Red Sox hold off Yankees in opener
BOSTON — Chris Sale struck out eight for his first post-season win, J.D. Martinez hit a three-run homer and the Boston Red Sox sweated out their shaky bullpen to hold off the New York Yankees 5-4 on Friday night in Game 1 of the AL Division Series.
One year after he was pounded by Houston in his playoff debut, Sale took a four-hit shutout into the sixth inning. The Yankees loaded the bases in the sixth and seventh, cutting the deficit to 5-3.
Aaron Judge homered off Craig Kimbrel leading off the ninth before the Red Sox closer retired the next three batters — striking out both Giancarlo Stanton and Luke Voit for the save.
Game 2 in the best-of-five series is tonight, with Boston starting another pitcher trying to overcome a history of playoff struggles: left-hander David Price is 0-8 as a starter in the post-season. He’ll face Yankees righty Masahiro Tanaka.
In the first playoff matchup between the longtime rivals since 2004, the 108-win Red Sox took a 5-0 lead against Yankees starter J.A. Happ and then white-knuckled it after Sale left with two on and one out in the sixth.
New York, which won 100 regular-season games plus the AL wild-card game against Oakland, got three singles and two walks in the sixth, scoring two before Brandon Workman — the only player on the Red Sox roster with a World Series ring — struck out Gleyber Torres to end the threat.
The Yankees loaded the bases with nobody out in the seventh but scored just one run. Boston manager Alex Cora used scheduled Game 3 starter Rick Porcello to get two outs in the eighth before turning to Kimbrel for a four-out save after Boston had built up a 5-0 lead back in the third inning.