In the second longest game between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox over their storied history, a 16th inning outburst by the Bombers ties the series up at a game apiece.
- New York Yankees 4 (46-42)
- Boston Red Sox 1 (51-40)
- W: Heller (1-0)
- L: Fister (0-3)
- AL, Final, 16, Box Score
- Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts
The night started out as a highly anticipated pitching matchup between Chris Sale and Luis Severino that absolutely lived up to the hype.
Matt Holliday ensured that the Yankees would remain the only team in baseball to have not been shut out in 2017 with his ninth inning game-tying home run. After the Yankees bullpen impressively kept the Red Sox potent offense silent, the Baby Bombers had a 16th inning to remember as they captured game two and pulled back to within 3.5 games of these first place Red Sox.
Pitching Clinic
While both starters cruised through the first two frames, the Red Sox took the liberty of putting the first run across in the bottom of the third.
A one out walk to Mookie Betts, another to Dustin Pedroia and a single to Xander Bogaerts loaded the bags with Sox for the four-hole hitter Mitch Moreland. The lefty swinging first baseman took a fastball from Severino and lofted it to center for a sacrifice fly that scored Betts to give Boston a one run advantage.
Outside of that, both Sale and Severino really lived up to the pitchers duel billing advertised at the start of the game.
When Sale struck out Matt Holliday to end the sixth, he became the first Red Sox pitcher to have two games of at least ten strikeouts against the Yankees in a single season.
Not to be outdone, Severino chucked the 101st pitch of the afternoon at 100 mph to strike out Hanley Ramirez to end his half of the sixth.
Severino was simply sensational this afternoon. The 2017 All-Star tossed seven innings of one-run ball, allowing just four hits while walking two and striking out six.
Chris Sale was his usual dominant self; tossing 7.2 frames of three-hit shut out baseball, walking two and punching out an eye-popping 13 Yankees.
Holliday’s Heroics
After Craig Kimbrel came on to get Aaron Judge to fly out to end the eighth, Boston’s All-Star closer blew his first save of the season in Fenway by serving up a room-service fastball to Matt Holliday, who obliterated it into the seats atop the Green Monster to knot the game up at one apiece.
According to StatCast, Holliday’s 16th bomb of the season left the bat at 108 mph and traveled an estimated 443 feet.
Bullpen Bounce-Back
For a bullpen that’s been justifiably scrutinized since the beginning of June, the Yankees’ pen was utterly outstanding when they were needed most. Tyler Clippard, Dellin Betances, Chasen Shreve, Adam Warren, Jonathan Holder, Aroldis Chapman and Ben Heller combined to toss nine innings of scoreless baseball, allowing just four hits while fanning a total of six Sox(three by Heller in the 15th) in the process.
Holder was especially good, considering as John Sterling said on the radio broadcast, “Regardless of the outcome; and Holder pitched tremendously, he’s probably going to be the first in line to head back to Scranton.” Holder hurled three of those nine innings, allowing only one hit during his impressive evening of work.
Sweet Sixteen
The moment Yankee fans waited on for over five hours, Sir Didi Gregorius came up to the plate in the top of the 16th carrying a 0-for-18 slump into a situation with runners on first and third with no outs. Sir Didi came through in a huge way, smacking a single to center that scored Ellsbury from third to give the Yankees a one run lead.
Adding some insurance, Austin Romine roped a single to center that plated Chase Headley to make it a two run contest. Putting the finishing touches on, Gary Sanchez hit a sac-fly to left to score Gregorius and open the score up to 4-1.
What’s Next?
Tomorrow has major implications for the boys from the Bronx; not just to decide the outcome of this four game set with their bitter rivals, but also as to the fate of the 2017 squad and whether or not they will be in the hunt for October.
Game one of their doubleheader features a pitching matchup of righties, young Bryan Mitchell (1-1, 5.06 ERA) for New York and 2016 Cy Young Award winner Rick Porcello (4-11, 4.75 ERA) for the Sox. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 P.M. and can be seen on the YES Network and TBS for those out of the market.
In the night cap, the Yankees’ Masahiro Tanaka (7-8, 5.47 ERA) squares off against Boston’s former Cy Young Award winning lefty David Price (4-2, 3.91 ERA) to finish off the series. Game two first pitch is scheduled for 8:05 P.M. and can be seen on ESPN.