Source: FanGraphs
Neither the Yankees nor the Red Sox sent out their A-team on Friday night — heck, you could argue they didn’t even send out their B-team — but because this was a Yankees-Red Sox game, it went right down to the wire and took well more than three hours. It’s in their DNA. New York walked away with a 3-2 win. Let’s recap:
- Build Some Runs: The Yankees scored their first two runs thanks to some bad Red Sox defense. Eury Perez reached base with one out in the third on a passed ball after striking out, then another passed ball moved him to second. Francisco Cervelli singled him in. A single by Chris Young and an error by Mookie Betts brought Cervelli home for the second run. Then, in the sixth inning, a double (John Ryan Murphy), a single (Austin Romine), and a sacrifice fly (Zelous Wheeler) plated the team’s third run.
- Tip Of The Cap: In his final start of the season, Chris Capuano allowed one unearned run in 6.2 innings of work. Young bobbled a base hit in left field to allow Allen Craig to reach second on a would-be single. Bryce Brentz singled him in later in the second inning. Other than that, Capuano held the BoSox to two singles and no walks, and he retired 15 of the final 16 men he faced. He struck out five. Capuano (presumably) finishes his Yankees’ career with a 4.25 ERA in 12 starts and 65.2 innings. Not bad for the team’s 11th or 12th starter.
- Bullpen: Shawn Kelley’s very first pitch of the night landed in the parking lot across the street after Rusney Castillo hit it over the Green Monster for a solo homer. That made it 3-2 in the seventh inning. He retired the next batter to end the inning, then Adam Warren tossed a perfect eighth. He was one strike away from an Immaculate Inning when Betts flew out. For shame. David Robertson allowed a leadoff ground ball single and struck out two in the ninth to earn his 39th save. I’m still hoping he gets to 40 for no reason in particular.
- Leftovers: Wheeler and leadoff man Jose Pirela were the only starters who failed to reach base. Cervelli had two hits while Perez, Young, Murphy, Romine, and Antoan Richardson had one each. Cervelli, Young, and Brendan Ryan drew walks … the pitchers struck out 9+ and walked zero for the MLB-leading tenth time this season … Young threw Yoenis Cespedes out at second trying to stretch a single into a double. Pirela did a nice job keeping the tag on Cespedes, so the safe call was overturned on review.
MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, FanGraphs has some other stats, and ESPN has the updated standings. I forgot to mention this last night, but the Yankees have clinched their 22nd consecutive winning season. That’s the second longest such streak in baseball history behind the 1925-64 Yankees, who did it 39 straight years. Masahiro Tanaka and Joe Kelly will square off in the penultimate game of the 2014 season on Saturday afternoon.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.