BOSTON — For the second weekend in a row, the Red Sox snatched a series from the Yankees.
But unlike last weekend’s three-game set in the Bronx, in which the Red Sox took two of three contests with a pair of one-run victories, the Fenway series has been heavy on bat power, a welcome change after weeks of low-scoring contests.
At the outset, the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader looked like an uphill climb. Instead of Brayan Bello starting on Saturday night, torrential downpour forced a postponement to Sunday, and the Red Sox decided that Bello would start the second game.
The first game of the doubleheader was a cobbled-together bullpen contest, and at first, not a promising one. Kaleb Ort opened the show by giving up a ground-rule double by the Pesky Pole to leadoff man Jake Bauers, followed by a two-run home run to Gleyber Torres.
Though Ort settled down and didn’t allow another hit or run in his 2 1/3 innings, the immediate deficit appeared to be an irrecoverable blow for more than half the game. The Red Sox entered the day 13-29 when their opponents score first, and had no answer to Clark Schmidt. Just as he’d done the previous Sunday, the Yankees starter held the home team down early, albeit with a little help from his opponents; any time Schmidt gave an inch, the Red Sox quickly erased it. Back-to-back 2-out singles by Rafael Devers and Adam Duvall in the first inning amounted to nothing when Masataka Yoshida lined out, and the performance essentially repeated in the third, when Yoshida flew out to leave Alex Verdugo (double) and Devers (walk) hanging. By the end of that frame, they’d already left five men on base.
Finally, in the bottom of the fifth, Schmidt found out what many a Yankee pitcher learned before him: Boston bats don’t stay quiet for long.
Justin Turner, who’d hit a classic Yankee Stadium homer against Schmidt the week before, got to him again. After Verdugo drew a 1-out walk, Turner doubled, setting the stage for Devers. The slugging third baseman fouled a pitch off himself, then got a run across the plate by grounding out. Duvall followed with a game-tying RBI single, his first run batted in since coming off the injured list.
But when the Red Sox took the lead in the bottom of the sixth, it wasn’t because they’d finally figured out Schmidt. Instead, they walloped Michael King.
King began the inning with two fast outs, then allowed four consecutive hits and three RBI. He issued a walk before getting out of the frame.
Yoshida was the only Boston hitter who didn’t come to bat in the sixth, but he made up for lost time by leading off the seventh with a triple and scoring on a balk.
Neither team would score again, and the Red Sox won 6-2.
For Duvall, who missed exactly two months with a wrist fracture, getting back in the swing of things was about more than his individual performance.
“Being on the (injured list) was tough,” he confessed. “Being able to be out there, grinding with the guys, just winning ballgames, it’s fun.”
“I feel like I’m starting to kind of get a rhythm, in the flow of the game a little bit more,” the veteran outfielder said. “I pride myself on driving in runs so when I step in the box, that’s what I want to be able to do. In order to do that, you gotta be able to put the barrel to the ball. So being able to do that today was was a step in the right direction
While it’s encouraging to see the offense reawaken, the pitching staff’s contributions cannot be overlooked; they held down the fort long enough for the Red Sox to mount a comeback and never let up.
After Ort gave up that first-inning home run, the Yankees didn’t collect another hit until the top of the sixth. Rookie Chris Murphy, Nick Pivetta, and Chris Martin combined for 6 2/3 scoreless innings, holding the Yankees to two hits and not issuing a walk for the remainder of the game.
While Murphy has been developing in the minors as a starting pitcher, the Red Sox are only planning on using him for relief appearances for now. The shorter appearances enables him to turn up the heat, but even he confessed to being pleasantly surprised by his Sunday velocity.
“I don’t need to go six innings, so going as hard as I can being on full-go from pitch one,” he explained. “I looked up at the scoreboard after my first two-thirds and I did not expect to see something that hard.”
His performance also garnered high praise from his manager.
“Murph’ has been really good in that role… He has a cutter, he has a slider, he has a curveball. He’s been under control here,” Alex Cora lauded. “We need him to throw strikes and so far, so good.”
Cora also complimented Pivetta, whom the Red Sox moved to the bullpen following a stretch of rough starts at the beginning of the season. The
“Obviously, he was dominant tonight,” his manager said of Pivetta’s three no-hit innings. “This is a different pitcher as a reliever than as a starter. His stuff is better… there’s a little bit more conviction, better tempo, a few-things mechanic-wise.”
It’s been a while since the Red Sox looked like they were firing on all cylinders, but Duvall thinks they’re just getting started.
“I still believe that our best baseball is ahead.”
