All you need to know, in quickie form, about the Red Sox' win over the Yankees, complete with BSJ insight and analysis
HEADLINES
Four-run eighth sees hitters break out: Three of the coldest hitters in the Red Sox lineup all came through for the Red Sox in the eighth inning. Kiké Hernandez, who sat the previous two games and found himself dropped from leadoff to seventh in the lineup, got on top of a fastball from reliever Chad Green and roped it to left, scoring Rafael Devers all the way from first. Prior to that at-bat, Hernandez was 0-for-27 at the plate. Next came Christian Vazquez, who was 4-for-27 coming into the game. Vazquez lunged at a pitch down and away, and with the end of the bat, poked a double just inside the first-base bag, scoring Hernandez. Finally, Bobby Dalbec, mired in a 2-for-23 mess, clobbered a pitch from Green over 450 feet for the second-longest homer of the season by a Red Sox hitter. In the span of three hitters, the game went from a 3-3 tie to a 7-3 romp, all because three slumping hitters picked the perfect time to get hot again.
ERod takes another step forward: Last week, even as the pitching line looked ugly against the Houston Astros and his losing streak reached four, Alex Cora insisted that Eduardo Rodriguez needed one more piece to the puzzle to be where he needed to be. Sure enough, Rodriguez flashed a much-improved changeup Saturday night, used it to get some swinging third strikes early and pitched the Sox into the sixth inning. Rodriguez allowed three run on 5.1 innings, so this was hardly some dominant masterpiece. Still, it was evidence that Rodriguez is indeed headed in the right direction. Having a quality changeup -- as opposed to the one he had been throwing, which looked like a bad sinker -- is an important part of Rodriguez's tool kit. He made a few mistakes, leaving a fastball up to Gleyber Torres for a two-run homer in the fourth then surrendered a double in the sixth to Gio Urshela. But overall, this was more like the Rodriguez we saw in 2019, rather than the one who had one of his worst months ever this past May.
TURNING POINT
When Rodriguez ran out of gas in the sixth, Cora turned to rookie Garrett Whitlock, who though he allowed a flyout to right for a sacrifice fly (charged to Rodriguez), struck out Chris Gittens to strand the go-ahead run at third base. In the seventh, Whitlock came right back and faced just three Yankees, allowing a one-out infield single before getting an inning-ending double play. That was a huge momentum swing for the Sox, and when the Sox turned on the offense in the eighth inning, that meant the win went to Whitlock - the first of his major league career. Even sweeter was that the victory came at the expense of the Yankees, from whom the Sox took him in the Rule 5 draft last December.
TWO UP
Alex Verdugo: The outfielder was on base all night with a first-inning double, a single and run scored in the sixth and a walk in the seventh, along with a nice shoestring catch in the ninth.
Rafael Devers: It's pretty obvious that whatever struggles Devers was going through with fastballs is over. He provided a two-run single in the sixth to get the Red Sox scoring starter and added another single before scoring from first on Hernandez's eighth-inning double.
ONE DOWN
Brandon Workman: The Sox gave him a chance to close it out, up by four runs in the ninth, but after two quick outs, he issued back-to-back walks, forcing Matt Barnes into the game for the final out.
QUOTE OF NOTE
"I wasn't pressing as much as I was frustrated, I guess. Nobody wants to go on a skid like I did. I don't how many (hitless) at-bats it was, but it felt like it was a lot more. It felt really good to finally get on the board.'' Kiké Hernandez.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING:
* Hunter Renfroe extended his hitting streak to nine straight games with two singles.
* Over his last 23 games, Adam Ottavino has limited opposing hitters to just eight hits in 68 at-bats.
* The win improved the Red Sox to 14-6 in the American League East.
* The win gave the Red Sox the series and they're now 7-2 in road series this season.
UP NEXT
In the series finale, it will be RHP Garrett Richards (4-4, 3.75) vs. RHP Domingo German (4-3, 3.270 at 7:07 p.m. Sunday.