Red Sox - 001 000 000 - 1 5 0 Yankees - 002 100 02x - 5 9 1The Yankees hit three home runs on Friday night, two off starter Ryan Weber (3.1-4-3-4-0, 74) and one off Colten Brewer.
The Red Sox's lone run also came via a dong, the first of the year from Michael Chavis. It gave the Red Sox a 1-0 lead, an advantage that turned out to be fleeting.
Weber, who had walked two Yankees in the second but escaped paying for it, gave up a leadoff single to DJ LeMahieu in the third. Aaron Judge hit a first-pitch cheapo home run to right and New York led 2-1. Gio Urshela took Weber deep to open the fourth.
Lurch is hitting .250, with no walks and 10 strikeouts in six games. That's a 270-strikeout pace for a full season, which would obliterate the all-time record of 223. He's whiffing in nearly 40% of his trips to the plate, his worst percentage since his first half-season in the bigs, back in 2016. Before today's game, he was swinging at 31.1% of the pitches outside the strike zone, again, his worst ratio since 2016 (in the last three years, he has never been over 25%). His contact percentage is only 53.8%, easily the worst of his career (all other seasons, he has been over 60%). ... But, okay, whatever you say, New York Post. He's unstoppable.
The Yankees had someone on base in every inning. Phillips Valdez stranded a runner at third in the fifth and men at the corners in the sixth. Austin Brice's 1-0 pitch to Giancarlo Stanton in the seventh grazed a thread on Stanton's pants, but the inning ended on a strikeout-caught-stealing with Aaron Hicks at the dish. Later on, Brewer gave up a two-run homer to Brett Gardner, who had been 0-for-12 before that at-bat.
Jere Smith (NESN Non-Appreciation Society, membership card #0002) related NESN's "mini-dumpster fire of a call" on the Stanton HBP in the game thread. Dave O'Brien's initial reaction was "right past everybody". Plate umpire Chad Whitson visually and audibly indicated Stanton was hit, but O'Brien, Jerry Remy, and Dennis Eckersley didn't see it (neither did Stanton, initially). The NESN Trio tell us Stanton "thought it hit him" and they wondered "Did he get hit?" All three believe Whitson's call was No HBP, which everyone watching at home knows is wrong. NESN then shows us the Red Sox dugout. Someone is on the phone. O'Brien: "Red Sox might wanna take a look at this." What? If OB thinks Stanton was not hit by the pitch, why would he think the Red Sox would ask for a challenge? Does he think Ron Roenicke would argue "Yes, he was hit" and demand the Yankees get a free base runner? Seriously, OB, do you ever listen to yourself? There was no challenge (imagine that!), NESN cuts back to the field; Stanton is on first base; O'Brien tells us what we're seeing: "So, Stanton on" ... and the game continues. ... NESN Being NESN.
After the Yankees took a 2-1 lead, the Red Sox threatened to grab it back. Jordan Montgomery (5.2-5-1-1-4, 81) hit Rafael Devers, allowed a single to Xander Bogaerts, and (after an out) committed a throwing error on Alex Verdugo's grounder. The bases were loaded, but Chavis (who had homered in the previous inning) grounded into a double play.
The Red Sox went in order in the fifth and another double play erased a leadoff walk n the sixth. (Boston's third inning also ended on a double play when J.D. Martinez lined out to right and Judge doubled Kevin Pillar off first base.)
Chad Green struck out four of the six Red Sox batters he faced from the mid-sixth into the eighth. Plate umpire Whitson rang up Boston's leadoff batter in the eighth, Jose Peraza on an outside pitch.
In the ninth, Jonathan Holder struck out Devers and walked Bogaerts. It was a 12-pitch walk, featuring seven foul balls from Zander: bbfcfffffbfb. Zack Britton started warming up, just in case. Holder threw seven pitches to Christian Vázquez, who hacked at a full-count pitch that was nearly on the ground and hit into a fielder's choice (I would have preferred the walk). Whitson blew another call in the Yankees' favor with Alex Verdugo at the plate (because he was sick of this game and had things to do, dammit). Verdugo grounded out to shortstop, freeing Whitson for the evening. I doubt he had an optometrist's appointment.
Pillar, RFJordan Montgomery is making his 2020 debut, after recovering from TJ surgery.
Martinez, DH
Devers, 3B
Bogaerts, SS
Vázquez, C
Verdugo, LF
Chavis, 1B
Bradley, CF
Peraza, 2B
Saturday: Zack Godley / Masahiro Tanaka
Sunday: TK / James Paxton
AL EAST
W L GB RS RA DIFF
Yankees 4 1 --- 26 21 + 5
Rays 4 3 1.0 38 28 +10
Red Sox 3 4 2.0 36 38 - 2
Blue Jays 3 4 2.0 25 26 - 1
Orioles 2 3 2.0 26 36 -11
MLB Ranking
Average: Red Sox .276 (#1) - Yankees .223 (#21)
On-Base: Red Sox .336 (#8) - Yankees .313 (#14)
Slugging: Red Sox .447 (#5) - Yankees .433 (#8)
OPS: Red Sox .783 (#6) - Yankees .746 (#10)
ERA: Red Sox 5.29 (#22) - Yankees 4.73 (#19)
WHIP: Red Sox 1.460 (#25) - Yankees 1.150 (#8)
