All you need to know, in quickie form, about the Red Sox' 10-5 win over the Yankees, complete with BSJ analysis and insight:
BOX SCORE
HEADLINES
Betts solves lefties — in a big way: Before Friday night, Mookie Betts had struggled mightily against left-handed pitching, with just one homer in 106 at-bats. That changed in the span of four innings when he homered three times off New York's James Paxton. In 2018, en route to an MVP season, Betts had a .736 slugging percentage against lefties; coming into Friday, that figure was just .330. Whereas before this season lefties worked him away, they've attacked him inside far more often this year and he hasn't been able to make the adjustment. "Lot of work going on behind the scenes,'' said Betts. "It's just a matter of showing it in the game.'' Hitting homers in bunches - against lefties or righties -- has been a career trademark for Betts. He now has five such games; the all-time record is six.
https://twitter.com/MLBStats/status/1154919363922792449
Cashner earns first win with Sox: In Andrew Cashner's first two games with the Sox, he wasn't as sharp as the Sox had hoped when they obtained him from the Orioles two weeks ago. But his first outing against the Yankees as a member of the Red Sox was a memorable one. Cashner held New York scoreless for the first five innings before allowing a run in the sixth and two more in the seventh as his night ended. Cashner chalked up the improved outing to a better relationship with catcher Christian Vazquez and more familiarity between the two. "I think he had a better idea of what I could do,'' Cashner. "I thought I established the fastball at the top of the zone and the changeup played really well.'' Of course, it helped that he was spotted a 3-0 lead in the first and a 5-0 lead in the third. "It's nice when you get run support early and you can just out and make pitches,'' he said.
Bullpen made it a little uncomfortable in ninth: The Sox were up 10-3 heading into the ninth, but Heath Hembree continued to struggle, giving up a run on two straight hits before issuing a walk to make things tighter than the Sox would have liked that. That resulted in the Red Sox warming up Brandon Workman, one of their top two high-leverage arms, and eventually, bringing him into the game to get the final three outs. In the end, the Sox escaped after two were runs were charged to Hembree, but it's not a good sign that you need to use the equivalent of your closer in a game in which you lead by seven with just three outs to go.
TURNING POINT:
One homer was nice. Two was impressive. But when Betts hit his third in the fourth inning, it turned the rest of the night into one filled with anticipation. The buzz intensified when Betts came to the on-deck circle in the sixth (double) and again in the eighth. Hitting four homers in a game is even more rare than throwing a perfect game, and people wanted to see history. Instead, they just saw a great night from a special player.
TWO UP
J.D. Martinez: Martinez belted a two-run homer in the first and added a run-scoring triple in the third, giving him multiple hits for the fifth straight game.
Rafael Devers: Devers banged out three hits -- a single and two doubles -- and now has knocked in 32 runs in July, the most for any Red Sox player in any month since David Ortiz had 35 in July of 2006.
ONE DOWN
Christian Vazquez: The Red Sox catcher was the only member of the starting lineup who failed to collect a hit, going 0-for-4.
QUOTE OF NOTE
"Everybody grows up hating the Yankees, right?'' — Cashner on defeating New York for his first win with the Sox.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING:
- The Sox improved to a season-best 11 games over .500
- Sox have scored 42 first-inning runs in their last 25 games after scoring just 33 first-inning runs in their first 80.
- The game marked the fifth straight against the Yankees in which the Sox scored at least eight runs.
- Andrew Benintendi picked up his sixth outfield assist by throwing out Luke Voit at third in the eighth inning.