Analysis of the Boston Red Sox vs New York Yankees series
By Daniel Fox
Game Two Recap: Yankees 4, Red Sox 2
Like Game 1, the Red Sox jumped out to early lead on Saturday. Luis Severino was pretty impressive for a guy who hasn’t started a game since 2018, but he grooved a fastball to Alex Verdugo and paid for it. Verdugo’s two-run blast into the right field seats were the only runs Severino allowed on the day, but the Red Sox were able to work up his pitch count enough to knock him out before he could record an out in the fourth.
Nick Pivetta, meanwhile, was rolling. The right-handed faced the minimum through three innings, striking out four batters in the process. The second time through the order, however, was not nearly as successful. Josh Donaldson led off the fourth with a line drive to the left, and Aaron Judge nearly tied the score with a deep fly ball to the center field that was hauled in by a leaping Kiké Hernández. That kept the shutout in tact for the moment, but Anthony Rizzo followed with a bomb to right field that not even Hernandez could catch to tie the score at two.
The game was still tied in the sixth, where Pivetta made his next crucial mistake. He threw an absolute cement-mixer slider to Stanton, who ripped it over the left field wall to give the Yankees a 4-2 lead. Pivetta departed after retiring the next batter, allowing four runs over 5.2 innings.
The bigger problem was the Red Sox offense, who could do nothing against the Yankees bullpen. In six innings of shutout ball, a septuple of Yankees relievers held the Red Sox without a hit while striking out seven. The last of those relievers, Aroldis Chapman, overwhelmed the bottom of the Red Sox order to put the finishing touches on a 4-2 win.