YANKEES TAKE 2 OUT OF 3 IN BOSTON IN A BATTLE OF HOME RUNS

Friday night the Yankees started a 3 game series against the Red Sox in Boston. The score went back and forth for awhile and the Yankees were winning this game 7-6 until the eighth inning. Nestor Cortes pitched 4 2/3 innings, gave up 4 runs and struck out 5. Brayan Bello pitched 5 innings, gave up 3 runs and struck out 4. The Red Sox went up 1-0 in the first inning but Anthony Volpe hit a solo home run in the second inning to tie the game. Rafael Devers hit a RBI single in the third inning and Rob Refsnyder hit a RBI double in the fourth inning putting the Red Sox up by 2. In the fifth inning Alex Verdugo and Trent Grisham had RBIs, which tied the game again. Devers scored in the fifth inning putting the Red Sox ahead again. In the sixth inning the Yankees went up by 3 as Aaron Judge and Austin Wells hit home runs. Judge’s home run was 470 feet and left the stadium.  In the seventh inning Ceddanne Rafaela hit a 2 run home run off Luke Weaver and there’s the score 7-6. The Yankees decided to keep Weaver in and he gave up a single and a walk before being replaced by Clay Holmes. Wilyer Abreu came in to pinch hit and hit a RBI double and 2 more runs scored on a single by Masataka Yoshida. The Red Sox won, 7-9. Weaver earned the loss on this one.

Giancarlo Stanton didn’t return to the lineup as previously anticipated. It’s now been decided he will rejoin the team Monday when they head to Philadelphia.

Saturday’s game was a fun one as the Yankees and Red Sox hitters battled back and forth with Aaron Judge and Tyler O’Neill causing most of the damage.  Marcus Stroman got the start and pitched 3 1/3 innings and gave up 5 runs but only 3 were earned. On the other side Kutter Crawford pitched 4 2/3 innings and gave up 5 runs. The Red Sox used 7 relief pitchers to close out the rest of the game and the Yankees used 6. There was a lot of action in the first inning as the game was tied 3-3. Alex Verdugo led off with single which was followed by back to back home runs by Juan Soto and Aaron Judge (400 feet and 432 feet). Wilyer Abreu hit a home run and 2 runs scored on a double by Tyler O’Neill. The runs continued to add up in the second inning as Oswaldo Cabrera hit a solo home run and Jarren Duran and Masataka Yoshida hit RBI singles. No more runs scored until the fifth inning when the Yankees tied the game again with a RBI single by Judge. But in the same inning O’Neill hit a solo home run putting the Red Sox ahead again. In the seventh inning Judge walked and scored on a sacrifice fly by Ben Rice to tie the game for the fourth time. That same inning O’Neill hit his second home run of the night and David Hamilton hit a RBI double putting the Red Sox ahead again, this time by 2. In the eighth inning Alex Verdugo hit a single and Juan Soto walked; Judge hit a double and Verdugo scored but Soto missed the third base coach’s signals to stop and tried to score as well and he was thrown out at home. The Yankees went into the ninth inning down 1 run. Rice hit a double and Jahmai Jones was put in to run for him and he moved to third on a ground out by Anthony Volpe. With 2 outs and the tying run on third, Trent Grisham with a 2-2 count hit a double and the Yankees tied the game. Clay Holmes came in to pitch the ninth, but this time he had a 1-2-3 inning, the first one of the night. The game went into extra innings. Oswaldo Cabrera was the runner placed at second, Soto hit a single and Judge walked to load the bases on 1 out. Austin Wells hit a sacrifice fly and Cabrera scored. With two outs and two batters still on base, Gleyber Torres comes up to bat, he was 0-5 for the night, and he hit a double allowing Judge and Soto to score. Holmes stayed in the game and had a walk, a strike and 2 ground outs to end the 10th inning. The Yankees won 11-8.

Judge reached base six times going 4-4 with 2 walks and 3 RBIs. He’s only the third Yankee to do this.

Also on Saturday the Yankees acquired Jazz Chisholm Jr. from the Florida Marlins for three prospects. One of the prospects is catcher Augustin Ramirez who recently played for the Somerset Patriots before moving up to Triple-A. He was also scene last month in Belmar, NJ doing a meet and greet and signing autographs.

Sunday night Chisholm joined the team and started in center field as Aaron Judge moved to DH. Carlos Rodon had a solid outing, pitching 6 1/3 innings and gave up 2 runs on 5 hits and struck out 7. Tanner Houck pitched for the Red Sox. He also pitched 6 innings but gave up 4 runs (3 earned) on 5 hits and only struck out 2.  The Yankees scored 3 runs in the first inning. Alex Verdugo hit a double and scored on a single by Aaron Judge, Austin Wells hit a ground rule double, and Judge and Wells scored on a double by Gleyber Torres. In the fourth inning Wells scored again on a sacrifice fly by Ben Rice. The only two runs against Rodon came in the fourth inning off back to back home runs by Connor Wong and Rob Refsnyder. The Yankees scored another run in the seventh inning off a sacrifice fly by Wells. In the eighth inning Torres reached first on a fielding error and Rice hit a double; both scored on a ground rule double by Oswaldo Cabrera. The Yankees were now winning 7-2. Chisholm in his debut was 0-4 until the ninth inning when he hit a single. He reached second on a ground out by Torres but he slipped off the base due to the rain and hit his jaw on the elbow of Romy Gonzalez. He was able to crawl back to the base in order to not be thrown out. After being checked by trainer he goes on to steal third base and scored on a sacrifice fly by DJ LeMahieu. Caleb Ferguson closed out the ninth inning and the Yankees won 8-2 and Rodon earned his 11th win.

Monday they head to Philadelphia for a 3 game series.