Yankees rule Britannia, earn sweep of Red Sox
LONDON — Britain treasures tradition, and the New York Yankees wrapped up Major League Baseball’s first trip to Europe with one of their sport’s classic customs: a late-inning pinstriped comeback.
Gary Sanchez hit a go-ahead, two-run single in a nine-run seventh, and the Yankees overcome a four-run deficit to beat the Boston Red Sox, 12-8, on Sunday for a two-game sweep of the groundbreaking, high-scoring trek across the pond.
“It was a pretty cool experience,” Yankees right-fielder Aaron Judge said.
DJ LeMahieu doubled off Marcus Walden (6-1) leading off the seventh and hit a two-run double against Josh Taylor later in the inning as the Yankees opened an 11-4 lead, sending 14 batters to the plate in their highest-scoring inning in four years.
“The energy never let up,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “It felt like a huge event, these two games.”
Boston and New York combined for 50 runs in the whack-y games, four more than in any previous consecutive matchups of the rivals. Batters totalled 65 hits, 15 doubles and 10 homers over 18 innings that took 9 hours, 6 minutes to play out at Olympic Stadium, the Coors Field of Europe.
While “Sweet Caroline” in the eighth inning brought the atmosphere of Fenway Park, the final out triggered the playing of “New York, New York,” making it seem like a summer night in the Bronx. The games at the home of the soccer club West Ham drew 118,718, a mix mostly of Americans who flew over and Britons.
“Like I was telling the guys yesterday, it felt like a soccer match at the end, so it was pretty cool,” said New York’s Didi Gregorius, who went deep against Ryan Brasier in the eighth and extended New York’s record streak of games with home runs to 31.
New York won the opener 17-13 after taking an 11-run lead and the finale after going ahead 12-4. Zack Britton ruled Britannia both days, escaping eighth-inning trouble with the tying run at the plate. New York relied on an Old Chap — Aroldis Chapman — who closed out each game and struck out the final three batters Sunday.
“I did not think I would pitch in both games, winning by that many runs,” Chapman said through a translator.
Built for the 2012 Olympics, the stadium was designed for minimal wind, leading to speculation that might have been a factor in pitchers’ difficulty locating breaking balls. The temperature dropped to a more normal 73 degrees at first pitch — 20 below Saturday’s scorcher.
Shadows, glare, white seats and a swift turf left every lead as perilous as a 16th century trip to the Tower of London.
“The ball flies. The ground balls, too,” said New York’s Luis Cessa, who pitched shutout ball from the second through the fifth.
Before a sellout crowd of 59,059, the defending champion Red Sox began brightly in their alternate red jerseys. Xander Bogaerts, J.D. Martinez and Christian Vázquez became the first trio of Boston batters in four decades to hit home runs in the first inning, banging and mashing to a 4-0 lead against Stephen Tarpley, who was making his first big league start.
But Boston made a depressing Brexit in a game that took 4:24. The World Series champions dropped a season-high 11 games behind the AL East-leading Yankees (54-28), who won for the 13th time in 14 games overall and improved to 6-1 against the Red Sox this year.
“Right now, they are a lot better than us, and we need to get better,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “Last year, we were putting teams away. This year, we’re not doing that ... It’s not a lack of effort. I think it’s lack of execution.”
Boston’s bullpen blew a save for the 17th time, second only to the New York Mets’ 21.
“For me, this means a lot being back in Europe,” said Gregorius, who was born in Amsterdam.