Major League Baseball finally brought a regular-season game to Europe on June 29, 2019, and the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox celebrated by turning London Stadium into a pinball machine. The Yankees won 17-13 on Saturday and 12-8 on Sunday, sweeping the two-game London Series while the rivals combined for 50 runs.
MLB wanted to sell baseball to Britain. It sent over the two teams least capable of playing a quick game.
(Honestly, what did they expect?)
A Soccer Stadium Pretending to Be a Ballpark
The Bombers flew across the Atlantic riding the hottest stretch of a strange summer. They'd broken the 2002 Rangers' record for consecutive games with a home run on June 25, and Aaron Judge had only come off the injured list on June 21 after straining his left oblique on a single back on April 20. Boston was the defending World Series champion, sitting well behind the Yankees in the AL East, and served as the "home" team for both games.
Home was the old Olympic Stadium, where West Ham plays soccer. The grounds crew rolled out synthetic turf, stuck a 385-foot wall in center field, and set home plate along the long side of the oval, which left enough foul territory to land a plane. Prince Harry and Meghan toured both clubhouses before the opener. The Red Sox gave them a onesie for baby Archie. The Yankees gave them a tiny jersey with "ARCHIE" and the No. 19 stitched on the back.
"You guys have beaten next door's present, by the way," Harry told the Yankees.
He wasn't wrong. He also wasn't the last guy that weekend to take something from Boston.
Game 1: The 58-Minute First Inning
DJ LeMahieu led off with a single, the first MLB hit in European history, and the top of the first just kept going from there. The Yankees scored six times, capped by Aaron Hicks launching a two-run homer off Rick Porcello, the first big-league home run ever hit in Europe. Alex Cora came and got Porcello at 6-0. He'd recorded one out, the shortest start of his career.
Then Masahiro Tanaka took the mound and gave all six back. Michael Chavis hit a three-run homer to center to tie it, and Tanaka left having recorded two outs. The first inning took 58 minutes. Both starters combined for three outs and 12 runs allowed. (The British fans, bless them, probably thought this was normal.)
Brett Gardner broke the tie with a two-run homer in the third. Judge went deep to cap a six-run fourth, and LeMahieu kept piling on -- a three-run double in the fourth, a two-run single in the fifth that made it 17-6. He finished with four hits and five RBI, which pretty much summed up his entire first year in pinstripes.
It should've been over. It wasn't. Chavis hit his second three-run homer of the day during a six-run Boston seventh, and the Sox crawled back to 17-13 before the Yankees closed it out. Chad Green got the win with two scoreless innings, which in this game made him Cy Young.
The final count: 37 hits, six home runs, 30 runs, 4 hours and 42 minutes. That's three minutes shy of the longest nine-inning game in MLB history, a 4:45 marathon from August 18, 2006. The teams in that one? Yankees and Red Sox. Of course.
Aaron Boone knew what he'd just watched, and he knew the locals didn't. His advice for anyone explaining baseball to the London crowd: "we should remind them there's not 30 runs every game."
Game 2: Down 4-0 Before the Tea Got Cold
Sunday started worse. Stephen Tarpley made the first big-league start of his career as an opener, and Xander Bogaerts, J.D. Martinez, and Christian Vazquez all homered off the Yankees in the bottom of the first. Boston led 4-0 before most people found their seats, and it still led 4-2 heading into the seventh.
Then the Red Sox bullpen happened.
Marcus Walden faced four hitters and didn't retire any of them. LeMahieu doubled, Judge walked, Hicks doubled in a run, and Gary Sanchez lined a two-run single to left for a 5-4 lead -- the Yankees' first lead of the day. They sent 14 batters to the plate in the inning. LeMahieu came up again and doubled home two more off Josh Taylor, and by the time the dust settled it was 11-4 and a nine-run seventh was in the books.
