Dan Martin, Post:
Maybe next year.
The Yankees suffered their worst loss of the season as Dellin Betances blew his second straight game, thanks to a walk-off homer by Hanley Ramirez in the bottom of the ninth as the Red Sox stormed back for a stunning 7-5 win at Fenway Park to start the Yankees' 11-game road trip.
Mark Feinsand, Daily News:
Joe Girardi wanted to stay away from Dellin Betances Thursday night. He should have gone with his gut.
Betances suffered his second loss in as many days, blowing a three-run lead in spectacular fashion as Hanley Ramirez hit a three-run walk-off home run to cap a five-run Red Sox ninth inning, handing the Yankees a stunning 7-5 loss at Fenway Park. ...
After coming within one out of pulling within three games of the first-place Red Sox, the Yankees now stand five games back in the American League East, all but ending their hopes of a division title. ...
"This one hurts," Girardi said. "We've got to bounce back. We were in a pretty good position going into the ninth inning and weren't able to close the deal."
Anthony McCarron, Daily News:
Betances did not start the inning and he should have, even with a three-run Yankee lead. For whatever reason, cleaning up a mess in progress is not Betances' forte, so putting him in at that point was a mistake. Girardi said he wanted to stay away from Betances if he could — the closer had thrown a total of 36 pitches in appearances over the previous two days already — and he was hoping to get through the ninth via matchups.
But the manager should've used his best reliever to try to lock down the last three outs of a winnable game, especially after the dynamite performance Masahiro Tanaka had provided. And, for that matter, Girardi should've used his best starter for another inning, considering that Tanaka had thrown only 93 pitches while working seven innings and allowing just one run. ...
Again, as Girardi noted, everyone is tired at this point of a season. But using guys in winnable games makes sense — heck, Betances is now most likely unavailable for Friday after throwing 21 pitches in the loss, so trying to limit his workload Thursday didn’t work. And the Yanks still lost. ...
Girardi was more succinct when asked if he had thought of using Tanaka for another inning: "No. He was tired."
Kevin Kernan, Post:
The Red Sox have a way of bringing the Yankees back to reality.
Such was the case Thursday night. ...
This is a young team learning the hardest of lessons. This was the kind of loss that ends dreams. ...
There was a touch of October in the air to make this loss even worse for the Yankees. ...
In all, five runs scored in the bottom of the ninth. A three-run lead was lost and probably a season, too. ...
The overachieving Yankees' spirits were crushed by the Red Sox as Ramirez and David Ortiz (who blasted his 34th home run of the season and 537th of his career to move ahead of Mickey Mantle) did the damage. ...
The loss was a crusher. Instead of being three back of the first-place Red Sox with visions of a repeat of the '78 Boston Massacre, the Yankees are five back in the division and three games back in the wild card.
They are running out of time and the young players are learning hard lessons.
The Red Sox have weapons. The three-run home run gave Ramirez 100 RBIs on the season, the third Red Sox player to hit triple-digits in RBIs this season. ...
Consider that Castro leads the Yankees with 69 RBIs. ...
[I]n the end, there is not the same kind of talent on this team as on the Red Sox.
That's the cold, hard truth. That's Red Sox reality.
John Sterling: "It is, by FAR, the worst loss of the year, by FAR. ... The Yankees will never forget this loss. I know I'll never forget this loss."
— Boston Red Sox (@RedSox) September 16, 2016
The Red Sox now have three wins this season when trailing by three or more runs with two outs in the ninth inning. The other 29 MLB teams have six such games, combined.
Elias:
ReplyDeleteHanley Ramirez's three-run homer turned a 5-4 deficit into a 7-5 victory and capped a five-run ninth inning in the Red Sox comeback win over the Yankees. Ramirez is the fourth player in Red Sox history to hit a walkoff homer against the Yankees that turned a deficit into a win. Joe Cronin hit one off Johnny Broaca in the first game of a doubleheader in 1935, Sammy White off Allie Reynolds in 1953 and Bill Mueller off Mariano Rivera in 2004.
The Red Sox trailed the Yankees, 5-2, with two outs in the ninth inning before erupting for five runs and the win. It's only the second time in team history that Red Sox beat the Yankees in a game they trailed by three or more runs with two outs in the ninth inning. The other such game came on June 2, 1908. Boston trailed New York by the same 5-2 score with two outs in the ninth inning in the second game of a doubleheader before scoring four runs for the win. The big blow was delivered by Bob Unglaub whose fly ball with two outs and the bases loaded was dropped for an error by Hall-of-Famer Wee Willie Keeler.
It was the first time the Yankees had lost a game with a three-run lead and two outs in the ninth since September 28, 2007 (Jay Payton hit a bases-loaded triple off Mariano Rivera and the O's won in the 10th).
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