The Red Sox improved to a perfect 4-0 against the Yankees this year, beating New York by a score of 5-3 in the opener of a weekend series. The Sox bullpen paved the way with 5.1 scoreless innings of relief.
Starter Martin Perez gave the Sox just 3.2 innings, though all three of the runs against him were unearned, thanks to an error by Xander Bogaerts.
The Sox scored three runs in the first on doubles by Xander Bogaerts and Hunter Renfroe, then added a solo run in the third on a sacrifice fly from Renfroe.
They didn't score again, but with the bullpen locking it down, they didn't need to.
WHO: Red Sox (44-31) vs. New York Yankees (40-34)
WHEN: 7:10 p.m.
WHERE: Fenway Park
SEASON SERIES TO DATE: BOS 3-0
STARTING PITCHERS: LHP Martin Perez (5-4, 4.32) vs. Domingo German (4-4, 4.17)
TV/RADIO: NESN ; WEEI 93.7 FM
LINEUPS
YANKEES
LeMahieu 2B
Judge CF
Sanchez C
Stanton DH
Voit 1B
Torres SS
Urshela 3B
Andujar LF
Frazier RF
RED SOX
Chavis 1B
Verdugo LF
Martinez DH
Bogaerts SS
Devers 3B
Renfroe RF
Hernandez CF
Vazquez C
Gonzalez 2B
IN-GAME OBSERVATIONS:
B8: Huge insurance run as Vazquez shoots a single to right, scoring Renfroe.
T7: Garrett Whitlock finishes his second strong inning, providing a valuable bridge from Sawamura to, presumably, Adam Ottavino. Whitlock, who was so effective facing his former team in New York earlier this month, faced seven hitters and retired six with two strikeouts and four groundouts.
T4: Quick hook for Perez, who is lifted for Hirokazu Sawamura with two out in the fourth.
T4: Renfroe flashes his arm strength yet again, charging a single by Miguel Andujar and gunning down Gio Urshela at the plate. That's 11 outfield assists for Renfroe on the year.
B3: This time, it's the Yankees making a costly error. After German fails to cleanly field a dribbler from Rafael Devers, moving Martinez to third, from where he scores on a sac fly to CF by Renfroe. Renfroe has two RBI tonight.
T2: D.J. LeMahieu,as he often does, goes the other way with a nice inside-out swing and shoot the ball down the RF line for a two-run single and the Red Sox 3-0 lead is gone.
T2: Looks like a full-count pitch from Perez could have gone for a strike at the top of the zone, but home plate umpire Mark Carlson thought otherwise and Perez has walked in a run.
T2: The errors continue to pile up for the Red Sox, with Bogaerts failing to handle what should have been an inning-ending double play. Instead, the Yankees load the bases with one out.
B1: Six hitters in, and the Red Sox are hitting German hard. Four hits and three runs.
B1: Xander Bogaerts gets a sinker up from Domingo German and lashes a double to left-center, scoring Michael Chavis and Alex Verdugo and giving the Red Sox a quick 2-0 lead.
WHAT'S UP: The Red Sox are coming off a 4-4 road trip, having, for the first time, dropped consecutive series,...Nck Pivetta became is the second Red Sox starter to be removed from a game after allowing no hits in six or more innings since Babe Ruth did so on May 20, 1916...The Red Sox are 2-4 in their last six games, after going 10-4 in their previous 14. The Red Sox are closing out the season’s first half by playing 19 games in 20 days.....The Sox have won their last four games against the Yankees, including 3-0 this season...In their 3-game sweep at NYY earlier this month, they outscored the Yankees 18-10.....: The Red Sox are 20-17 (.541) at home, including 20-14 since getting swept by BAL to begin the season...Their .541 winning percentage at home ranks second in the AL East... The Sox are an MLB-best 24-14 (.632) on the road.... : Red Sox pitchers have a 3.43 ERA in their last five games....The Sox lead the AL with 1.01 HR/9.0 IP.....Sox starters have thrown five or more innings 58 times, tied for third-most in the majors...The Sox are 37-21 (.638) when their starter lasts five or more innings....They are 7-10 in all other games.... Josh Taylor has made 22 consecutive scoreless appearances (17.1 IP), tied with the Cubs’ Dan Winkler for MLB’s longest streak of 2021. J.D. Martinez owns MLB’s longest active hit streak (13 G), the third-longest of his career...He also has two 14-game streaks in the past...Xander Bogaerts has reached base in 19 consecutive games, the longest active streak in the AL.... Martin Perez won his last start to stop a two-game losing streak over which he allowed 11 runs over 3.1 innings...Perez has won five of his last seven starts, tossing five or more innings with three earned runs or fewer in each of the five wins....Perez leads MLB in called third strikes this season (37), ahead of Gerrit Cole, Trevor Bauer and Zack, Wheeler, all with 36 each....The next-closest LHP is teammate Eduardo Rodriguez (32)....Giancarlo Stanton is 3-for-7 with two homers lifetime against Perez while Luke Voit is 3-for-9 with two homers...Meanwhile, Xander Bogaerts is 5-for-12 with a homer in his career against Domingo German and Marwin Gonzalez is 4-for-11.
NOTES:
* LHP Chris Sale is set to throw live batting practice Saturday, with a schedule of about pitches. He'll need another round of live BP before beginning at rehab assignment.
* RHP Ryan Brasier was at Fenway to be examined, a few weeks after being struck in the side of the head during a mound session in Fort Myers earlier this month. "He came up here to get checked out and see some doctors,'' said Alex Cora. "No baseball activities, but the fact that he's here means a lot. He looks great, actually, physically. He had a big smile on his face. I can't even imagine what he's been thinking the last few weeks. I cannot imagine what your thoughts are after that. The fact that he's here means a lot to us.''
* Cora praised the Yankees for the play of late. "Offensively, they're hitting the ball out of the ballpark,'' he said, "and that's how they score runs. Luke Voit's back and he's one of these guys who brings an attitude, he brings confidence. It's not that they were lacking that. But he brings another good at-bat and he's not afraid. He goes out there and shows emotion and sometimes you need that.''
* The Sox allowed 10 unearned runs on their recent eight-game road trip. "Sloppy....bad,'' said Cora. "All of the above. We need to be better. Our pitching staff, they're solid. But like any other pitching staff, if you give the opposition more than 27 outs, you're going to pay the price. We've paid the price. On the whole trip, we were bad. It's something we've talked about it, we'll address it. We've been talking about this since Day 1 of spring training as something we need to do. It wasn't great over the trip; it hasn't been great the whole month. I think we've made 22 errors (in June), if I'm not mistaken. It's not even the errors -- it's the plays we're not making. We need to be better. That's the bottom line.''
* MLB announced that 23 of 30 teams have reached the 85 percent plateau of vaccinated players. The Sox are still not among those, but Cora remains optimistic they will get there. "I'm hopeful,'' Cora said. "We're getting closer. I think we're closer than last week, but we're not there yet.''
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