Carlos Rodon gave up a homerun to Ceddanne Rafaela on the first pitch of the game — and then allowed a double, and a walk and here we go again.
But Rodon quickly found his stuff and started Dealing — striking out the rest of the side in the 1st inning, and striking out 9 in 5 innings. He allowed more loud hits in the 2nd and 3rd innings but by the end of the 3rd was in complete dominance mode.
Meanwhile, Estevan Florial got a clutch, 2-out hit in the 4th to tie the game and the Yanks took a 2-1 lead for Rodon in the 6th.
And then something extraordinary happened: a trio of veteran relievers — two attempting comebacks from long injury absences from the Majors — came in to stifle Boston in the late innings. Zach McAllister (who hadn’t pitched in the majors in 5 years), Anthony Misiewicz, and Matt Bowman (who hadn’t pitched in the majors in 4 years) threw a shutout inning each.
The Yanks scored 2 insurance runs in the 9th to eliminate the agita and make it a sweep of the day-night doubleheader over the Bosox, on a Tuesday night at Fenway. NY took the 1st game 2-1.
“It’s all you dream about, to come here and try and help the team,” said Estevan Florial afterwards about his game-tying RBI single. “Especially right now we need to win, we need every run we can take; I was happy to be able to go up there and do it.”
NY is now 73-72, the same record as Boston. Both are 7 games behind the final Wild Card spot.
1. Rodon Terrific
It looked horrible at 1st, but in short order Carlos Rodon was DEALING — throwing everything for strikes and blowing people away with a rising fastball.
After striking out the last 3 of the 1st inning, Rodon got in trouble in the 2nd, allowing a single and a walk, and with 1st and 3rd, 2 out, thought he blew it when Rob Refsnyder hit a long fly ball to the left centerfield wall, caught by Everson Pereira. Phew.
After a loud single to start the 3rd, Rodon started to Dominate, filling the zone with strikes.
https://x.com/PitchingNinja/status/1701756156413198427?s=20
They say it is physically impossible for a ball to rise after being thrown, but you would bet money the physicists were wrong watching Rodon whose 98-MPH fastball was rising in the zone, blowing past batters swinging and missing at it.
https://x.com/Yankees/status/1701797214387929336?s=20
2. Florial with Clutch RBI Hit
Meanwhile on the other hill Kutter Crawford was killing the Yanks again. Last time out he had a no hitter going against them into the 7th. This time he had a shutout going into the 5th when with 2 outs, Everson Pereira walked, and stole second. Pereira looked QUICK.
Estevan Florial then worked a 10-pitch at bat — fouling off 4 consecutive 2-2 pitches — before singling to center for a 1-1 tie game.
https://x.com/Yankees/status/1701758654683201956?s=20
That sent Crawford to the showers at 93 pitches.
3. Yanks Take Lead in 6th
Josh Winckowski came in to pitch for the Red Sox. I could bet money he pitched for the Yankees last year but that was Asher Wojciechowski two years ago in 2021. Time flies.
Winckowski is a 6’4 righty who has always been with the Red Sox organization and is in his 2nd year with the big club.
He got into immediate trouble — Gleyber Torres walked, Austin Well singled to left, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa walked to load the bases with nobody out.
Jake Bauers hit a grounder to 3rd to score a run on a fielder’s choice and the Yanks were up 2-1. Oswald Peraza lined into a double play to end the rally.
4. McAllister Terrific
And then in came Zach McAllister to pitch the 6th — ground out, walk, strike out, ground out — to keep the score 2-1 NY.
McAllister was originally a Yankee draft pick in the 3rd round of the 2006 draft. NY traded him to Cleveland in 2011 as the Player to be Named Later for Austin Kearns.
McAllister had a solid career as a reliever with Cleveland from 2011 thru 2018. He was diagnosed with a fractured right humerus (upper arm bone) in 2020 and had surgery to repair it.
5. Misiewicz Terrific
McAllister allowed a double to Rafaela to lead off the 7th and was relieved by Anthony Misiewicz, who pitched a clutch, shutout 13th inning in Sunday’s win.
Misiewicz was Great again — ground out, pop out, walk to Triston Casas, and then a strike out of Adam Duvall to end the threat leaving runners on 1st and 3rd. PHEW.
4. Bowman Terrific
Matt Bowman came in for the 8th — and got in and out of trouble. Trevor Story led off with an infield single, and went to 2nd on a wild pitch by Bowman.
Tying run on 2nd nobody out.
Bowman got a ground out, intentional walk to Rafael Devers, strikeout of Connor Wong, and then got Rafaela to line out to Gleyber Torres. PHEW!
Bowman had several good years with St Louis in 2016 and 2017 and last pitched for Cincinnati in 2019. He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2020.
5. Gleyber RBI Hit in 9th; Wells Great At Bat
The young Yankees were back at the heart of another rally in the 9th in a tight 2-1 game.
Oswaldo Cabrera led off with a walk against Red Sox ace reliever Kenley Jansen, and Oswald Peraza singled to knock Jansen out of the game.
Nick Robertson came in and struck out Florial, then intentionally walked Aaron Judge to bring up Gleyber Torres with bases loaded — who delivered with a single to left for a 3-1 Yankee lead. A Huge insurance run.
https://x.com/Yankees/status/1701787315822019010?s=20
Austin Wells then had a terrific 9-pitch at bat against Robertson, and on the 9th pitch catcher Connor Wong‘s glove tipped Wells’ bat — so Wells was awarded 1st base on a successful challenge by the Yanks. NY 4 Boston 1.
6. Ramirez the Save
Nick Ramirez pitched the 9th, with NY up 4-1, and got a 1-2-3 inning — strikeout, foul out, ground out for the old ballgame.
Etcetera
- Everyone in the Yankee lineup got a hit except Aaron Judge, who is in a mini slump. He went 0-3 (with 2 walks) and 0-4 in the 1st game of the doubleheader, to drop his average to .256. He is 1 for his last 15.
The Boxscore
https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401473185
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