Friday, September 16, 2016

Boston Buries Bronx Bombers, 7-4)

Tonight, the Yankees made it harder on themselves and their playoff hopes as they fell to the Boston Red Sox for a second consecutive night. Luis Sessa took the ball and the loss for New York, falling to 4-2 on the year with his tough game two loss. Getting the start and the win for Boston was Clay Buchholz improving to 7-10 in a game where his varying speeds from fastball to changeup led to a quiet offensive night for the Bomber bats.

The Red Sox were first to hit the scoreboard, jumping on the rookie righty in the bottom of the first inning; an inning the likes of which I have never seen. Dustin Pedroia started the frame with a "Fenway single", but was thrown out at second base trying to advance it to a double. The next batter Xander Bogarts got hit by a Sessa curveball, taking second on a wild pitch. David Ortiz followed up with an RBI single to center, scoring Bogarts to make it 1-0 Boston, but also was thrown out at second base trying to stretch the single into a double. Mookie Betts then reached on an infield single, a line drive off the glove of third baseman Chase Headley, advancing to second on a stolen base that was originally called out, but was overturned after replay review. And that overturned call ended up hurting New York as the Sox's hero from last night Hanley Ramirez lined a single up the middle that scored Betts and extended their first inning advantage to two.

Hanley Ramirez added the third Red Sox run of the game when he belted his 26th longball of the year, a fourth inning line drive solo shot to dead center that made it 3-0.

The Yankees got two of those runs back in the top of the fifth, as they tried to put together a comeback on the AL East leaders. Mark Teixeira and Mason Williams started the frame with back-to-back singles to left. After Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner failed to drive in either baserunner, Gary Sanchez delivered with a long double that ricocheted off the Green Monster, plating both runners and pulling the Bombers back to within one.

But, the Red Sox would add onto their lead in the bottom of the sixth as they tried to put the game away. Ortiz led off the frame with a towering double to center off of lefty reliever James Pazos, passing Frank Robinson on the all-time extra-base hits list. Pazos was lifted for Jonathan Holder, who immediately allowed a Betts sharp single to right and then walked Ramirez to load the bases with still no one out. Travis Shaw then hit a sacrifice fly to centerfield that scored Ortiz and extended the Sox lead back to two. And then, Sandy Leon lofted a fly ball to left field that dropped in fair territory and bounced over the fence down the left-field line for a ground-rule double, scoring Betts to make it 5-2 Boston.

The Red Sox added two more runs in the bottom of the seventh as they really turned this game into a laugher in the late innings. Jackie Bradley Jr. put the sixth run of the game on the board when he launched a long homer to right field off of left-handed reliever Chasen Shreve, 6-2. Shreve was pulled for Kirby Yates, who immediately loaded the bases full of Red Sox by allowing hits to Pedroia, Bogarts and an intentional walk to Ortiz. Betts then grounded into a double play, scoring Pedroia from third and widening their lead to five at 7-2.

Billy Butler recorded his first homerun as a Yankee in the top of the ninth, a deep two run shot over the Monster off of left-hander Fernando Abad to make it a 7-4 ballgame.

New York came into the series with high hopes of making a strong playoff push, but after three consecutive losses, I think it's safe to say, they blew it. This easily has been one of the toughest stretches that Yankee fans have had to endure in quite some time.

It doesn't get any easier tomorrow as the Yankees take on David Price and the Red Sox in game three, with first pitch scheduled for 1:05 PM/EST and can be seen on FS1 or MLB.TV.







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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)