Boston didn't go quietly. The Sox scored four in the eighth and loaded the bases with the tying run at the plate before Rafael Devers grounded out. Aroldis Chapman gave up a leadoff double to Marco Hernandez in the ninth, then struck out the side. Yankees 12, Red Sox 8.
What London Left Behind
Fifty runs in two games set a record for any two-game stretch between these clubs, topping the 46 they'd managed twice before (in 1933 and 2009). The sweep pushed the Yankees to 54-28, 11 games up on Boston, with a 6-1 record against the Sox on the year. The 2019 Yankees went on to win 103 games before running into Houston in an ALCS that still stings. That October hurt. This weekend didn't.
MLB booked the Cubs and Cardinals for London in 2020, then the pandemic wiped that trip off the calendar. Baseball didn't get back to London until 2023.
So for four years, the only MLB baseball Europe had ever seen was two games of the Yankees beating up on the Red Sox. Not a bad first impression. Not a bad second one, either.
| Series Result | Yankees 2, Red Sox 0 |
| Game 1 (June 29) | Yankees 17, Red Sox 13 |
| Game 2 (June 30) | Yankees 12, Red Sox 8 |
| Combined Runs | 50 (Yankees-Red Sox two-game record) |
| Game 1 Attendance | 59,659 |
| Game 2 Attendance | 59,059 |
| Game 1 Time | 4:42 |
| DJ LeMahieu, Game 1 | 4 H, 5 RBI |
| Game 2 Seventh Inning | 9 runs, 14 batters |
| Yankees Record After Sweep | 54-28 (11 games ahead of Boston) |
A Home Run Record Before the Trip
The Yankees homer for a 28th straight game, breaking the 2002 Texas Rangers' record for consecutive games with a home run. The streak is still alive when they board the plane for London.
Hicks Hits Europe's First MLB Homer
DJ LeMahieu singles for the first MLB hit in Europe, and Aaron Hicks follows with a two-run homer off Rick Porcello, the first big-league home run on the continent. The Yankees score six in the first. Boston answers with six of its own.
Yankees 17, Red Sox 13
Brett Gardner and Aaron Judge homer, LeMahieu drives in five, and Chad Green gets the win. The game runs 4:42, three minutes short of the longest nine-inning game ever played. 59,659 fans pack London Stadium.
Nine-Run Seventh Completes the Sweep
Boston homers three times in the first and still leads 4-2 entering the seventh. Then the Yankees send 14 batters to the plate in the seventh. Gary Sanchez's two-run single puts them ahead for good, and Aroldis Chapman strikes out the side in the ninth. Yankees 12, Red Sox 8.
Season Ends in Houston
The 103-win Yankees fall to the Astros in six games in the ALCS. London turns out to be one of the last carefree weekends of a season that ended badly.
MLB Finally Returns to London
After the pandemic wipes out the planned 2020 Cubs-Cardinals series, MLB brings those two clubs back to London Stadium in 2023, four years after the Yankees and Red Sox opened the door.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who won the 2019 MLB London Series?
The Yankees swept the Red Sox in two games at London Stadium. They won 17-13 on June 29, 2019, and 12-8 on June 30, 2019. Those were the first regular-season MLB games ever played in Europe.
Who hit the first MLB home run in Europe?
Aaron Hicks. He hit a two-run homer off Boston's Rick Porcello in the top of the first inning on June 29, 2019, which made it 6-0 Yankees. DJ LeMahieu had gotten the first MLB hit in Europe a few batters earlier with a leadoff single.
How many runs did the Yankees and Red Sox score in London?
Fifty. The two teams combined for 30 runs in Game 1 and 20 in Game 2. That set a record for runs in any two-game span between the Yankees and Red Sox, topping the previous mark of 46.
Where was the London Series played?
At London Stadium in east London, the former 2012 Olympic Stadium and home of West Ham United. MLB covered the field with synthetic turf and built a 385-foot wall in center field. Because home plate sat on the long side of the oval, the park had an enormous amount of foul territory.