BOSTON —The New York Yankees were in Boston on Wednesday night following their rainout the previous night. Aaron Judge got things off to a loud start on his birthday and put the Yankees ahead 2-0 in the second inning, a lead his Bombers wouldn’t relinquish.
The big man added to his big night with a highlight reel catch in the third inning. Judge tumbled into the stands to catch a fly ball hit by Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts.
Judge was the birthday boy, but he wasn’t necessarily the player of the night. Starting pitcher Luis Severino blanked the Boston Red Sox in seven innings of action and looks more like the potential ace that all Yankee fans saw his rookie season. Severino also struck out six batters, walked two and only allowed three hits on the night.
Severino’s performance is symbolic of change in the New York Yankees. No Yankees starter except for Mashairo Tanaka has above a 3.90 ERA on the season and Severino is performing among the best of the pitchers. After tonight’s start, the young righty lowered his ERA to 3.00 and trails only CC Sabathia for the team leading ERA.
Red Sox starter Rick Porcello pitched well despite the home run he allowed to Judge early on. Porcello went 6.2 innings and struck out nine Yankee batters. After the blast he gave up, Porcello settled down and turned in a quality start for the Red Sox.
The only Red Sox runner to cross the plate in this one was Andrew Benintendi in the ninth inning. Aroldis Chapman got himself into a bit of a jam but was able to escape relatively unscathed. The lefty flamethrower walked two Sox batters but also struck out two in his unorthodox outing.
With the win, the Yankees improved to 12-7 on the season while the Red Sox fell to 11-9. The Yankees sit just a game and a half out of first place and will look to finish the series strong against Boston on Thursday night when Tanaka takes on Chris Sale.
Win- Luis Severino
Loss- Rick Porcello
Save- Aroldis Chapman
