The New York Yankees fell behind early and couldn’t complete a late-inning comeback, dropping the ALDS opener to the Boston Red Sox 5-4.
- Boston Red Sox: 5 (1-0)
- New York Yankees: 4 (0-1)
- ALDS, Final, Box Score
- Fenway Park, Boston, MA
Boston Red Sox ace Chris Sale started out quickly against the New York Yankees, striking out Andrew McCutchen and Aaron Judge. Following a walk to Aaron Hicks, Giancarlo Stanton worked the count full but ultimately swung and missed to help Sale strike out the side.
In the bottom of the first, J.A. Happ struck out Mookie Betts to start strong, but a single by Andrew Benintendi and a walk to Steve Pearce set Boston up for a three-run J.D. Martinez home run, a punch in the stomach to Yankees fans still high on an easy win over Oakland in the Wild Card game.
JD Martinez just put the @RedSox on the board in the ALDS in a big waypic.twitter.com/8wzWZsXCi6
— For The Win (@ForTheWin) October 5, 2018
Luke Voit led off with a single in the second inning, but Sale struck out Didi Gregorius and grounded Miguel Andujar into a double play to crush the Yankees’ dreams of quickly shaving a run off Boston’s lead.
Betts led off the third with a long double. Benintendi then dragged a bunt single, knocking Happ out of the game.
Chad Green replaced Happ and promptly gave up an RBI single to Pearce to make it 4-0 in favor of the Red Sox. A Xander Bogaerts sacrifice fly closed the book on Happ, who finished with a line of five earned runs in just two innings.
The Yankees tried to get something going in the top of the fourth, but Andujar struck out with runners on first and second to kill the Yankees’ chances of scoring.
Singles from Judge and Stanton took Sale out of the game in the sixth inning. Luke Voit took advantage of the pitching change and drove in the Yankees’ first run with a single off Ryan Brasier.
#Yankees are on the board, thanks to Luke Voit's RBI single. 5-1 now, runners on the corners. pic.twitter.com/bg0gKbYGHg
— Tom Hanslin (@tomhanslin) October 6, 2018
A Gregorius RBI groundout cut the Red Sox lead to 5-2, and walks to Andujar and Gary Sanchez loaded the bases with two outs. Gleyber Torres killed the rally this time, striking out on a breaking ball from Brandon Workman.
In the seventh, the Yankees again loaded the bases—this time with no outs—but Stanton struck out in a sacrifice fly situation and they only got one run out of it, on a Voit groundout.
Aaron Judge gave the Yankees a glimmer of hope with a home run to lead off the ninth inning against Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel.
AARON JUDGE GOES YARD.
IT'S A 1-RUN GAME IN THE 9TH.
?: @TBSNetwork pic.twitter.com/I8FZ15Ou9D
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) October 6, 2018
However, the next three Yankees struck out to complete a disappointing loss.
Notes:
The Yankees lost more than the game, as Aaron Hicks left the game with an injury in the fourth inning.
Masahiro Tanaka will take the hill on Saturday night, looking to help the Yankees even the series.
