Brandon Workman Rescues Red Sox from Potential Disaster in ALDS Game 1

BOSTON — Brandon Workman entered Game 1 of the ALDS to clean up someone else’s mess, then made his own. In between he saved the game, and maybe the series, for his Red Sox.

Boston beat the Yankees 5–4 in a game that somehow felt even tighter. And the Red Sox were never closer to disaster than in the top of the sixth, when Workman found himself on the mound, up two runs but surrounded by men in gray, trying to slow his heartbeat.

Thirty hours earlier he had felt a different kind of anxiety, wondering if he would make the postseason roster or watch in street clothes as his teammates chased a championship. Workman, 30, is the only pitcher on the staff who appeared in the 2013 World Series, which…