ALDS 3: Red Sox 16, Yankees 1

Red Sox - 012 700 132 - 16 18  0
Yankees - 000 100 000 -  1  5  0

Nathan Eovaldi (7-5-1-0-5, 97) delivered a superb and much-needed pitching performance, retiring 11 of his final 12 batters, and Brock Holt became the first player in major league history to hit for the cycle in a postseason game.

Boston crushed the Yankees 16-1 - New York's worst postseason loss in the history of forever. All six of New York's pitchers allowed at least one hit, one walk, and one run. They threw a combined 202 pitches, 75 more than the Red Sox threw. The Red Sox can advance to the ALCS against the Astros with a win tomorrow night.

The Red Sox battered Luis Severino (3-7-6-2-2, 70) and broke the game wide-open with seven runs in the fourth inning. Holt got the inning started with a single and knocked in the Red Sox's final two runs with a triple. He also drilled a ground-rule double to right-center in the eighth, and homered off back-up-catcher-turned-mop-up-pitcher Austin Romine in the ninth.

Holt knocked in five runs, scored three times, and had more total bases (10) than the entire Yankees team (6). By going 4-for-6, he also nearly out-hit them.

I knew I needed a home run. I saw Romine was on the mound. So you get a little antsy when a position player is on the mound. I told everyone, Get me up. I need a home run for a cycle. I was going to try to hit a home run, but I figured I'd ground out to first, be out in front of something. But I scooted up in the box a little bit, and I was going to be swinging at anything and try to hook anything. Obviously, you don't expect to hit a home run, but I was trying to. I was trying to hit a home run. That's probably the first time I've ever tried to do that. I rounded the bases, and seeing everyone going nuts in the dugout was a pretty cool moment for me.

First base umpire Angel Hernandez had a call overturned in three consecutive innings tonight. Five of his calls have been challenged in this postseason and four have had to be corrected. MLB should have fired him on the spot tonight, but, instead, he will be behind the plate tomorrow - where neither team will have any recourse as he blows call after call after call after call ... (How bad is Hernandez? Watch this. In the words of one commenter: "You know an umpire is bad if the home crowd boos you for robbing a player on the visiting team of a home run.")

Crew chief Mike Winters was equally shitty behind the plate. Eovaldi threw three pitches in the strike zone to Giancarlo Stanton to start the second inning. Stanton fouled one off and Winters called the other two balls.

Severino issued only a two-out walk in the first inning, but gave up two hard-hit flies that center fielder Brett Gardner caught on the warning track. Rafael Devers started the second with a single to right. TBS announcers Brian Anderson and Ron Darling kicked their Yankee boosting into high gear - saying that Aaron Judge's mighty right arm had "scared" Devers back to first.

Neither man let up for the entire game. Late in the contest, as the Red Sox piled on the runs, they spent most of their time praising the Yankees, talking about their "great young core" of players and how their lineup has so much "thunder" in the 7-8-9 spots.

Informing us of New York's exceptional bullpen has been a running theme for the entire series. Tonight, Anderson said that "The Red Sox have one Craig Kimbrel. The Yankees have four Kimbrels." (It's unclear if Romine is the fifth Kimbrel.) Anderson concluded his celebration of the Yankees with a statement about how difficult it was to believe the outcome of this game: "This is not a team you beat 16-1." It's not? LOOK AT THE SCOREBOARD, you fucking asshat!

So ... a terrified Devers was on first. He stole second when Steve Pearce struck out, went to third on Holt's grounder to second, and scored on Christian Vazquez's single back to the mound. It hit off Severino's glove and Didi Gregorius was unable to make a play. TBS blamed the "wet grass".

Mookie Betts began the third inning with a single to left. (TBS said he "settled" for a single.) Andrew Benintendi dropped a single into short left and Betts sprinted to third! The throw was late and Benintendi advanced to second. J.D. Martinez lined out to left for a sac fly. After Xander Bogaerts singled, a fielder's choice from Devers made it 3-0.

The fourth inning started off about as perfect as can be. Holt hit a first-pitch single. Vazquez hit a first-pitch single. Severino walked Jackie Bradley on four pitches. Lance Lynn came in and walked Betts on four pitches, forcing in a run.

TBS said the Yankees are never out of a game at home. Three pitches later, Benintendi ripped a three-run double into the right-field corner. JDM grounded out but Bogaerts singled. Lynn was pulled and Chad Green took over. Devers popped to second, but Pearce singled home another run and Holt tripled down the right-field line to make it 10-0.

Holt is the second Red Sox player to have two hits in one postseason inning; Jacoby Ellsbury had two doubles in the third inning of 2007 World Series Game 3.

Before Holt's triple, Anderson expressed amazement that the Yankees were trailing 8-0 and asked: "Who saw this coming?"

2018
April 10:     Red Sox 14, Yankees 1
June 30:      Red Sox 11, Yankees 0
August 2:     Red Sox 15, Yankees 7
September 30: Red Sox 10, Yankees 2

Well, Brian, it seems like YOU should have seen this as a distinct possibility if you had done your homework before the series rather than spending all your time mooning over your Aaron Judge bobblehead collection.

