In the 2,169 regular-season games between the Red Sox and Yankees since 1903, Boston has shutout New York while scoring 11 or more runs only three times:
May 30, 1941 (G2)
Yankees - 000 000 000 - 0 2 6 Red Sox - 302 520 10x - 13 16 1September 6, 2003
Red Sox - 010 600 040 - 11 12 0 Yankees - 000 000 000 - 0 4 1June 30, 2018
Red Sox - 420 001 211 - 11 17 0 Yankees - 000 000 000 - 0 2 0(2003 Game Bonus: Losing Pitcher: Roger Clemens!)
(If you are curious, the Yankees have shutout the Red Sox by at least an 11-0 score four times, but not since July 1937.)
Vern Stephens, May 30, 1951 (G1): 5-for-7, 3 runs scored, 2 home runs (3-run HR in 1st inning, solo HR in 15th inning), 4 RBI, walk (Red Sox won 11-10 (15))Last night's rout was the Red Sox's 25th game since 1908 in which they held the Yankees to 2 hits or fewer and no runs. The first 10 games occurred between 1908 and 1916, with the next 10 games between 1917 and 1968. Here are the five games from the last 50 years:
Willie Tasby, July 10, 1960: 5-for-5, 3 runs scored, double, solo home run (1st inning), 4 RBI (Red Sox won 9-5)
Rafael Devers, June 30, 2018: 5-for-5, 3 runs scored, double, grand slam home run (1st inning), 4 RBI (Red Sox won 11-0)
June 7, 1990: Red Sox 3-0, Yankees had 1 hit off Harris/Reardon
June 9, 2009: Red Sox 7-0, Yankees had 2 hits off Beckett/Delcarmen/Ramirez/Bard
April 10, 2011: Red Sox 4-0, Yankees had 2 hits off Beckett/Papelbon
June 2, 2013: Red Sox 3-0 (6), Yankees had 2 hits off Buchholz
June 30, 2018: Red Sox 11-0, Yankees had 2 hits off Sale/Hembree/Velazquez
Dan Martin, Post:
A night after the Yankees did just about everything right against the Red Sox, they managed to do everything wrong on Saturday in an 11-0 loss at the Stadium.
That's what a Sonny Gray-Chris Sale mismatch will do.
Gray gave up a Rafael Devers grand slam in the first and didn't make it out of the third, while Sale allowed just a single to Giancarlo Stanton in seven dominant innings.
It was a debacle from start to finish for the Yankees, as Gray proved again that he's not good in The Bronx and even worse against the Red Sox.
He delivered his worst outing of the year, matching a season-worst by giving up six runs in just 2.1 innings. Gray was booed off the mound in the first and again in the third after he was pulled by Aaron Boone. ...
But Gray's problems aren't limited to the Red Sox. ...
With Saturday's loss, the Yankees fell to 7-9 when Gray starts and he went into the game ... with a 6.50 ERA in The Bronx overall since joining the Yankees. ...
The Yankees, who weren't shut out until June 10, have now been held scoreless three times in their past seven games.
Joel Sherman, Post:
Aaron Boone emerged from the dugout with one out in the third and in a moment of hesitancy the full house at Yankee Stadium hovered, confused whether to cheer his presence or get an early start on booing Sonny Gray's disappearance.
There were no mixed messages after Boone took the ball. Gray endured what played like a three-mile walk back to the home dugout. The Yankee starter was bathed in the kind of Bronx derision saved for Carl Pavano or A.J. Burnett — a throaty serenade of distaste, dismay, disappointment. ...
Gray can't pitch well in The Bronx or against Boston, and when it comes to being a Yankees starter that would be the equivalent of not being able to dance or sing, yet auditioning for a Broadway musical. ...
Before Boston tied this series, Boone insisted Gray was "a different guy" from the one who surrendered six runs in three innings in April in Fenway. ...
That looked prescient — for two batters. ... The next 14 Red Sox would go 7-for-11 with two walks and a sacrifice fly to oust the righty after 2.1 innings. ...
