Sale strong, ‘pen shaky as Red Sox beat Yankees in Game 1
BOSTON — Chris Sale struck out eight for his first postseason 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 Giancarlo Stanton and Luke Voit for the save.
Game 2 in the best-offive series is Saturday night, with Boston starting another pitcher trying to overcome a history of postseason struggles: lefthander David Price is 0-8 as a starter in the playoffs. He’ll face Yankees righty Masahiro Tanaka.
In the first playoff matchup between the longtime rivals since 2004, the 108win Red Sox took a 5-0 lead against Yankees starter J.A. Happ and then whiteknuckled 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.
It was the first ALDS matchup between the teams and the first in the postseason since the Red Sox staged an unprecedented rally from a 3-0 deficit in the 2004 AL Championship Series to advance and then won the World Series to end their 86-year dynasty of disappointment.