The Red Sox continue to be a thorn in the side of the Yankees’ playoff hopes with their third victory in New York in as many nights in yet another epic game to add to the history of this rivalry. The Yankees need just one win to punch their ticket to October baseball, but Boston wouldn’t have it on Wednesday night.
Early on, it looked as if the Red Sox would roll over the Yankees with righty Masahiro Tanaka on the mound. After a Xander Bogaerts single and David Ortiz worked a walk, Travis Shaw drilled a three-run homer in the first inning to get the Red Sox off to a 3-0 start. The Sox would go 1-2-3 in the second, but added another run on an Ortiz RBI single with Dustin Pedroia coming across the plate (Pedroia led off the inning with a ground-rule double).
Despite the quick start for the Red Sox, Tanaka did regain his composure and worked quickly to go three up and three down in both the fourth and fifth innings. He kept the Yankees alive long enough to get back in the game and finished the night with 5.0 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 1 BB and 3 SO.
It’s been obvious all season that Wade Miley likes to pitch to contact and to work very fast, often times seemingly too fast when things are beginning to fall apart for him. He pitched at the pace again tonight and it worked out for him in the first inning getting Jacoby Ellsbury to strike out, Chase Headley to ground and Alex Rodriguez to fly out. Miley found himself getting into some trouble in the second inning though, giving up a single to LF Chris Young and a walk to 1B Greg Bird with two outs. A ground-rule double from 2B Robert Refsnyder would drive in a run to get the Yankees on the board. Miley was able to get out of the inning after allowing just one run to score.
After getting Carlos Beltran to hit into a big double play to end the inning with two men on in the third, Miley again allowed two singles with two outs in the fourth before getting out of the jam. The fifth inning would see New York finally get to him though. Down 4-1 at the time, Ellsbury led off the inning with a double to deep right and was able to get to third base on a wild pitch. Headley flied out, but A-Rod was able to work a walk followed by a big ground-rule double from Beltran to drive in Ellsbury. Brian McCann picked up an RBI on a ground out, and Young reached on an infield single allowing another run to score to tie the game at four. Miley would go on to walk two more batters before finally getting out of the inning to finish his night. His final line: 5.0 IP, 9 H, 4 ER, 4 BB, 3 SO, 0 HR on 109 pitches.
Alex Rodriguez would give the Yankees the lead in the sixth with a monster solo blast off of Matt Barnes. It seemed that things were starting to implode for the Red Sox and that the Yanks would be celebrating shortly when Dellin Betances came on to get the final out of the seventh. Betances has been almost untouchable in 2015 coming into the game with a 1.34 ERA and 125 strikeouts. The always fearless Mookie Betts is never one to back down though, and he was able to get the best of Betances, pounding a solo homer to left center to tie the game.
Despite having men on second and third in the seventh inning and the bases loaded at one point in the eighth, the Red Sox bullpen was able to piece outs together here and there to work themselves into extra innings. The ninth and tenth innings didn’t see too much action, but Boston would get on their way to a win in the eleventh frame.
With Andrew Bailey starting the inning for New York, Shaw started things off with a single. After a horrible pop-out bunt from Brock Holt, Blake Swihart singled to move Shaw to third. Deven Marrero then singled to drive in the go-ahead run. That was followed by a brilliant decision by Jackie Bradley Jr. to sacrifice bunt to first to get an insurance run. Mookie then capped off another great night with a two-run homer, his second homerun of the night to give the Sox a four run lead.
Robbie Ross Jr. would go on to pitch the bottom half of the eleventh and was able to get three outs in three at-bats. The Red Sox won by the final of 9-5. Boston will look to complete the sweep tomorrow night at Yankee Stadium when the rejuvenated Rich Hill (2-0, 1.17) meets CC Sabathia (5-10, 4.82) in a battle of left-handers. First pitch is scheduled for 7:00pm.
GAME NOTES:
*Boston has now won six straight games, their longest winning streak of the season.
*Betts, Pedroia, Ortiz, Shaw and Swihart all had two hits on the night. Betts and Shaw each had three RBI. Bogaerts went 1-5 with a walk and is now hitting .323.
*Per the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier, Mookie became the youngest player in history to have a two-homerun game in Yankee Stadium.
*The only Yankees with multiple hits were A-Rod, Young and Refsnyder all with two. No Yankee had more than one RBI on the night.
*There were six total doubles in the game, and four of those were of the ground-rule variety highlighting the strange parameters of the new Yankee Stadium once again.
*David Ortiz was removed from the game in the sixth inning after hitting a double. At the time, this seemed like a questionable decision fairly early in the contest.
*Mookie Betts and Jackie Bradley Jr once again put on stellar performances in the field tracking down deep, hard-hit balls throughout the game.
*Jacoby Ellsbury was caught stealing in the eighth in a crucial play considering how the inning unfolded after that first out.
*The Red Sox used seven relief pitchers while the Yankees sent six relievers of their own to the mound.
*In a fairly common theme for this rivalry, the game went exactly four hours and ten minutes.
GRADES:
It’s nice to see guys shake off their issues, get to the next pitch and work efficiently, but there’s a difference between working efficiently and working too quickly. Sometimes it feels as if Miley is almost rushing, especially when he gets into trouble. It’s definitely a mental obstacle he’ll have to overcome. He was alright for portions of the game, but, in what has become a common theme for Miley, eventually imploded in the middle innings. He had to throw a lot of pitches to get out of jams, seemed rattled at times and gave up a 4-1 lead. He did leave with the game tied and limited the damage though.
More Mookie magic on Wednesday night! He looked great in the field, and although his second homerun of the night was just icing on the cake, his two homeruns were monstrous in this victory. His first one was very impressive coming off the dominant set-up man Dellin Betances to tie the game in what was arguably the biggest hit of the night.
It’s difficult to pinpoint just one reliever when seven are used in the game and are able to get out of so many different jams, especially in the seventh and eight innings. Matt Barnes gave up the only run from the bullpen with a solo shot from A-Rod. The rest of the pen only gave up two other hits.
Alexi Ogandogathered two strikeouts and gave up one hit and one walk in two innings to get the win.
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