Red Sox tied MLB record with six grand slams in April 2018
By Sean Penney
April 10
The first meeting of the season with the New York Yankees was dubbed as a duel between aces but it didn’t turn out that way. While Chris Sale delivered six strong innings with only one run allowed, Luis Severino coughed up a handful of runs in five innings. Boston was able to get into the Yankees bullpen for a sixth-inning offensive explosion.
The Red Sox had already doubled their lead by tagging Tommy Kahnle for five runs when Mookie Betts made his second plate appearance of the inning. Betts doubled and scored earlier in the sixth. Lefty Chasen Shreve had taken over for Kahnle with two outs in the inning but couldn’t stop the bleeding, hitting the first batter he faced, followed by the next batter reaching on an error and a walk to load the bases for Betts.
After falling behind in the count 2-1, Shreve threw a splitter that wouldn’t dive. It hung up in the zone and Betts hammered it over everything in left to give the Red Sox a 14-1 lead.
April 11
The Red Sox battered Yankees pitching with a grand slam for the second consecutive game but this time it wouldn’t be enough to take down the Bronx Bombers.
New York raced out to an 8-1 lead as they aimed to redeem themselves for the previous night’s humiliation. While the Yankees had folded like lawn chairs after falling behind in the series opener, Boston at least made a valiant effort to make a comeback with a five-run fifth inning.
The rally attempt was capped by J.D. Martinez, who hammered the first pitch he saw from Masahiro Tanaka. The splitter from the right-hander stayed flat and Martinez didn’t hesitate to send it deep to center field.
The comeback ultimately fell short but Boston would win the series finale to take two out of three against their rivals at Fenway.