By the time he was lifted, Gray had an 8.25 ERA in eight 2018 home starts. That would outdo the current Yankee worst in at least eight starts, the 6.49 by Pavano in 2005.
The Yankees have lost all four of Gray's starts these past two years against the Red Sox. His ERA of 9.35 is the third worst (minimum four starts) by a Yankee against Boston, behind Jose Contreras (16.43) and Andy Hawkins (14.44) and ahead of Sidney Ponson (9.17) and Burnett (7.29). ...
Boone, as you would expect, said he believes that Gray can succeed in The Bronx and against Boston ... Joe Torre said similar stuff about Contreras, Joe Girardi about Burnett — right up until they were dispatched. ...
Gray was acquired to be a No. 2 starter and instead resides as the Yankees' No. 1 problem. He wilts in The Bronx, crumbles at the sight of the Red Sox. The Yankees have three more series vs. Boston after the trade deadline. With or without an addition, can the Yankees actually trust Gray to pitch in any of them with the stakes this high?
John Harper, Daily News:
[I]t's becoming more and more clear that Gray can't be trusted in a big game, especially against the Red Sox. ...
[T]he Yankees' need for a proven starting pitcher is becoming more of a headline-grabbing narrative by the day, it seems — all the more so after Gray's worst start of the season. ...
And now here was Gray, giving up six runs, four on Rafael Devers' first-inning grand slam, while lasting only 2.1 innings in what turned into an 11-0 loss to the Red Sox, raising his ERA to 5.44 for the season. ...
Gray was mostly awful against the Red Sox when he was with the A's as well, and now has a 6.97 career ERA against them in eight starts. ...
Before Saturday's game Aaron Boone suggested the April start in Fenway was largely irrelevant ...
"The start he had against them in Boston, I just don't think he was a in a good place yet throwing the ball," Boone said. "I feel like he's a much different guy right now than he was in early April. I feel he's much more equipped to be successful against them."
So much for that. Instead Gray was awful, and perhaps most significantly of all, at his locker afterward it sounded as if his poor season is getting to him. ...
[N]ow the Yankees have to worry about Gray's state of mind, and whether he is mentally tough enough to handle this type of failure. ...
"I'm well aware of the way I've struggled here. ... I've been bad against a lot of teams."
Kudos to him for his candor, but it only added to the concern about him.
Ken Davidoff, Post:
The Yankees never hit Chris Sale, and the Red Sox always hit Sonny Gray. Might as well knock out both guarantees in one fell swoop, right? ...
If we get the Yankees-Red Sox postseason series we desire and deserve, Boston will have the top starting pitcher in that heavyweight bout. ...
Sure, Luis Severino is a stud ... [but] Sale's sublime track record against the Yankees gives him — and his team — a significant edge.
With this masterpiece, Sale lowered his ERA to 1.61 in 16 appearances, 14 of them starts, against the Yankees. That's the finest such showing among pitchers with 10-plus starts against the Yankees in the Live Ball Era (since 1920). ...
Is there anyone in the game the Yankees would rather not face than this guy, especially in October?
John Healy, Daily News:
Long gone are the days of David Ortiz and Pedro Martinez tormenting the Yankees, but the Red Sox seem to have some new players to give their AL East foe nightmares.Greg Joyce, Post:
Chris Sale and Rafael Devers are proving to be the kryptonite for the Bronx Bombers these days and demonstrated why in a 11-0 shellacking on Saturday night in the Bronx. ...
While his career is very young, Devers is developing a reputation for being a Yankee-killer. ...
Prior to Saturday's deflating first-inning grand slam, Devers silenced Yankee Stadium last August when he blasted a 102 mph fastball from Aroldis Chapman into the Red Sox bullpen for a game-tying home run in the ninth inning of a 3-2 extra-inning victory. ...
Meanwhile, Sale continues to pose a serious problem for the Bombers. The Red Sox ace completely shut down the Yankees ... holding them to just one hit while striking out 11 over seven innings ...
