The Boston Red Sox beat the New York Yankees 8-3 on Friday, August 18th, at Yankee Stadium. The Red Sox took a huge lead early and never looked back. The Red Sox offense looked the best it has in weeks, and starter Bryan Bello bounced back for a nice start. With tonight’s loss, the Yankees are now two games under .500 and are seven games out of a playoff spot. The Mariners won, and the Blue Jays lost, meaning the Mariners have taken the third wild card spot from Toronto. The Red Sox are three games back of the Mariners for that last playoff spot. d
The Red Sox offense wasted no time tonight, scoring four runs before recording an out. The game began with a double from right fielder Alex Verdugo. Third baseman Rafael Devers singled sharply, advancing Verdugo to third. Designated Hitter (DH) Justin Turner collected the first RBI of the night with a single, putting runners at first and second for left fielder Masataka Yoshida. In the five games that Turner has been back from a bone bruise in his foot, he has a batting average (BA) of .381 and two home runs. Turner has said that the injury has not fully healed, and that he is just trying to play through the pain. So far, he is doing a pretty good job of that. With Yoshida at the plate and still no outs, he hit a 376-foot home run to the short porch in right field, extending the Red Sox’s lead to 4-0.
The Red Sox would add to their lead one inning later, putting up three more runs, capitalizing on an error by Yankee second baseman Gleyber Torres. The error came with one out, putting second baseman Pablo Reyes at first base. Reyes advanced from first to third on a single from Verdugo and scored on the single from Devers, making it 5-0 Red Sox. The Red Sox added two more runs on back-to-back RBI singles from Turner and Yoshida, and all of a sudden, it was 7-0 Boston. After two innings, the top four hitters in the Red Sox lineup were a combined 8-8.
The Red Sox starter, Bello, had much more luck than Yankees starter Jhony Brito. Bello went six innings, allowing six hits while striking out four Yankees. As mentioned, this was a huge bounce back for Bello after he took the loss last Saturday against the Tigers, during which he only went 4 2/3 innings and allowed four runs on nine hits. Before tonight, since the all-star break, Bello had a 5.67 ERA, which was the sixth worst of any starter in the MLB. Bello needed to get back on track, and last night was a great sign of him doing so.
The game ended by the final score of 8-3 in the favor of the Red Sox. Yankees’ pitching after Brito was very good, allowing only one run over 6 2/3 innings. The Yankees would score two runs in the eighth inning off a home run by right fielder Aaron Judge. The ball only traveled 342 feet. He hit it to the short porch in right field, and it would have only been a home run in the stadium that it was hit. Red Sox fans can’t complain too much because Yoshida’s home run would have only gone out in three ballparks.
The Red Sox will look to win the series tomorrow as starter Kutter Crawford takes the mound for the Red Sox. This will be the tenth day game that Crawford will pitch, and in day games, he has a 2.05 Earned Run Average (ERA), compared to his ERA of 5.48 at night. The Red Sox will face AL Cy Young frontrunner, starter Gerrit Cole. Cole has an ERA of 2.76 and has the third most strikeouts in the American League (AL). The Red Sox have had the better of Cole in the past, as many fans remember the Sox beating Cole in the 2021 wild card game. Last year, Cole had an ERA over five against the Red Sox.
The Red Sox will look to bounce back after the series loss in Washington, and take the series with back to back wins in the Bronx.
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