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CONSISTENT AT BEING INCONSISTENT
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The Sox clobber the Yankees, 19-3
July 25,
2019 ...
Well, this was certainly one way to start the first series in which
the Red Sox host the Yankees this year at Fenway Park. The Sox were
in a crucial stretch of this season and they need every win they can
get. Today they wasted zero time in jumping out to a big lead. The
Sox scored seven runs off Masahiro Tanaka in the first and didn’t let
up after that. This was a simple and massive blowout win. It all
counts as one victory, but it felt like a big sigh of relief against
a Yankees team that has dominated them this year.
Coming into this game, it felt like there was a really good chance we were going
to witness a slugfest at Fenway Park. Both pitchers, Rick Porcello for the Sox
and Tanaka for the Yanks, have shown some real weaknesses of late, with the
former in particular struggling mightily. Plus, these two matched up less than a
month before this and the two teams combined for 12 runs in the first inning
alone. We got exactly what we expected, with a whole lot of runs being scored in
the series opener. Even better: The majority of those runs were produced by the
Red Sox offense.
It was really the Red Sox lineup that was the story of this game,
as they were all over Tanaka from the very beginning and never really let up.
After Porcello started the game off with a 1-2-3 top half of the first, the Red
Sox hitters took over. Mookie Betts started the game with a solid base hit
before Rafael Devers drew a walk to put two on with nobody out. That brought
Xander Bogaerts to the plate, and he’d absolutely demolish a fastball over
everything in left field for a 451-foot homer. That was the longest homer of his
career and it gave the Red Sox a 3-0 lead three batters into the bottom of the
first.
They wouldn’t stop there, either. After the first out of the
inning was recorded, Andrew Benintendi, Brock Holt and Mitch Moreland hit
back-to-back-to-back singles to load the bases with one out, giving the Red Sox
a real chance to break this thing open very early. Christian Vázuqez popped out,
which threatened to squander the opportunity, but then Jackie Bradley Jr ripped
a double to put two more runs on the board. Eventually, after another hit from
Betts, the Sox jumped out to a 7-0 lead, after just one inning.
The Sox went down in order in the second and stranded a pair in scoring position
in the third. They also lost Holt in that third inning when he was ejected after
arguing balls and strikes. In the fourth, though, they got right back to it with
Tanaka still in the game, clearly having to wear this one as the Yankees looked
for rest for their bullpen. Instead, the Sox kept beating him up.
It started right away with Devers, who took the first pitch he
saw and hit an absolute laser into the Monster Seats for a solo homer.
Eventually, they’d get three straight doubles later in the inning to tack on
four more runs for a total of five in the inning. Tanaka was out of the game at
that point, but the Red Sox would just come out and get three more in the fifth
to give them a whopping 15 runs total.
So, Porcello had a massive lead with which to work and all he had to do was not
implode. He did his best to scare Red Sox fans everywhere in the second inning,
though. At that point it was still 7-0, clearly a blowout but not totally out of
reach. He had major problems with efficiency here, struggling mightily to put
batters away. After getting a strikeout on what was a gift strike three call, he
gave up a double and two singles to get the Yankees to within six. He’d give up
another single to load the bases before getting a strikeout, though that one
took eight pitches. Porcello then faced a nine-pitch at bat against DJ LeMahieu that
ended with an RBI single. That was all the Yankees would get there, as Aaron
Judge flew out to deep center field to end the inning. Still, it took 47
pitches for
Porcello to get through that inning, and Colten Brewer even had to get up to
warm at one point.
The righty settled down in a big way after that, though. The Yankees did get one
more run off him on a solo shot from catcher Kyre Higashioka, but other than
that it was mostly clean for Porcello. In all, he ended up still getting through
six innings despite the marathon second. In those six frames he allowed the
three runs on six hits and a walk with five strikeouts.
After Porcello left the game, Darwinzon Hernandez got the first
call out of the bullpen. The rookie southpaw had a hell of a frame, setting down
the side in order with a couple of strikeouts. Brewer had the eighth. He had a
1-2-3 inning of his own.
After the Red Sox added three more against catcher Austin
Romine in the eighth, Nathan Eovaldi came on for the ninth and allowed a single
but nothing more in a scoreless inning of work to finish off the rout.
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