Analysis of the Boston Red Sox vs New York Yankees series

Game One Recap: Yankees 6, Red Sox 5

It looked like the Red Sox were going to put this one out of reach early. After screaming at the umpires for starting the game four minutes late, Gerrit Cole got absolutely shelled. He walked leadoff hitter Kiké Hernández on four pitches, then allowed a two-run bomb to Rafael Devers. Xander Bogaerts nearly went back-to-back with a single off the top of the wall, and J.D Martinez brought him in with a double down the line. Cole limited the damage there, but a 3-0 lead seemed comfortable with ace Nathan Eovaldi on the mound.

Overall, Eovaldi looked sharp in his season debut. He struck out seven and walked just one in five strong innings, showing excellent command of all five of his pitches. Yet he made two critical mistakes: A middle-middle splitter to Anthony Rizzo and a hanging curveball to Giancarlo Stanton. Both of those pitches were sent into the seats, and Eovaldi left the game with the score tied at three.

The Red Sox struck back in the top of the sixth with their best situational hitting of the game. Bogaerts doubled down the line, Martinez moved him over with a ground ball to second base, and Alex Verdugo drove him in with a ground ball through the drawn-in infield. It was classic get-him-on, get-him-over, get-him-in, a move that has been  a staple of great Red Sox offenses through the years.

To protect their 4-3 lead, the Red Sox brought in their one reliable reliever, Garrett Whitlock. The right-hander easily retired six of the first seven hitters he faced, but D.J LeMahieu sent a ball over the right field fence (a fly ball that would have only been a home run in the Yankee stadium) to tie the score at four. The Red Sox escaped further trouble in the ninth when Hansel Robles struck out Stanton with two runners on, and the game headed into extra innings.

Before the inning, I tweeted that the Red Sox needed to score two runs to feel comfortable heading into the bottom of the 10th. They got off to a good start when Xander Bogaerts flared a ball into shallow left to give the Red Sox a 5-4 lead, but J.D Martinez chased a 2-0 pitch and bounced into a double play. Jake Diekman entered but was unable to close the game out, as Gleyber Torres’ sacrifice fly tied the game and sent the game into the 11th.

This time, the Red Sox were unable to capitalize on the ghost runner rule. Kevin King struck out Alex Verdugo and Trevor Story before getting Bobby Dalbec to ground out to shortstop. The game was pretty much over at that point, and Josh Donaldson’s RBI single off Kutter Crawford only accelerated the inevitable.