to pitch as long as I possibly can,’’ Fried said after a 3-1 Yankees loss pushed them to the brink of playoff elimination. Expert MLB daily picks: Unique MLB

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