It took 86 years for the Red Sox to reverse a curse that began and ended with the Yankees. It was only fitting that, 86 games into the 20th anniversary season, Boston arrived in the Bronx for the first time this year and completed a stunning 5-3 comeback victory.
What went down at Yankee Stadium on Friday night can only be described as a ‘Rivalry Classic.’ It had a pitchers’ duel (albeit briefly), a rain delay, a comedy of errors, extra innings, and last-second home-run heroics by Masataka Yoshida and Ceddanne Rafaela that would make David Ortiz proud.
The rain delay only lasted 38 minutes, but it drastically altered the course of the contest. Before the downpour, Nestor Cortes and Tanner Houck were dueling. The Yankees southpaw had allowed one hit, a two-out double to Romy Gonzalez, and struck out four over the first three innings, including two 1-2-3 frames. Houck retired six of six through two, and though he wasn’t getting swings & misses, only needed seven pitches to dispatch the Yankees in order in the second.
In the bottom of the third, the tarp took the field instead of the Red Sox; for the second time in four meetings this season, the rivalry was in a rain delay. For the Red Sox, who’d needed five bullpen arms to dispatch the Marlins in a 12-inning stalemate on Thursday, then placed Chris Martin – not one of the aforementioned five – on the injured list with right-elbow inflammation on Friday afternoon, it was suboptimal, to say the least. Not only could a lengthy delay prevent Houck from returning, but the resulting need to fill the remaining seven innings could exhaust the bullpen for the remainder of the series.
When the weather passed and it was determined that both starting pitchers would return, it became a question of who would rebound from the pause. Almost immediately, the answer was Cortes, who ended up going six innings and holding the Red Sox to three hits, one earned run (a homer by Gonzalez), one walk, and eight strikeouts.
Houck’s brief flirtation with a no-hitter washed away with the rain delay. He exited after 3 ⅓ innings, charged with three runs – one earned – on two hits, a season-high four walks, and just one strikeout.
“Too many walks,” he told reporters. “Great team win, though. Excited to watch the boys do that, come together and find a way to win.”
Houck was day-and-night before and after the tarp. All four walks came in a nine-batter span after the delay; entering Friday, he’d only issued as many as three walks in two of his 17 starts this year. In the fourth, he loaded the bases on back-to-back free passes to Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, then gave up a one-out single to Gleyber Torres to load the bases. (Torres left the game with an injury and was replaced by Oswaldo Cabrera.)
The true back-breaker, however, was a painfully familiar one for the Red Sox. With no outs and nowhere to put catcher Austin Wells, Houck induced a tailor-made double play. Instead, Enmanuel Valdez threw wide to Rafaela at second, where he dove unsuccessfully trying to make the grab. The throwing error put the Yankees up 1-0 and reloaded the bases.
Houck’s third free pass of the inning walked in another run, and brought his manager out to the mound to make a pitching change. That’s how Bailey Horn, six days removed from his Major League debut, found himself in the thick of baseball’s biggest rivalry. The rookie southpaw, 26, allowed another unearned run to score in the name of Out No. 2, but stranded a pair of runners to escape further damage.
“Credit to Horn,” Cora lauded.
Horn ended up pitching 2 ⅔ innings, and though he gave up two hits, he struck out three, didn’t issue a walk, and wasn’t charged with a run, earned or otherwise. In fact, the Yankees never scored again. Nor against Cam Booser, recalled from Triple-A on Friday to take Chris Martin’s (right-elbow inflammation) place on the active roster.
The Red Sox fared no better against Luke Weaver, who took over for Cortes in the seventh. Through seven innings, Boston was 0-for-1 RISP with three left, nine strikeouts, and four 1-2-3 innings. With some inadvertent help from their hosts, they finally threatened in the eighth. Valdez led off with a single and Rafaela reached on a fielder’s choice, but Oswaldo Cabrera, who’d taken over for Torres, made a missed-catch error, and both men were safe. Manager Alex Cora sent David Hamilton, who’d stolen four of Boston’s franchise-record nine bases against the Yankees on Father’s Day, to pinch-run for Valdez. After striking out Jarren Duran, Weaver attempted to pick Hamilton off second; instead, his frantic throw yielded the Yankees’ second error of the inning and advanced the runners to second and third.
That was as far as they’d get. Undaunted by his miscue, Weaver struck out pinch-hitter Wilyer Abreu and got O’Neill to ground out on the first pitch. Boston had wasted its best chance by far.
Wait, no they hadn’t. Because with two outs in the ninth, Cora sent Dom Smith to pinch-hit for Gonzalez against Clay Holmes, and – with shades of Kevin Millar drawing that infamous walk in Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS – Smith singled to keep the game alive.
Enter, Yoshida. The Red Sox designated hitter hadn’t hit one out of any ballpark since April 20. He watched a strike go by, fouled off the second pitch, then worked a full count.
The sixth pitch he saw was a 96.6 mph sinker. And then, it was a 405-foot game-tying home run.
“He unleashed on it,” Houck said.
Justin Slaten got the Yankees 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth, and for the second game in a row, the Red Sox were going to extra innings.
Facing Tommy Kahnle in the 10th, the Boston bats picked up where Yoshida left off. Hamilton began the inning as the ghost runner on second, but the Red Sox wouldn’t even need his speed; Kahnle served up a four-seamer, and Rafaela feasted. The rookie sent the second pitch he saw soaring 412 feet to center for a two-run homer and Boston’s first lead of the game.
Duran followed with his 24th double of the season, extending his hitting streak to seven games at the last minute. Despite Devers being 0-for-4 with a trio of swinging strikeouts, Kahnle wasn’t leaving anything to chance, and intentionally walked him.
The Red Sox got no more, but it was enough for Kenley Jansen. The veteran closer had been warming up on and off throughout the later innings, and the bottom of the 10th belonged to him. It was momentarily dicey, as Soto led off with a single to put a runner and ghost-runner on the corners, but Jansen has been in rare form since late April, and would not be deterred. He got Judge and Verdugo to pop out on the first pitch of their respective at-bats, and Cabrera ground out to complete one of the best rivalry games of the last two decades.
“One thing about them, you gotta give ’em credit, they don’t stop playing,” Cora told reporters.
They haven’t stopped winning, either. Since May 19, the Red Sox are 26-15, MLB’s best record.