The New York Yankees received a rude awakening upon arriving in Boston. The Red Sox drubbed the Yankees in an embarrassing performance.
Well, this isn’t exactly how I imagined my return to writing postgame reports would go.
The New York Yankees dropped the first game of a four-game series against the Boston Red Sox by a score of 19-3. Masahiro Tanaka had what can only be described as the worst outing of his career. The offense had no chance to make up the deficit like they did earlier this week against the Minnesota Twins.
The Bad — Everything
The Yankees struggled right from the first pitch. Red Sox starter Rick Porcello retired the first three batters, setting the tone for how the rest of the game would play out.
Tanaka responded with the worst start of his career. He let up seven runs in the first inning. The game might as well have ended right there. A three-run homer by Xander Bogaerts opened the scoring and the Sox singled and doubled across four more runs.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone made the decision to leave Tanaka in to eat as many innings as he could before subbing in late arrival Stephen Tarpley. Tanaka ended with 3.1 innings and 12 earned runs. Tarpley would throw 1.2 innings and surrender four more earned runs before being relieved by Luis Cessa.
The offense really had no chance to swing back into this one. The firepower they roll out on a nightly basis is usually enough to overcome daunting deficits but the Red Sox offense was too much tonight.
The Good — 2 RBIs in the second inning and Austin Romine pitched
There was a brief moment of hope in the second inning where the Yankees looked like they were going to mount a comeback. Down 7-0, they managed to scrape across two runs on a Gleyber Torres RBI single and a bases-loaded walk by DJ LeMahieu.
Later in the game, Kyle Higashioka hit a solo homer to bring the Yankees’ run total to 3.
Luke Voit also managed to have a three-hit night so hopefully, he can carry that momentum into a winning effort tomorrow.
Most notably in the “good” column, Austin Romine got to pitch. There is nothing in this world I love more than a position player pitching. Romine finished the game with three earned runs, one fewer than Tarpley and a lot more than one fewer than Tanaka.
Savage of the Game — MLB schedule makers
It is preposterous to schedule a rivalry game the night after an 8:10 p.m. ET start on the road. MLB should be ashamed.
