Eovaldi crushed by Yanks
Sox look yellow vs. top rival
In 10 days, the Red Sox could very well play the Yankees at home in the American League wild-card game. And if it is, there’s a good chance Nathan Eovaldi would square off against Gerrit Cole with a trip to the division series on the line.
If that ends up being the case, the Red Sox will be glad Friday night wasn’t the real thing.
Of course, they have to get there first. After winning seven consecutive games, the Red Sox were offered a hard dose of reality and a reminder that nothing is locked up yet, as they started their most important series of the season with a clunker. The Yankees ambushed Eovaldi early, sending him to his shortest start of the season after he gave up seven earned runs, and the Red Sox put their lucky yellow jerseys back in the closet after a dispiriting, 8-3, loss.
“The good ones, they have bad ones,” Alex Cora said of Eovaldi.
The Red Sox stayed atop the wild card standings as they remained three games up on the Blue Jays, who lost to the Twins, but the gap shrunk to one game over the Yankees with two more against them this weekend in a series that could shape not only who makes the wild-card game on Oct. 5, but who hosts it.
“We’re not there yet,” Cora said. “We know where we’re at right now. We’ve got to show up (Saturday) and put a good game. We cannot get ahead of ourselves talking about playoffs. Right now, we are in a fight with a lot of teams around us and (Saturday) we have to come out here and play a good game.”
Eovaldi had dominated the Yankees in his first five starts this season but had his worst start of the year at one of the most inopportune times. Right away, the righthander didn’t have it. He gave up three consecutive hits to start the game — quickly taking the life out of a buzzing, sellout Fenway Park crowd — as he evoked a rare mound visit from pitching coach Dave Bush before he even recorded an out.
After not allowing more than two runs in any of his prior five starts, Eovaldi put the Red Sox in a 3-0 hole. He simply couldn’t finish off Yankees hitters despite consistently pitching into favorable counts. Four of the seven hits he allowed came with two strikes, including a three-run homer from Giancarlo Stanton in the third that gave the Yankees a commanding 6-0 lead and sent the Red Sox’ bullpen into motion far earlier than they likely expected.
Eovaldi’s command was the root of his problems. He felt he didn’t have a feel for his splitter, which he said kept slipping out. He wasn’t able to locate the pitch down in the zone, and ultimately abandoned it.
“I felt like I just didn’t do my job tonight going out and attacking batters the way I should have and the way I’m capable of doing,” Eovaldi said. “It’s one of those things, too, when I don’t have a certain pitch working, I can’t shy away from it. I have to keep forcing it and figuring it out.”
It all came to an embarrassing head in that third inning. Eovaldi allowed a single to Joey Gallo and then a two-out walk to Brett Gardner before Alex Cora had finally seen enough, sending his All-Star to the showers.
Hirokazu Sawamura came on in relief and struggled to find the strike zone, but he induced Kyle Higashioka into what should have been an inning-ending out when the catcher lifted a pop fly to the right of the pitcher’s mound. But Kyle Schwarber, making his sixth start at first base with the Red Sox, let it drop behind him as the Yankees scored another run to make it 7-0.
The Red Sox, meanwhile, couldn’t do much against Cole. They didn’t record a hit against the Yankees’ ace until J.D. Martinez’s two-out ground-rule double in the fourth. Rafael Devers breathed life into Fenway when he continued to torch Cole with a three-run homer to the right-field seats, but it was short-lived.
Cole walked three but struck out six over six innings in the victory. The Red Sox tried to rally again when he left in the seventh, putting two on with two out as the Yankees went to lefthander Wandy Peralta. Cora countered with an aggressive move to pinch-hit Bobby Dalbec for Schwarber, but it didn’t work as the rookie struck out to end the threat.
The Red Sox couldn’t manage a comeback over the final innings after Eovaldi’s uncharacteristic effort.
“It’s frustrating,” Eovaldi said. “We knew how important this game is tonight. We know where we stand in the hunt for the wild card and everything and the playoffs. I have to be able to set the tone, especially the first game of the series, and I didn’t do that tonight. That’s extremely frustrating for me. It’s just frustrating.”