G52: Yankees 6, Red Sox 5 (12)

Yankees - 000 000 211 011 - 6 11  3 
Red Sox - 000 310 000 010 - 5 10  0

After blowing a 4-0 lead, the Red Sox squandered a chance to tie the game in the ninth inning and frittered away a golden opportunity to win the game in the eleventh. They wasted a great start from Martín Pérez (6-3-0-1-7, 86) and dropped to 0-8 against the Yankees this season. It was also the MFY's ninth consecutive victory.

The Red Sox are actually 0-for-their-last-11 against the Yankees, dating back to September 7, 2019. It's the first time in 67 years that Boston has lost 11 in a row to New York (August 16, 1952-April 23, 1953) . . . Q: In setting out the span of dates, should the second day be the day of the Red Sox's final loss of the streak (April 23) or the day before the Red Sox's win that snapped the streak (May 7, an off day as it turns out)?

Trailing by one run in the bottom of the eleventh, Michael Chavis went from second to third on Jonathan Loaisiga's wild pitch and scored on Christian Vázquez's (3-for-5) single to center. Tzu-Wei Lin bunted to the pitcher and second baseman Tyler Wade was charged with a "missed catch" error, leaving runners on first and second, with none out.

Rafael Devers grounded into a double play, but the call at first base was overturned after a Red Sox challenge. Loaisiga intentionally walked Xander Bogaerts, loading the bases for the slumping J.D. Martinez. JDM went down swinging, giving him four strikeouts across an 0-for-6 night and nine stranded base runners. Vázquez ended the inning with a fly out to right.

In the twelfth, a two-out double gave New York a 6-5 lead. Kevin Plawecki grounded out to second in the bottom half, putting Vázquez, as the tying run, at third. But again, the Red Sox could not capitalize. Jackie Bradley flied to center and Michael Chavis grounded out to shortstop.

Christian Arroyo went 3-for-5 in the #9 spot in the lineup, driving in four runs, threw of them coming on his third home run of the year.

The Red Sox stole six bases (Vazquez (2), Bogaerts (2), Bradley, and Martinez) and turned four double plays (three of them for Pérez, in the second, third, and sixth innings, and the final one coming in the eleventh). Boston also stole six bags on September 12 against the Rays. The only other games this year with multiple stolen bases were on August 13 and 29 (two each).

Matt Barnes blew the save with one out to go, giving up Gary Sanchez's 10th dong of the season. JDM struck out looking with the tying run on second in the home half of the ninth and the perversity of Extra Innings 2020 began.

Jordan Montgomery / Martín Pérez

Verdugo, RF

Devers, 3B

Bogaerts, SS

Martinez, LF

Vázquez, C

Plawecki, DH

Bradley, CF

Chavis, 1B

Arroyo, 2B

 

J.D. Martinez is still hitting cleanup despite a .206 batting average and .371 slugging percentage. . . . Last nine games: 3-for-34, .088. . . . Last 19 games: 12-for-72, .167.

MLB.com's Game Preview refers to Pérez as "Boston's most consistent starter this season". Looking at the stats for Pérez and Nathan Eovaldi makes it clear that "consistent" doesn't mean "best". Both pitchers' game logs have good and bad starts mixed together, so perhaps it means "not injured"?

         GS   IP    H  ER  BB   K   ERA   WHIP  ERA+
Pérez    10  52.0  43  25  26  37  4.33  1.327   109
Eovaldi   8  42.1  44  20   6  44  4.25  1.181   111

BB/K: Eovaldi has averaged three fewer walks (1.3 vs 4.5) and three additional strikeouts per nine inning (9.4 vs 6.4).

The Yankees (29-21) have won eight straight games and are comfortably in second place in the AL East, 3.5 GB the Rays, with the Blue Jays 6 GB.

The Yankees come into this three-game series with the distinction of being the first team in major league history to hit six or more home runs in three consecutive games. They belted a record 19 dongs in a three-game sweep of the Blue Jays. The previous record for homers in a three-game span was 16, shared by the 1977 Red Sox, 2019 Nationals, and 2019 Yankees. (MLB.com's Bryan Hoch noted the 19 homers were sent a combined 7,496 feet - approximately 28 New York City blocks.)

Last night, the Yankees posted the franchise's first five-homer inning, and the seventh in major league history. Brett Gardner, DJ LeMahieu, and Luke Voit went back-to-back-to-back on three consecutive pitches in the fourth. After an out, Giancarlo Stanton and Gleyber Torres hit back-to-back blasts.

In its current eight-game winning streak, New York has more home runs (27) than their opponents have runs scored (20).