Nestor Cortes pitched a splendid 5 innings (limited by pitch count) and the Red Sox made 4 key errors to hand the Yankees their 4th straight victory, 5-3 on a Wednesday night at Fenway.
The biggest gaffe by Boston resulted in a “little league homerun” by Gleyber Torres in the 5th inning, actually an RBI single by Gleyber Torres and a bad throw by Red Sox catcher Connor Wong to try and catch Gleyber at 1st, that went into right field allowing Torres to circle the bases.
“Man when he threw back to 1st base, your mentality is just to go to 3rd but I saw Rojas kept pushing me to go to home plate,” said Torres afterwards. “And I was a little nervous in the beginning because you don’t want to get thrown out at home plate.”
In the 9th, Boston centerfielder Abraham Almonte made consecutive “Bad News Bears” plays on fly balls that allowed the Yanks to get an insurance run in the 5-3 victory.
NY improves to 87-56, 6 games over Toronto, 7.5 over Tampa (who lost to Toronto), and 11.5 over Baltimore. The Red Sox are 18 out.
1. Gleyber’s “Little League Homerun” Single
The Red Sox started skinny 6’1 righty Brayan Bello, who came in with a 1-6 5.79 record but is currently the 37th highest prospect in the Majors — and he was terrific — pitching a shutout through 4 innings.
In the top of the 5th, he was done in by his defense.
- Bello struck out Jose Trevino to begin the inning,
- But Aaron Hicks got on due to an error by Boston shortstop Xander Bogaerts.
- Aaron Judge reached on an infield single to Bogaerts,
- But Bello struck out Giancarlo Stanton for the 2nd out (and what should have been the inning).
Gleyber Torres then ripped a 2-out single to right, and Alex Verdugo‘s throw home was a poor one — way off to the left as Hicks scored.
The catcher Connor Wong threw to 1st to try and double off Gleyber, but threw it into right field. Judge scored from 3rd, and Gleyber raced around the bases to score as well. Yankees 3 Red Sox 0.
Let's take a trip around the bases with @TorresGleyber 😃 pic.twitter.com/jZMMqf57b8
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 15, 2022
2. Cortes Tricky, and Brilliant
Meanwhile Nestor Cortes matched Bello, pitching a shutout into the 5th, when Connor Wong made up for his miscue a bit by doubling in a run with 2 outs.
Cortes ended with 5 innings of 3-hit, 1 run ball, striking out 7. He gets the win to go 10-4 2.70.
While the Bosox were blundering, the Yankees were playing terrific defense. Cortes was helped in the 2nd by a brilliant catch in right by Oswaldo Cabrera.
Oswaldo on the go 👏 pic.twitter.com/BXJopAkCFE
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 14, 2022
Cortes left after 5 innings because he is on a pitch limit after the groin pull injury that he is back from, and also having never pitched this many innings in the majors before.
Cortes showed why his nickname is “Nasty Nestor” by providing one of the highlights of the evening on a Luis Tiant special delivery strikeout of Rafael Devers in the 4th.
"He just invented that right at the last minute."
Nobody does it like @Cortes_1210 🔥 pic.twitter.com/cfUzLmH6wE
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 15, 2022
“I think of it as I go,” said Cortes afterwards. “And all the stuff that comes out is literally on the spot. I was happy it was a competitive pitch. It’s something that’s part of my game. I shied away from it a little bit. But I think it still plays up and I’m happy it worked out.”
3. Schmidt Terrific
Clarke Schmidt relieved Cortes and was terrific as usual — pitching 2 shutout innings to lower his ERA to 2.56.
Clarke Schmidt, Filthy Breaking Balls. 😷 pic.twitter.com/huvXDnkzPf
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) September 15, 2022
4. Trevino Bangs Green Monster for Insurance
The Yanks made it 4-1 in the 6th when Jose Trevino doubled off the Green Monster — misplayed by former Yank and current Boston centerfielder Rob Refsnyder — but no harm no foul, the Yanks didn’t score more.
Trevi off the monster 💪 pic.twitter.com/iCOnzf4TIM
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 15, 2022
5. Loaisiga Gets Out of 8th with Challenge
The Yanks cruised into the 8th leading 4-1 — but Jonathan Loaisiga got into a heap of trouble — leadoff singles by Reese McGuire and Tommy Pham followed by a fielder’s choice by Verdugo, then a single by Bogaerts loaded the bases with 1 out.
Devers hit a grounder to 1st that Marwin Gonzalez booted for an error — a run scored and it was still bases loaded, 1 out — NY 4 Boston 2.
JD Martinez hit a grounder to short that the Yanks tried to turn a double play on but Martinez was safe at 1st — NY 4 Boston 3, 2 outs, runners on 1st and 3rd.
But the Yankees challenged the call at 1st and replay show Martinez missed stepping on the bag — so it was a HUGE double play to end the inning and the threat and give the Yanks back a 4-2 lead.
Thanks to a successful challenge by Aaron Boone, the Yankees were able to stop any momentum the Red Sox had gained in the bottom of the eighth inning, with this double play. The Yankees held on to win, 5-3, last night. #YANKSonYES pic.twitter.com/RxGvR7YroN
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) September 15, 2022
6. Bosox “Bad News Bears” Plays in 9th
Refsnyder was replaced in center by pinch hitter Abraham Almonte, and Almonte treated the Fenway faithful to consecutive ridiculously bad plays in centerfield in the 9th.
With 1 out he allowed a Giancarlo Stanton fly to go over his head for a double.
— Follow @BarnHasSpoken2 (@Baseball8754021) September 15, 2022
On the very next play he dropped a fly ball by Gleyber Torres for a 5-3 Yankee lead. A Huge insurance run.
Pristine centerfield defensepic.twitter.com/PFQzio6hcA
— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) September 15, 2022
7. Holmes for the Save
Clay Holmes pitched the 9th — allowing a leadoff double, but then groundout, groundout, strike out for the old ballgame.
Etcetera
Aaron Judge went 1-4 and is still at a .310 batting average.
The Boxscore
https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401356343
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