 |
|
 |
||||||||||
 |
|
Hanley Ramirez' 9th inning walk-off
HR |
ON THIS DATE (September 15, 2016) ... When David Ortiz hit a home run in the eighth inning, it felt like a consolation prize for the sellout crowd at Fenway Park. The Red Sox were still trailing the Yankees by three. Ortiz, who is running out of his career, was not in the mood for any solace. He started shouting at his teammates when he got back to the dugout. Hanley Ramirez didn’t let Ortiz down. His three-run homer with two outs in the ninth gave the Red Sox a thrilling 7-5 victory against the Yankees. It was the sixth career walk-off hit for Ramirez, who has 25 homers and 100 RBIs. The Yankees wanted to avoid using Dellin Betances. Tommy Layne started the inning and struck out pinch hitter Aaron Hill. When Chris Young went up to pinch hit, Yankees manager Joe Girardi countered with righthander Blake Parker. Young was hit by a breaking ball that glanced off his helmet. Girardi then turned to Betances. Young then stole second unopposed. Dustin Pedroia than walked and the runners moved up again as the Yankees ignored them. Xander Bogaerts tapped a ball back to the mound and the Yankees were able to get Young caught in a rundown for the second out. Ortiz singled to center, driving in Pedroia and sending Bogaerts to third. Mookie Betts was next and he singled to left field to score Bogaerts. With Ramirez up, a passed ball moved the runners to second and third. Then came his blast on a 3-and-1 pitch. Ortiz was 3 for 4 with a double and the home run that started the comeback. He now has 537 career home runs, putting him alone in 17th place all time. Ortiz had been tied with Yankees legend Mickey Mantle. Ortiz has 34 home runs this season, tying Darrell Evans of the 1987 Detroit Tigers for the most by a player 40 or older. The home run, a blast to center field in the eighth inning off Adam Warren, roused the Sox, who had one run in seven innings against Masahiro Tanaka Joe Kelly left the bases loaded in the top of the ninth, catching a line drive back up the middle off the bat of Mason Williams. After Eduardo Rodriguez allowed four runs before being taken out in the third inning, the Sox bullpen kept the game close. Heath Hembree, Junichi Tazawa, rookie Robby Scott, and Kelly allowed one unearned run. Rodriguez came into the game with a 1.88 earned run average in six career starts against the Yankees. In two starts previously this season, he had allowed two runs over 14 innings. That all went to pieces in the first inning. Jacoby Ellsbury interrupted being booed with a single to center. Gary Sanchez, the rookie catcher who has sparked New York’s revival, followed with a double to center field. The ball landed at the base of the 420-foot sign in the triangle and bounced into the stands. Ellsbury had to stop at third but that was only temporary as Starlin Castro singled to right field. Sanchez moved to third on the hit and scored on a sacrifice fly to center by Billy Butler. Rodriguez stranded two runners in the second but could not get out of the third inning. Castro doubled off the wall in left-center with one out and scored when Butler singled to center. Didi Gregorius followed with a double to center field. Butler went to third and scored when Chase Headley singled to right field. The Sox now lead the Baltimore Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays by two games in the American League East with 16 to play. They also threw a haymaker at the Yankees, who now trail by five games. New York blew a 5-1 lead. The Sox have won six of their last nine games.
|
.jpg)
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
