Rookies rule the night
Sox rally to take series
NEW YORK — If this weekend was a preview of the division race to come, the New York Yankees are ready for a dogfight, but the clear advantage belongs to the Red Sox.
After a wild Yankees comeback Friday and a Sox slugfest Saturday, last night’s Bronx series finale was a tense, back-and-forth affair that seemed to be decided in the eighth inning only to keep going until the Red Sox could win it in the 10th.
Red-hot Andrew Benintendi delivered a game-winning single for a 3-2 Sox win, their 10th in the past 11 games, pushing their lead in the American League East to 51⁄2 games, their largest lead of the season.
“It is big,” manager John Farrell said. “We’ve had our troubles against New York so far this year. Through the first 10 (head-to-head games), we were only 3-7. To win a couple here after dropping a tough game Friday night says a lot about our guys, says a lot about our resolve . ... We talked about it before we went out on the road, this was going to be a challenging trip. We’ve handled it pretty good.”
The Sox won 4-of-5 against the Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays, the two teams chasing them in the division, but New York was not a pushover, and the teams still have six more head-to-head games to play. Of their first 12 games against one another, nine have been decided by three runs or less, including four by one run.
“We know where we’re at, we know what we need to do, we know the task at hand,” Sox ace Chris Sale said.
The Yankees had an opportunity last night. They’d taken a one-run lead on a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning, and they had closer Aroldis Chapman for the save in the ninth.
That’s when 20-year-old rookie Rafael Devers hit a game-tying home run into the Red Sox bullpen. It was only the second homer Chapman ever allowed to a left-handed hitter (the other was in 2011). It came on a 103-mph fastball, the fastest pitch hit for a home run since at least 2008 according to Statcast.
“For me, it’s different because there’s a lot more people in the stands at these games,” Devers
‘We know where we’re at, we know what we need to do, we know the task at hand.’ — CHRIS SALE, on the remaining seven meetings with the Yankees
said. “That made me a bit nervous in the first couple of games in the series just knowing how many people there are in the seats. But after I got to settle in, I felt pretty good.”
Chapman stayed in to hit a batter and walk a batter in the 10th, and it was new Yankees reliever Tommy Kahnle who ultimately allowed Benintendi’s game-tying single. Benintendi has 16 hits and 12 RBI in his past nine games. This was the second time this series that the Red Sox scored against Chapman.
Their own closer, though, did his job to perfection. Craig Kimbrel got the Sox out of a jam in the ninth before he finished with a 1-2-3 10th.
“We got outs when we needed,” Farrell said. “A big win, finish out a road series win — a good night.”
The Sox and Yankees had opportunities to lean on their greatest strengths for this game, but only the former got what it expected.
Sale started for the Red Sox and came into the game leading the league in innings, strikeouts, ERA and WHIP. He did not disappoint with one run — which came only because Mookie Betts failed to make a catch against the wall — and 12 strikeouts through seven typically terrific innings.
It was Sale’s 16th double-digit strikeout game of the year. He’s had double-digit strikeouts twice as often as he’s had single-digit strikeouts.
But because the game was tied into the late innings, the Yankees were able to leverage their ridiculously deep bullpen, calling on former Chicago White Sox closer Dave Robertson as early as the sixth.
The Red Sox beat that set of relievers, and they did it because a pair of rookies — Devers and Benintendi — delivered the late-inning blows while Yankees rookie standout Aaron Judge continued his second-half slide (three strikeouts).
Benintendi had nine RBI this series, and Devers had four hits, none bigger than the home run that gave the Red Sox fresh life on their way to an even bigger division lead.
“I literally jumped up when he hit it,” Sale said. “I was in the trainer’s room doing some work and I mean, you can’t help but smile. Talk about a moment in a game, for a guy like him, a young guy, a rookie, it’s huge and that’s why you love him, that’s why he’s here and those are the things we’ve almost come to expect out of him.”