The New York Yankees won their third straight game over the Boston Red Sox last night as Yankee starter J.A. Happ had his best outing of the season so far, going 5 2/3 innings allowing only one Red Sox run. On a night that the Yankees were playing without their three major stars, Giancarlo Stanton (hamstring), Aaron Judge (calf), and DJ LeMahieu (thumb) they still found a way to win. First baseman Mike Ford Jacked a two-run homer into the first row of the second deck in the right field, at Yankee Stadium. Those two runs turned out to be the difference in the game.
The sloppy Red Sox got their best defense in this game that they have shown so far at Yankee Stadium. They had several sharp defensive plays in the game. The Red Sox searching for pitching, tagged a 30-year-old Chris Mazza, a reliever for the Sox, for his first-ever game start. They choose him after a 2 2/3 scoreless innings off the Yankees in an August 1 meeting. Unfortunately, he took the loss going only three innings, giving up all four Yankee runs.
The Red Sox bullpen of Ryan Weber, Ryan Brasier, Marcus Walden prevented the Yankees from blowing the game open, by pitching five innings of two-hit, scoreless ball.
For the New York Yankees part, they continued their combination of small ball and the home run to get the win. Every Yankee in the lineup got a hit except for Brett Gardner and Tyler Wade. It was a very unusual lineup put out by manager Aaron Boone as he tried to solve a game missing three key players. For Boone, it turned out just fine with Aaron Hicks leading off and getting an RBI. Mike Ford, fifth in the lineup was the star of the game. He went 2-4 and drove in three runs. His two-run homer came in the bottom of the third inning, that chased Mazza from the mound.
That was the end of the Yankees scoring. The Red Sox did not score again until the top of the ninth inning when closer Zack Britton with two outs, got a ball knocked out of this glove, trying to tag Peraza, running for first, allowing Vazquez to score from third for the Yankee 4-2 lead. Britton then struck out Kevin Plawecki for the Yankee save.
J.A.Happ got the win, Chris Mazza the loss, and Zack Britton the save, his eighth straight save in Aroldis Chapmans’ absence. Monday night the Yankees will host the last game of the Red Sox series when Jordan Montgomery will take the mound for the Yankees, facing lefty Martin Perez of the Sox. The Yankees will be looking to sweep the Red Sox for their second time this season. The Yankees as of last night have beat the Red Sox in 14 straight games at the Stadium in the Bronx.