Red Sox 6, Yankees 0

 

The mighty Boston Red Sox, the team that has scored more ninth inning runs this season than any team in MLB, turned a close nail-biter of a game into a laugher with a four-run ninth this afternoon. It was beautiful. Frame it and hang it on a wall.

Wilyer Abreu, the only lefty in the starting lineup, opened up the game with a solo homer in the first inning, and then Adley Rutschman made it 2-0 with some heads-up base running on a passed ball in the fifth. Big Jake Bennett pitched six shutout innings with seven K's, no walks, and only three hits to keep the Yankees scoreless. Garrett Whitlock returned from the IL for his first appearance since August 9 and threw a perfect inning of relief - no runs, no hits, no walks, and a strikeout. 

The ninth-inning fireworks opened with an Andruw Monasterio two-run double. Nick Sogard brought Monasterio home with a double of his own, and Ceddanne Rafaela brought Sogie home with a single to left center. It took Yankees reliever Ryan Yarbrough 39 pitches to make it through the ninth inning alone. 

The four ninth-inning runs meant the Sox didn't have to use closer Aroldis Chapman in the game, saving him for the second game of today's doubleheader. Instead, Jovani Morán was immaculate closing out the ninth with one K. no runs, no hits, no walks, and no drama.  

The Red Sox returned the favor of a shutout to the Yankees and now trail NY by only two games, with two left in this weekend road series.

I said in an earlier post today that Raymond Burgos will make his very first career start in game two of the DH tonight (third game of the series) but it now appears that reliever Alec Gamboa (1-0, 1,31) will start. Either way, the opener will probably only pitch for one inning and then turn the ball over to right-handed pitcher Brayan Bello (5-6, 4.68). Bello had a rough start to the season and the Sox kept the ball out of his hands for all the games against the Yankees so far this year, but he's improved as a long reliever and has a career 5-4 record against New York. His career 2.35 ERA against them (65 innings) is his best of any team he's started against more than three times..  

The fragile Max Fried (4-4, 2.81) makes a rare returns from the IL for the Yankees tonight for his first game since August 13. Back on April 22 (i.e., in the dark days before the turnaround), he crushed the Sox in Fenway with nine Ks and only three hits and no runs over eight full innings. However, he was also on the IL between May 13 and July 22 this year, and didn't start during the Red Sox' sweep of the Yankees in Fenway last June, which incidentally sparked the season turnaround. 

After his long stretches on the IL and the resurgent Sox' new prowess, it remains to be seen if Fried can still master the team like he did last April. But that's what games are for and what makes baseball, well, baseball. Stay tuned, don't go anywhere tonight (I don't care that it's Saturday), and cheer the Sox onto a sweep of the doubleheader.

It appears that the Sox will start the same righty-intensive lineup as game one against the left-handed Fried in game two, with Abreu again the only lefty in the starting lineup. It worked against Rodón, why not Fried?