Tonight the New York Yankees entered one of their most critical series of the season in an effort to hold on to a wild-card berth in the postseason. The New York Yankees opened a three-game series with their traditional age-long rivals Boston Red Sox, at Fenway Park in Boston. The Yankees put ace Gerrit Cole on the mound to face one of the Red Sox’s most successful pitchers Nathan Eovaldi in that effort. The effort came up big as the Yankees beat the Red Sox 8-3.
DJ LeMahieu started out the game against Eovaldi and singled to right field. Anthony Rizzo followed with a back-to-back single to right. Aaron Judge with two on and no outs bounced one off the center-field wall for a double scoring DJ LeMahieu. Giancarlo Stanton followed by getting an RBI ground out scoring Rizzo. Joey Gallo with Judge on third flew out to left with Judge remaining at third. Gleyber Torres singled scoring Judge from third. Gio Urshela line drove to second to end the half. New York Yankees 3 Red Sox.
At the bottom against Gerrit Cole, Kiki Hernandez walked to lead off the Sox half. Kyle Schwarber reached on a force out. Xander Bogaerts hit into a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning scoreless for the Red Sox. Yankees 3 Red Sox 0.
The second inning was led off by Brett Gardner who lined out to far-right. Kyle Higashioka lined out to short. LeMahieu ground out to short for a 1-2-3 bounce back inning for Eovaldi. At the bottom, Rafael Devers ground out to the shift for out number one. JD Martinez walked. Alex Verdugo struck out on a 100 mph fastball. Hunter Renfroe went down on strikes to keep the Red Sox scoreless.
Anthony Rizzo led off the third inning by doubling off the green monster. Aaron Judge walked. Stanton with two on and no outs hit a three-run home run into the Red Sox bullpen to tack on three Yankee runs. Gallo singled to right. Torres flew out to left for the first out. Urshela ground out. Gardner walked knocking Eovaldi out of the game. Higashioka faced the new Sox pitcher Hirokazu Sawamura with two on and two outs and popped out to the infield, three Sox converged but no one caught the ball, Gallo scored. Red Sox fans were stunned. LeMahieu walked loading the bases for Rizzo who struck out swinging but the Yankees tacked on another run. New York Yankees 7 Red Sox 0.
At the bottom of the inning with Cole having a 7 run lead, Christian Vazquez lined out to Torres at second. Jose Iglesias flew out to Judge in right. Hernandez walked. Schwarber went down on strikes for another scoreless inning for the Red Sox. Yankees 7 Sox 0.
The fourth inning was led off by Aaron Judge who flew out to left. Stanton got a long single off the green monster. Gallo flew out, and Torres lined out. The Red Sox were scoreless in the bottom. The fifth inning was scoreless for both teams. Yankees 7 Red Sox 0.
The Yankees were scoreless in the top of the sixth inning. Then, in the bottom with two on base, Rafael Devers hit a three-run homer off of Cole, making it New York 7 and Boston 3.
In the top of the seventh, Gleyber Torres hit a home run off the top of the left-center wall. Urshela singled. Brett Gardner singled. Higahioka flew out to center field. LeMahieu flew out to the center-field wall. Rizzo lined out to second base, but the Yankees tacked on another run. At the bottom, Clay Holmes took over for Gerrit Cole, facing Renfroe, who grounded out to third base. Vazquez lined out to Rizzo at first. Iglesias beat out an infield pop-up. Hernandez singled. Bobby Dalbec pinch-hitting for Schwarber faced new Yankee pitcher Wandy Peralta and stuck out. New York Yankees 8 Boston Red Sox 3.
The eighth inning was led off by Aaron Judge, who went down looking. Stanton flew out to the Pesky pole. Gallo flew out to the left-center wall as the Yankees went down 1-2-3. At the bottom of the eighth, Bogaerts ground out to Torres at second. Devers ground out to Urshela at short. Martinez walked. Verdugo gound out to Torres to end the inning. New York Yankees 8 Boston Red Sox 3.
Gleyber Torres, who homered in the seventh, led off the top of the ninth by singling to left as he went 3 or 5 in the game. Torres was caught out stealing second. Urshela struck out swinging. Gardner went down looking. With the last licks on the line for the Red Sox, Renfroe came to bat against Chad Green and struck out swinging in the bottom of the night. Vazquez walked. Travis Shaw pinch hit for Iglesias and stuck out. Hernandez flew out to Judge to win game one for the Yankees.
The final score was the New York Yankees 8 and the Boston Red Sox 3. The winning pitcher was Gerrit Cole, and the loser was Nathan Eovaldi.