"He looks like the best pitcher in the big leagues right now," manager Alex Cora said.
He's certainly the best pitcher when facing the Yankees. The 29-year-old southpaw now holds a 1.61 career ERA against them, the lowest among pitchers in the history of the live ball era.
The Yankees aren't the only team with young studs in this rivalry.Howie Kussoy, Post:
A night after Miguel Andujar and Gleyber Torres were difference-makers in a Yankees victory, Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers sent a loud 356-foot reminder those pinstriped rookies aren't alone. And he was only getting started.
The 21-year-old cranked a two-out, opposite-field grand slam in the first inning to put the Red Sox on the board, the first of his career-high five hits ...
The baby-faced Devers ended the game 5-for-5 with three runs scored and finished a triple shy of the cycle — he never has tripled in 139 career games. He came within a few inches of another home run in the seventh inning, but the ball tipped off Aaron Judge's glove, onto the top of the right-field wall and back into play, forcing Devers to settle for a double. ...
[Devers] became the youngest player, at 21 years, 249 days, to hit a grand slam in a Red Sox-Yankees game, according to STATS. The previous record holders were two guys by the names of Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio.
Hitting cleanup for the first time had no impact on Gleyber Torres. Facing Chris Sale for the first time did.
[Torres] looked as lost as ever in Saturday's 11-0 loss to the Red Sox, tying a career-high with three strikeouts, while becoming the youngest Yankee (21 years, 199 days) since Mickey Mantle (1953) to bat fourth. Torres ... became the third-youngest Yankee to ever hit cleanup, following Mantle (21 years, 197 days) and Lou Gehrig (20 years, 100 days). ...
[Torres] was overmatched against the Boston ace. ...
In his first cleanup appearance, Torres had one of the few opportunities to do damage, stepping to the plate with two on and one out in the first inning. Torres quickly went down on three pitches, swinging — and missing — on the final two.
He then struck out on five pitches in his second at-bat.
In his seventh-inning encounter with Sale, Torres fouled off two pitches, but went down swinging against a 100 mph fastball.
Mike Mazzeo, Daily News:
According to Alex Rodriguez, the best offensive tandem in baseball doesn't play in the Bronx.
"While (Giancarlo) Stanton and Aaron Judge get a lot of attention, the Red Sox have the best 1-2 punch in baseball in Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez," A-Rod told the Boston Globe ...
Based on the numbers so far this season, he's right. Heading into Saturday's Yankees-Red Sox game, Betts (1.104 OPS) and Martinez (1.028) ranked third and fifth in ESPN's Offensive WAR, while Judge (.954) was 12th and Stanton (.846) was 66th.
"If you asked the insiders in the game, they would put Mookie in the top three players in the game and that's a hell of a compliment for a guy who goes under the radar," A-Rod told the Globe. "And the reason he goes under the radar is because he's a consummate professional. He does everything really well and he gets better every year and does it with class, elegance, and stealth.
"J.D. is becoming a top slugger in our game, a combination of power and run production and contact... What the most impressive thing about him is, just about everybody who comes into a big market like New York and Boston, there's an adjustment period. ... J.D. hit the ground running. The one to credit here is (Red Sox president of baseball operations) Dave Dombrowski."
"Last night's rout was the Red Sox's 25th game since 1908 in which they held the Yankees to 2 hits or fewer and no runs. "
ReplyDeleteI checked '01* to '07, and there were 8 more shutouts. I had to go the newspaper route to find even linescores of many of these, and I didn't find any more instances of the Yanks having 2 or fewer hits. It took *several* different newspapers to track down all those dates though! Jesus, you'd think there was a one-day news strike on June 25, 1905!!!
I did find one where the Red Sox shut out the Yanks and themselves only got 2 hits. Cy Young 5-hit the Yanks in that game, a 1-0 win on 9/7/1903.
*I guess we don't include 1901 & 1902 since the Yanks were still the Baltimore Orioles? Anyway there were no shutouts at all in those two years anyway.