New York Yankees 8 — Boston Red Sox 7
An early exit allowed a new face to have a great debut to take the series in Fenway.
Brett Gardner started the game with a leadoff single against Clay Buchholz. He would be erased on a double play, despite the hit-and-run. Buchholz would pitch a scoreless first inning but Yankees’ starter David Phelps would not fair so well. Where the Yankees hit-and-run failed, the Red Sox succeeded. After a leadoff single by Brock Holt, Dustin Pedroia would hit a single on a hit-and-run that put Holt on third base. David Ortiz would hit a sacrifice fly and the Red Sox got the first run on the board. After a walk to Yoenis Cespedes and a single by Mike Napoli, Daniel Nava would hit a two-run single to right field and the Red Sox increased their lead to three.
Much like the Red Sox struggled in yesterday’s third inning; tonight’s second inning had a similar theme.
Buchholz would start the second inning wiht a walk to Mark Teixeira. Carlos Beltran would follow with a single and Brian McCann walked to load the bases with no one out. Chase Headley would strike out but Stephen Drew would put the first run on the board for the Yankees on a force out at second. Martin Prado would walk to reload the bases and Brett Gardner would find some two-out magic with a line drive double to right field that scored two runs and tied the game. The Yankees would be unable to completely turn around the game in the second inning.
The Red Sox would bounce back against David Phelps but that would not be the worst news of the night for the Yankees right-hander. After giving up the lead in the second inning on a two-run home run by Dustin Pedroia, news would come out that his exit after two innings would be due to injury. In two innings, David Phelps allowed five runs on six hits while walking two and striking out none. he threw 53 pitches and exited the game with right elbow inflammation.
Chase Whitley got a scoreless third inning but David Ortiz would hit a deep two-run home run to center field in the fourth inning. Stpehen Drew plated his second run of the game with a double in the top of the inning but the two-run home runs by Pedroia and Ortiz were the difference to this point. In two innings of relief, Chase Whitley allowed two runs on two hits while walking one and striking out two.
In the fifth inning, the Yankees got the offense going with two outs. After a pair of outs by Jacoby Ellsbury and Mark Teixeira, Carlos Beltran got on base with a double off the green monster in left.** Brian McCann would walk after and a pair of new Yankees would continue helping the offense. Chase Headley would follow Beltran’s example and got his own green monster double, this one scoring Beltran and making it a two-run game. Stephen Drew would continue his impressive night with a two-run single to right field and just like that the Yankees tied it up at seven in the fifth inning against the struggling Clay Buchholz.
After David Phelps and Chase Whitley struggled to keep the Red Sox off the board, under the radar waiver acquisition Esmil Rogers would make his Yankees debut. Oh, what a debut.
Rogers would start the fifth inning with a pair of strikeouts and a fly out. He would walk one in the sixth but kept the Red Sox off the board. One more scoreless inning of work from Esmil Rogers and his Yankees debut was a very impressive one. In three innings, he allowed no runs while walking one and striking out three. Some sixth inning offense would put him in line for the win.
With the game tied in the sixth inning, the Red Sox looked to match left vs. left with Craig Breslow looking to cool down the hot-hitting Brett Gardner. The Yankees left fielder would not cool down against Breslow as he broke the tie with his third hit of the game, a go-ahead home run. His career-high 15th home run of the season.
On this six-game road trip, Brett Gardner is hitting 11-for-23 (.478) with three doubles, five home runs, seven runs batted in and six runs scored. Quite a road trip for the Yankees leadoff batter.
After the three scoreless innings from Rogers and the lead off the bat of Brett Gardner, Dellin Betances would get the eighth inning. With a ground out and a pair of strikeouts, Betances did his job flawlessly. David Robertson would come in for the save and it wasn’t without a little drama. After a leadoff walk, the Red Sox would try to succeed in the hit-and-run one more time but Brock Holt would line out to Chase Headley, who easily completed the double play at first base.
Thank you, Chase Headley.
After many foul balls off the bat of Dustin Pedroia, the Red Sox second baseman would finally ground out to shortstop Derek Jeter and the Yankees emerged victorious in tonight’s nearly four-hour ball game.
**The fifth inning double by Carlos Beltran is notable as it is his sixth consecutive multi-hit game. A very positive sign for a very important bat in the middle of the New York Yankees order.
This is the Yankees eighth straight comeback win.
Win – Esmil Rogers (1-0)
Loss – Craig Breslow (2-3)
Save – David Robertson (29)
Notables
Yankees
*Brett Gardner – 3 for 4, R, BB, 2B, Solo Home Run (15) in the 6th, 3 RBI (50)
*Stephen Drew – 2 for 4, R, 2B, 4 RBI (16)
Red Sox
*Dustin Pedroia – 2 for 5, 3 R, 2-Run Home Run (5) in the 2nd, 2 RBI (42)
*David Ortiz – 1 for 2, R, BB, 2-Run Home Run (26) in the 4th, 2 RBI (82)
Current Yankees Record: 57-53
