By Zachary McMahon-
The Boston Red Sox hosted the New York Yankees on Sunday night baseball at Fenway Park in Boston, MA. This was a rubber match since the Yankees took game 2 11-9 on Saturday night.
Danny Jansen was the designated hitter for the Red Sox in his debut after being acquired in a trade with the Blue Jays on Friday, while Connor Wong was at catcher. Wilyer Abreu did not play in this game, as Rob Refsnyder was in left field and Tyler O’Neill was at right. Jaime Westbrook started at second base while Romy Gonzalez started at first.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. made his debut for the Yankees out in center field after being acquired in a trade with the Miami Marlins. Chisholm was 2-for-12 when facing the Red Sox earlier in the month with a run scored, an RBI, and two walks as the Marlins were swept away by the Sox.
Tanner Houck tossed six innings allowed five hits, four runs (three earned), four walks and two strikeouts. Houck tied his career high in walks for the seventh time with the most recent on July 5 against the Yankees, and he pitched his 15th quality start of the season, which is tied for third most with Cole Ragans of the Kansas City Royals.
Carlos Rodon on the other hand had pitched 6 ⅓ innings, allowing five hits, two home runs, one walk, and seven strikeouts. Rodon got 25 swings and misses in his appearance, which is third most in a game in his career, behind 26 on July 3, 2017 against the Oakland Athletics as a member of the Chicago White Sox and 27 on July 9, 2022 against the San Diego Padres as a member of the San Francisco Giants.
The Yankees got on the board right away as they scored three runs in the first off RBI singles by Aaron Judge and Gleyber Torres, then Cohasset native Ben Rice would hit a sacrifice fly in the top of the fourth for a 4-0 Yankees lead.
In the fourth, both Refsnyder and Wong hit back-to-back homers as the Sox got what would be their only runs in this game. This is the sixth time that the Sox have hit back-to-back homers, after giving up back-to-back homers in two straight games. That was Wong’s 10th homer of the season, which is his new career high, as he had nine last season, Refsnyder has gotten a hit in his last five games, and a RBI in the last four.
The Yankees pounded on for four more runs, which included Chishom’s first run as a Yankee on a sacrifice fly by DJ LeMathieu in the ninth, after colliding with Gonzalez over at second base, after he replaced Jaime Westbrook, after he was pinch hit by Dominic Smith in the seventh. Chisholm appeared to injure his jaw on the collision, but stayed in the game and went home on the sac fly. Chisholm got his first hit as a member of the Yankees as an infield single, after the first four at-bats resulting in outs including a strikeout in the first by Houck.
The Yankees beat the Red Sox 8-2, as the Sox lose their second game in a row, and their second rubber match in a row, and their first home loss in a rubber match. They have allowed 71 runs in their last eight games, and there are 16 seasons in which they allowed 70+ runs in an eight game span, and none of them are when the Sox made the playoffs, according to Boston Globe’s Alex Speier.
Rafael Devers had his fifth triple of the season in the fourth for his 450th extra-base hit which ties for third most extra-base hits by a Dominican-born player before the age of 28 with Cesar Cedeno, next on the list is former Sox hall of famer Adrian Beltre who had 465 in his first few seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Seattle Mariners. He’s also the first Red Sox player to have 450 extra base hits before age 28. The most recent player to have 450 extra base hits before age 28 was Bryce Harper who got his 450th extra-base hit on Sep. 21, 2019 as a three-run homer for the Philadelphia Phillies against Cleveland when he was 26 years old.
Jansen is the first Sox player to reach in each of their first three plate appearances since Eduardo Nunez did it in 2017 after he was acquired in a trade with the Giants, Jansen had two singles, a walk, and grounded into a fielder’s choice in the ninth.
Jarren Duran went 0-for-5 including two strikeouts, as his 10-game hitting streak snaps, while Gonzalez went 0-for 3 with a walk, while his career long six straight games with a hit ends, he still has a seven game on-base streak going for him. Now Devers, Refsnyder, and Masataka Yoshida all have the longest hitting streak on the team with five.
Former Sox outfielder Alex Verdugo hit two doubles in the game, for his fifth game with multiple extra base hits as a Yankee, with his last time being on Independence Day against the Cincinnati Reds. He also recorded multiple hits for the third straight game, which ties a season-high streak of this magnitude, and has scored five runs in his last two games.
Austin Wells has multiple hits in three out of his last six games, as he had a double and a single in the game, and hit a sacrifice fly in the seventh that brought Dugie home. He extended his on-base streak to seven games, and has an RBI in his last four games, and five out of the last six.
Oswaldo Cabrera hit a two-run double in the eighth, which extends his on-base streak to five games, and he has reached safely in each of his last 10 starts.
The Yankees scored 36 runs in the series, which is the most since Aug. 2006 when they had a series that they scored 39 runs in a three-game span, which is the most all-time against the Sox. They scored seven or more runs for the third consecutive game for the second time this season, as they also did that on April 6-8, against Jansen and the Blue Jays and Chisholm and the Marlins. They also snapped a five-game losing streak in rubber games, while the Sox snapped season-long streaks of recording 10+ hits (five games) and six or more runs (7 games) and lost their third straight series after winning the first four in July.
The Sox will stay at Fenway as they will face off against former AL East foe Randy Arozarena on his new team, the Mariners on Monday. It will be Nick Pivetta going up against Logan Gilbert at 7:10 pm. Tiff Williams will be bringing you coverage from Fenway Park.
Meanwhile, the Yankees will continue on their six-game road trip as they go to Philly to face the Philadelphia Phillies for a three-game series on Monday. It will be Lucas Gill going up against Zach Wheeler at 6:40 pm first pitch.
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