The Yankees have lost five straight, dropping to an awful 8-15 record. Nothing like losing because one of your bullpen aces allowed a go-ahead homer to a defense-first catcher who hadn’t homered since 2014. It’s a weekend night and we’re gonna do this bullet-point style here.
- The Red Sox drew the first blood in the first. Mookie Betts and Dustin Pedroia started it off with back-to-back singles to put runners on corners. Xander Bogaerts hit into a fielder’s choice ground out to score Betts, 1-0 Red Sox. Nathan Eovaldi retired David Ortiz on a strikeout and Hanley Ramirez on pop out to get out of the inning.
- The Yankees actually scored a run in the third. Actually, by a run, I meant three. Ronald Torreyes led off with a single and advanced to second on an Austin Romine sac bunt. Jacoby Ellsbury followed it up with another double to drive Torreyes in, 1-1 . A batter later, A-Rod swung at a high fastball from David Price and didn’t miss any of it for a two-run homer. 3-1 Yankees.
- Eovaldi gave’em right back in the bottom third. He allowed back-to-back singles to Pedroia and Bogaerts and walked Ortiz to get the bases loaded. Ramirez hit a single up the middle to bring two home to tie the game. A batter later, Brock Holt singled to drive in Papi… which happened right before Ramirez got tagged out at third to end the inning. They reviewed the play and the run stood. 4-3 Red Sox.
- New York took another lead in the fifth. With two runners on, A-Rod hit a long double to center to drive both in to make it a 5-4 Yankee lead. Mark Teixeira immediately followed it up with an RBI single to pad the lead to 6-4. All it took for Yankees to win was to Eovaldi to hold onto the lead and let bullpen do its thing. However …
- … Eovaldi gave the two runs right back in bottom fifth. Ortiz singled to lead off and Ramirez grounded into a force out. Travis Shaw immediately recognized a first-pitch get-me-over curve and drove it into the right field seats to tie the game at six. The Red Sox were not doing so hot, but Yankees let them get on track.
- Eovaldi, coming off of a start where he took a no-no into the seventh inning, didn’t look great under the Boston rain tonight. He allowed 13 baserunners (10 hits and 3 walks) in five innings pitched while striking out only three. Yuck. Players are definitely allowed to have bad games but tonight was not great timing. Someone who definitely didn’t have a bad game: A-Rod. He went 2-for-4 with four RBI’s. His season numbers are still not great (.203 avg with .750 OPS) but he’s getting there. I don’t know where the Yanks would be without him.
- Ivan Nova came into relieve Eovaldi in the sixth. He looked alright overall – in 1.2 IP, he allowed two hits and while he did allow some loud contact that happened to go right at fielders, he didn’t look awful. In the seventh, with two outs and a runner on, Girardi lifted him for Dellin Betances to face Christian Vazquez. The tall man unleashed a 97 mph fastball right down the middle that Vazquez must’ve been sitting on. The Red Sox catcher drove it way over the Green Monster to give Boston at 8-6 lead. I don’t know if there’s any worse way to be beat if you’re the Yankees – constantly giving up the lead and then being beat by opposing team’s defense-first player.
- The Yankees got a run back in the eighth with Koji Uehara’s wild pitch but the rally died down there. Craig Kimbrel threw a perfect ninth – striking out Didi Gregorius and Brett Gardner on the way – to officially make it a sweep. There aren’t a lot of points as low as right now in the recent Yankee history.
Box Score, WPA, Highlights and Standings
Here are box score and updated standings from ESPN, WPA from Fangraphs and video highlights from MLB.com.
Source: FanGraphs
The Yankees have a day off tomorrow and will travel to Baltimore for a three-game series at Camden Yards. Kind of hard to think of a positive thing to say… well, at least Camden Yards is awesome. That’s all I got.
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