The New York Yankees pummeled the Boston Red Sox on Saturday evening 11-5, on the back of starting pitcher James Paxton. Paxton lasted 5.0 innings, giving up six hits and three earned runs. It wasn’t his best outing, but he touched 95 mph on his fastball, which is a very nice increase considering he was averaging lower than 93 mph in his previous starts.
However, the offense undoubtedly came to play, thrashing Nate Eovaldi, the Red Sox top pitcher at the moment. The Bombers recorded nine hits and eight runs against Eovaldi, with Gio Urshela recording a two-run homer, Gary Sanchez with a two-run home run, and Clint Frazier with a three-run homer to blow the game open in the sixth inning.
Here’s good news and bad news for the New York Yankees following the victory over Boston:
GOOD NEWS:
The good news was purely offensive, with two Yankee batters earning two hits or more on the night.
Frazier was 3-for-3 and Gleyber Torres 2-for-4, combining for five RBIs. However, Frazier has been the stand-out player the past few games, currently hosting a .636 batting average with a 1.455 slugging percentage. While his sample size is extremely small and those numbers will undoubtedly decrease as time goes on, he has lit the batting order ablaze in the absence of Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge, and now DJ LeMahieu.
As for the pitching, Paxton touched 95 mph on his fastball, which is a sign of progression.
More positive news, closer Aroldis Chapman pitched another successful simulation game and should be ready to return to the team next week. This will allow manager Aaron Boone to utilize Zack Britton in a more strategic role.
BAD NEWS:
The bad news is quite problematic. Infielder DJ LeMahieu left the game in the fifth inning with a strained left thumb and was headed to receive an MRI to determine the extent of the issue. In what seemed to be an overextension of his swing immediately turned into pain (for the fan-base too). While Boone checked in on DJ, he stayed in the game and grounded out to shortstop. He was replaced shortly after by Tyler Wade.
With Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton already missing time, losing LeMahieu will be significant. Luckily, the Yankees have two remaining games against Boston, which should give their star players more time to heal.