The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
An air of frustration
LeMahieu hits two HRs to lead Yankees past Red Sox
NEW YORK — Chris Sale threw an 02 fastball at the letters past Gio Urshela in the fourth inning and didn’t get the call. He raised both arms as if to say, “What’s wrong?” and muttered at plate umpire Mike Estabrook. Sale’s outing spun out of control from there, just like Boston’s season.
Sale nearly hit Urshela with the next pitch and wound up giving up hits to six of his next seven batters, including DJ LeMahieu second home run of the game.
Sale and manager Alex Cora were ejected during the sevenrun inning as the Yankees routed the Red Sox 92 in Saturday’s doubleheader opener, extending Boston’s longest losing streak since 2015 to six games.
“I felt like he kind of changed the landscape of the game. There’s got to be something that can be done about this,” Sale said. “It’s a little tough when at this level you give those guys in those situations extra strikes and extra outs. Yeah, I’ve got to do a little bit better job of locking it in and getting my job done, not worrying about what’s going on back there with him, but nonetheless it’s tough.”
Sale (511) tied his career high by allowing eight earned runs in 3 2⁄3 innings and fell to 04 with a 9.90 ERA against the Yankees this season. He was 2912 with a 2.56 ERA for the Red Sox when he signed a $160 million, sixyear contract in March but has a 4.68 ERA since.
Boston fell 12 1⁄2 games behind the AL Eastleading Yankees and 4 1⁄2 games back of secondplace Tampa Bay. The Red Sox have 53 defeats, one shy of their total en route to a World Series title last year, and dropped to 49 against New York this season.
“It seems like it has flipflopped from last year, where they are at right now, where we are
right now,” Cora said.
Boston held a playersonly meeting between games.
“Everybody’s frustrated,” reigning AL MVP Mookie Betts said. “Not every year is going to be like last year. We have to just figure out a way.”
LeMahieu homered on Sale’s fifth pitch and hit a threerun drive for his careerbest 17th and a 71 advantage.
The Yankees sustained yet another injury when Edwin Encarnacion broke his right wrist when hit by a pitch from Josh Smith in the eighth.
New York took a 21 lead on four singles, the last by No. 8 hitter Breyvic Valera . Cora, not pitching coach Dana LeVangie, went to the mound with the intent of getting tossed by Estabrook.
“It was only one purpose. I wasn’t talking about mechanics or anything,” Cora said. “Just let me know when he’s coming, and I’m going to let him know how I feel.”
What did Cora say? “You see all this traffic here? One pitch changed the whole inning,” the manager recalled as the PGrated version.
Cora pointed nearly two dozen times at various Yankees runners and the plate as he returned to the dugout.
“They’re human. They miss calls,” Cora said. “And sometimes we bark at them and then we look at video. It’s like, oh, he was right.”
Lefthandedhitting Brett Gardner fell behind 02 against the Sale, worked the count even and hit a tworun single up the middle against the 30yearold lefthander. The Yankees nearly got another run on center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr.’s overthrow because the agitated Sale forgot to back up the plate. Four pitches later, LeMahieu lined a changeup in the first row of the rightfield seats.
“I think I like that rightfield wall, for sure,” LeMahieu said.
Aaron Judge followed with a double, and when bench coach Ron Roenicke went to the mound to change pitchers, Sale shouted at Estabrook from a distance and also was ejected.
Among his grievances, Sale cited a 22 fastball to Judge (“it was almost down the middle”), a called third strike against J.D. Martinez that ended the top of the first (“just God awful”), a 31 pitch from German to Xander Bogaerts in the fourth (“not even close”) and a called third strike in the fifth that caused Betts to squawk (”and Mookie doesn’t say anything to anybody).”
“Nothing’s going to happen to him, I’m sure,” Sale said in a subdued voice, his hands in the pockets of his red shorts. “He’ll be out there today at third base and probably behind the plate again. I’m sure I’ll get fined. I’m sure A.C. will get fined, all for things that I think we can be justified by.”
German (142) allowed five hits in seven innings , including homers to Andrew Benintendi in the second and Jackie Bradley Jr. in the fifth. He improved to 80 against the AL East this year and became the first Yankees pitcher to last seven innings since CC Sabathia on July 6.
German has thrown 108 innings, 15 shy of his career high, raising the possibility of a limit.
“We’ll obviously start to have those conversations,” New York manager Aaron Boone said.
ENCARNACION BREAKS WRIST
Edwin Encarnacion joined the Yankees’ lengthy injured list, breaking his right wrist when hit by a pitch from Boston reliever Josh Smith in the eighth inning.
Encarnacion, the Yankees designated hitter, stayed in the game and the team said initial Xrays were negative. He then went for a CT scan, which revealed the fracture.
Encarnacion will remain in New York during the team’s upcoming trip and be reevaluated. There was no word on how long he might be sidelined, or whether he would play again this season.
The Yankees recalled first baseman Mike Ford from TripleA Scranton/ WilkesBarre.
Acquired from Seattle on June 15 for minor league righthander Juan Then, the 36yearold Encarnacion has 30 home runs this season while hitting .240 with 76 RBIs. He is batting .238 with nine homers and 27 RBIs in 36 games for the Yankees.
He became the 15th Yankees player currently on the disabled list, joining catcher Gary Sanchez (left groin strain), outfielder Giancarlo Stanton (sprained right knee), first baseman Luke Voit (sports hernia), righthanders Luis Severino and Dellin Betances (lat muscles) and lefthander CC Sabathia (right knee inflammation).
BEEN A LONG TIME
Boston is on its longest skid since losing seven in a row from July 1223, 2015.
YES MAN
Bob Costas made his YES Network debut, filling in as Michael Kay recovers from vocal cord surgery and regular replacement Ryan Ruocco attended a family commitment.