New York Yankees 7 — Boston Red Sox 8 (11 innings)
Mike Napoli’s second home run of the night is a walk-off in tonight’s 8-7 loss to the Boston Red Sox in 11 innings.
Early in the game, the Yankees looked to catch the Red Sox slacking defensively. Brett Gardner started the game with a single to right field off of Red Sox starting pitcher Ryan Dempster. Ichiro Suzuki would hit a ground ball back to Dempster. With the speed of Gardner and Ichiro, Dempster had to rush his throw to second if he wanted the double play but his throw would go wide of the shortstop and Gardner would end up on third base. Dempster was charged with the error and Robinson Cano came up with runners on the corners and no outs. While Cano was batting, Ichiro would make a break for second base and catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia would throw it into center field. Brett Gardner scored on the second error of the inning. Ichiro advances to third and Robinson Cano walked to put runners on the corner one more time.
Lyle Overbay would strikeout as the first out but Vernon Wells would single home Ichiro and the Yankees had a two-run lead. Robinson Cano would bring home one run in the second inning and the Yankees were in control for birthday boy, CC Sabathia.
In the third inning, momentum changed in a big way.
Ryan Dempster would follow his first two poor innings with three scoreless innings. CC Sabathia pitched two scoreless innings and then it went bad. Jacoby Ellsbury started the inning with a double and would advance to third on a sacrifice bunt. Dustin Pedroia would single home the first run for the Red Sox. David Ortiz got on base with a single and with one swing, Mike Napoli changed the game.
The three-run home run by Mike Napoli gave the Red Sox a 4-3 lead. A hit batter and two singles would put Sabathia in a terrible spot to start the fourth inning. With the bases loaded and no one out, Shane Victorino hit a chopper over the head of Luis Cruz and two runs would score. Jonny Gomes would hit a home run to start the fifth inning. After the Yankees started the game with a three-run lead, the Red Sox would respond in the next three innings to go ahead by a score of 7-3.
The home run by Jonny Gomes was the 23rd home run allowed by Sabathia this season. This is a new career-high for a season for the big lefty.
The Yankees would have a response. To start the sixth inning, Eduardo Nunez singled and stole second base. Chris Stewart walks and Brett Gardner hit a single to score Nunez. Dempster would be replaced with left-handed reliever Craig Breslow. Ichiro Suzuki and Robinson Cano would make the matchup irrelevant with a pair of singles. Cano’s single brought home a run and the deficit was just to two.
With two on and one out in the seventh inning, reliever Junichi Tazawa would be brought in to face Chris Stewart. The Yankees catcher would bunt to third base where Jose Iglesias would field the ball but would air mail the ball out of play, allowing one run to score on the error. A ground out to the shortstop would bring in the tying run and the Yankees completed the comeback.
Down by four with a lower than average lineup, five singles, three walks and an error helped them manufacture the means to comeback.
It is worth noting that one of the three walks in the seventh inning was of Brett Gardner by reliever Junichi Tazawa. This walk is notable because it was a 15-pitch at bat that featured 10 foul balls. To put this in retrospect, Tazawa got two outs on 22 pitches.
In the sixth inning, after a walk, CC Sabathia would hand the game over to the bullpen. Preston Claiborne was the first man out of the bullpen. In the inning, Claiborne would walk one intentionally but he would strikeout two without allowing a run.
After a walk by Claiborne started the seventh inning, Boone Logan would be the next on the mound. In his appearance, Boone Logan was throwing a fantastic slider. He would strikeout all three batters he faced with sliders.
The parade of relief would continue through David Robertson.
With one out, Shane Victorino reached base on a single to right center. The Flyin’ Hawaiian would steal second base. Then, Dustin Pedroia hit a ground ball to third baseman, Luis Cruz. It appeared that Cruz assumed Victorino would stay at second as he tried to look him back to second, only to find that Victorino had vacated second and made a bee line to third base. This revelation disoriented Cruz and he bobbled the ball for an error.
The man nicknamed “Houdini” would live up to the title tonight.
With runners on the corners, Robertson would walk David Ortiz and face Mike Napoli with the bases loaded and one out. On a 1-2 pitch, “Houdini” worked his magic. The bearded first baseman would hit a ground ball to Eduardo Nunez for a 6-4-3 double play. With a small fist pump and a big smile, Houdini could step off the stage.
In the ninth inning, Shawn Kelley got the call. After a pop out for the first out, Shawn Kelley would start a string of strikeouts. The first was on a slider and the next was on the fastball. With the game going into extra innings, Shawn Kelley stayed in the game for a second inning of work. Making it look easy, Kelley would get three more strikeouts, two on sliders. The right-handed Kelley struck out five Red Sox in a row in a dominant two-inning relief appearance.
To this point, the bullpen (Claiborne, Logan, Robertson, Kelley) went five innings. They allowed one hit and one walk (intentional) while striking out 10. Clearly, the bullpen is a tremendous strength on the roster.
Back to the offense, the Yankees may have had an opportunity taken from them on a very bad call. With two outs, Eduardo Nunez reached on a single to left field. On a 2-1 pitch, Nunez made an attempt at stealing second base. On a bounce to second base, Dustin Pedroia applied a tag late but second base umpire Mike Everitt called Nunez out as Pedroia ran from the field, knowing he got the beneficial call.
For the 11th inning, the Yankees turned to long reliever Adam Warren. After getting the first two outs, a high 3-2 pitch to Mike Napoli would be the end of the night. The Red Sox first baseman took the fastball to center field for the walk-off home run, sending fans at Fenway into an uproar.
CC Sabathia clearly didn’t have a good birthday on the field. In just five innings, Sabathia allowed seven runs on nine hits while walking two and striking out five.
Win – Pedro Beato (1-0)
Loss – Adam Warren (1-1)
Notables
Yankees
*Brett Gardner – 3 for 4, R, 2 BB, RBI (34)
*Robinson Cano – 3 for 5, BB, 2 RBI (69)
Red Sox
*Mike Napoli – 2 for 6, 2 R, 2 HR (13; 3-Run & Walk-off Solo) in the 3rd & 11th, 4 RBI (62)
*Shane Victorino – 2 for 5, 2 RBI (26)
Current Yankees Record: 52-46
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