All kidding aside, I do not think I have ever heard a more one-sided broadcast by an announcing team that was unaffiliated with a team. Hawk Harrelson would have been shocked at their homerism. Anderson's and Darling's comments from start to finish in this game (and in the first two games) in no way reflected how the games were being played. Despite what was happening in front of them, they kept up a constant stream of Yankee praise for nine full innings. (With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Anderson insisted that the remaining Yankee fans were "delighted" to be able to witness another Gary Sanchez at-bat. He said the same thing before Judge ended the eighth by striking out.) When the Red Sox scored their first run, they actually sounded morose. It is shocking how unprofessional they were. And, sadly, I do not expect anything to change for Game 4. In fact, with their beloved "Bombers" in danger of having their season terminated, they may really pour it on. Which is a frightening thought. ... I may have to listen to John Sterling for some honest impartiality.

Things were quiet for a couple of innings until Bradley hit a ground-rule double with one out in the seventh and scored on Martinez's single. (Before JDM's hit, Benintendi fouled off a 3-0 pitch and Darling said he found it "personally offensive" to see a player swing on 3-0 when his team was up 10-1. (Darling had said earlier that no lead is safe against the Yankees. (Could you make your idiocy internally consistent, Ron, please?) Darling was already upset with Benintendi because he stole second in the fifth when a pitch got away from Gary Sanchez.) In the eighth, facing rookie Stephen Tarpley, Devers singled, Ian Kinsler singled, and Holt doubled for one run. After a groundout, another run scored on a wild pitch. Betts's single made it 14-1.

Romine took the hill in the ninth and received a huge ovation from the remaining fans when he retired the first two batters on grounders. But he walked Kinsler and Holt hit his first pitch down the right field line for a cycle-completing dong.

Take a good look, Gary. That's what winning looks like.

Eovaldi's seven innings was his longest outing since he went eight shutouts frames against the Yankees on August 4. In his last four starts against the MFY, he has a 0.39 ERA in 23 innings.

Boston's 16 runs are the team's highest total in a postseason road game, and its second-most in any postseason game, trailing only a 23-7 win over Cleveland in Game 4 of the 1999 ALDS. The Red Sox are only the fifth road team in postseason history to score at least 16 runs. Boston has beaten the Yankees three times this year by 10+ runs, something that have done in only one other season (1959).

Boston's 23-7 victory in 1999 is the highest run differential in postseason history (16 runs). Tonight's game (15 runs) ties Game 7 of the 1996 NLCS, in which Atlanta beat the Cardinals 15-0. The Red Sox's win tonight is the most lopsided road win in postseason history, topping 14-run blowouts by Atlanta (14-0 win over the Cardinals in 1996 NLCS Game 5) and the Yankees (18-4 win over the Giants in Game 2 of the 1936 World Series).

Two of the Yankees' worst postseason losses have come against the Red Sox.

Yankees' Worst Postseason Losses (Run Differential)

15 - October 8, 2018  - ALDS Game 3 -         Red Sox 16, Yankees 1
13 - November 3, 2001 - World Series Game 6 - Diamondbacks 15, Yankees 2
12 - October 16, 1999 - ALCS Game 3 -         Red Sox 13, Yankees 1 ("Where is Ro-ger? In the show-er!")
11 - October 20, 1996 - World Series Game 1 - Atlanta 12, Yankees 1
11 - October 20, 2001 - ALCS Game 3 -         Mariners 14, Yankees 3
10 - October 7, 2000  - ALDS Game 4 -         Athletics 11, Yankees 1
 9 - October 4, 2007  - ALDS Game 1 -         Cleveland 12, Yankees 3

Nathan Eovaldi / Luis Severino

Betts, RF
Benintendi, LF
Martinez, DH
Bogaerts, SS
Devers, 3B
Pearce, 1B
Holt, 2B
Vazquez, C
Bradley, CF

In Game 2, Gary Sanchez stepped out of the batters box in an attempt to disrupt Ryan Brasier's concentration. Brasier yelled at Sanchez to "Get in the fuckin' box" and then struck him out.

"Get in the fucking box, god damn" pic.twitter.com/4V5qeiudP8

— Bostons Diehards (@WTP_BDiehards) October 7, 2018

Ryan Brasier. Boss. 🔥#WhatWouldPedroDo pic.twitter.com/Jrdy3USWW9

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) October 7, 2018

On Twitter, there was this exchange:

Kay Hanley (Letters to Cleo): "'Get the fuck in the box!' My new favorite euphemism for everything."

Red (Surviving Grady): "If you don't compose 'Get The Fuck in the Box' as a two minute pop song before the end of this game, my faith in everything is lost

Kay Hanley: Have faith, Red.

Have faith, Red. pic.twitter.com/BDbHTlep8g

— Kay Hanley (@kayhanley) October 7, 2018

Also: Three minutes after her first tweet, she added: "And I would be remiss if I did not tell you that that’s what she said."

"Get the fuck in the box!", "Get in the fucking box!", or "Get back in the fucking box!" - Brasier is the man.

People say Aaron Judge is a nice guy and he has no control over the gawking and gushing and drooling and fawning that the media does over him. And that is true. He cannot control that. ... But he may also be a dick.

Masahiro Tanaka's control faltered in the fourth inning of Game 2 and TBS's Ron Darling remarked: "A little chink in the armor for Tanaka here." ... Darling apologized for the unfortunate phrase - and it was a real apology, not a I'm-sorry-you-were-offended statement.

Still, I wish TBS had fired him ... not because of his choice of words, but because he's so unabashedly in L-U-V with all things Yankee. If Darling considers himself a professional, his annoying bias - which Brian Anderson (play-by-play) appears to share - he ought to be thoroughly embarrassed by his comments in this series.