HR stuns Bosox & avoids elimination
EVERYONE WAS celebrating at Yankee Stadium Wednesday night.
Mark Teixeira’s walk-off grand slam with two out in the ninth lifted the Yankees to an improbable 5-3 win over the rival Red Sox, leaving the Bombers’ postseason hopes alive, no matter how miniscule they might be.
“You have to win or you’re eliminated,” Joe Girardi said after the Yankees (82-76) locked up their 24th consecutive winning season. “It’s a great moment for him and it’s a great moment for us.”
The Red Sox? They were robbed of the chance to celebrate on the field, yet they had already clinched the American League East title by the time Teixeira’s slam landed in the Yankees’ bullpen thanks to the Orioles’ ninth-inning comeback win over the Blue Jays in Toronto.
Boston may not have celebrated on the field, but the Sox still managed to pop plenty of champagne in the clubhouse.
“I don’t think any time teams want to see players celebrate on your home field, no matter what the situation is,” Girardi said. “It’s difficult, because it means in a sense that you didn’t win your division or you didn’t win your playoff round. No matter who it is, it’s hard to watch, so it’s nice.”
The Yankees might have been spared the visual of watching their rivals get raucous on the Stadium grass – the last time the Red Sox celebrated something at Yankee Stadium was their historic Game 7 win over the Bombers in the 2004 ALCS – but the fact remains that Boston is headed to the postseason while the Yankees’ tragic number stands at one.
“It’s a little weird celebrating after a loss but we can’t let one inning spoil what we did,” Mookie Betts said. “We earned it.”
With four games remaining in the season, any Yankees loss or Orioles win will officially end the Yankees’ postseason chances, which were effectively squelched during last week’s calamitous road trip. The two teams meet in a three-game set this weekend, though the Tigers, Mariners and Astros remain ahead of the Yankees, as well.
“They keep fighting,” Girardi said of his players. “They keep dong it. They have not stopped; even through some tough times, they have not stopped. I give them all the credit.”
Teixeira hit a game-tying shot in Toronto on Monday, sparking a five-run ninth inning in a win over the Blue Jays. Wednesday, the Yankees faced a 3-0 deficit heading into the ninth when Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel gave up a single and three walks, trimming the lead to two.
Joe Kelly relieved Kimbrel and got two quick outs, but Teixeira blasted an 0-1 pitch into the right-field bullpen, raising his arms in victory after hitting the first regular-season walk-off homer of his career.
“That’s as good as it gets right there,” Teixeira said. “I guess if you hit one to win the World Series it might be just as much fun, but for the kind of season we’ve had, we’ve been fighting all year, and to come back from three runs down against one of the best closers in baseball, it shows a lot about our team.”
For Boston, it’s only their second division title in the past nine seasons, and while the Yankees have three division crowns during that same period, both Red Sox titles have come since 2013, when the Yankees began their current four-year divisional drought.
“I’m proud of what the team did,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said. “It’s unfortunate how the game ended, but we won the division. That was the goal.”
Bryan Mitchell and Clay Buchholz battled in a classic pitchers’ duel, carrying a scoreless game into the seventh on a windy, chilly night at the Stadium.
Boston finally broke through for three runs against Adam Warren in the eighth following Starlin Castro’s leadoff error, two of them coming on Betts’ double that snapped the scoreless tie.
The Yankees had only one hit through eight innings, leaving them down to their final three outs.
Brett Gardner’s single – he had the Yankees’ only two hits aside from Teixeira’s slam – started the ninth, then Kimbrel walked the next three batters. Kelly came in and retired Castro and Didi Gregorius, but Teixeira smoked a 99-mph fastball into the right-field bullpen, hitting what could be the final home run of his career.
“You don’t want a wall-scraper in an 8-0 game to be your last one; you want a walkoff grand slam against the Red Sox,” Teixeira said. “I’ll still be trying to hit the next four games, but if it just happens to be my last one, that’ll be pretty special.”