Yanks Battle Back; But Umps Send them to 8th Straight Loss. Boston 6 NY 5

August 21, 2023 paperbacklou 2023 0
Anthony Volpe hits clutch, game-tying, 3-run homer in bottom of 7th.

The Yankees battled back in this one — their 8th straight loss.

  • Down 1-0, the Yanks tied it 1-1 on a Kyle Higashioka Homer in the 3rd.
  • Down 2-1, the Yanks tied it 2-1 on a Gleyber Torres Homer in the 6th.
  • Down 5-2 and seemingly out of it when Justin Turner hit a 3-run homer in the top of the 7th, the Yanks tied it 5-5 on Anthony Volpe‘s 3-run homer in the bottom of the 7th.
  • And then the Yanks took the lead 6-5 in the bottom of the 8th when Anthony Volpe singled in Isiah Kiner-Falefa. But Boston challenged and the umps changed their call — even though replay appeared to show IKF safe. Even Red Sox fans like Jared Carrabis were stunned.
  • Boston scored a run off Clay Holmes in the top of the 9th, and the Yanks almost tied it in the bottom of the 9th — Greg Allen led off with a shot to right that hit off the tippy-top of the right field wall, just missing a game-tying homer. He was then stranded on 2nd as Kenley Jansen struck out 2 and got a fly to end it.

“Good hard-fought ballgame,” said manager Aaron Boone afterwards. “Another one that stings to lose, especially what we’re going through. But not allowed to let it be deflating. We have to dig ourselves out and start playing better, and start winning games.”

NY falls to 60-64, 17 behind Baltimore, 14 behind Tampa, 8.5 behind Toronto, 6 behind Boston, and 9 behind a Wild Card (Seattle holds last one). Boston improves to 66-58.

1. Schmidt Good

Clarke Schmidt rebounded off his horrible start against Atlanta to pitch well against the tough Boston lineup. He pitched 5.2 innings, allowing only 4 hits and 2 runs, striking out 8 and walking 2. He could have allowed only 1 run with better defense behind him.

Rafael Devers was the one batter that hurt him; Devers homered in the 1st inning for a 1-0 Boston lead.

Devers singled in the 3rd.

And it was a 1-1 game in the 6th when Devers led off with a double. Justin Turner walked but Schmidt got a tailor made double play ball — that Gleyber Torres made a bad toss on to Volpe who had to reach for the ball, step on 2nd, but then air-mailed the throw to 1st — Devers scoring. Volpe was charged with the error but it was due to Gleyber’s poor toss. Although Volpe should not have attempted the throw.

Schmidt got a fly out which should have been the 3rd out, but was the 2nd, and was relieved by Michael King who got the final out (after a single).

2. Higgy HR Ties It 1-1

Reliever Josh Winckowski opened for Boston, and Nick Pivetta came in to pitch in the 2nd.

Down 1-o after Devers’ homer, Kyle Higashioka tied it in the 3rd with a 408-foot homer to center.

3. Gleyber HR Ties It 2-2

Down 2-1 after Devers scored on the Volpe error due to the poor Gleyber Torres toss in the top of the 6th, Torres made up for his gaffe with a homer in the bottom of the 6th to tie it 2-2.

4. Volpe HR Ties it 5-5

Reese McGuire led off the top of the 7th against Michael King with a walk. He was sacrificed to 2nd, where Connor Wong ran for him. King got a popup for the 2nd out — but intentionally walked Rafael Devers who to that point was 3 for 3.

The move backfired as next batter Justin Turner ripped a 398-foot, 3-run homer to left center for a 5-2 Boston lead.

That seemed to be ballgame.

But the Yanks, incredibly, came back.

Harrison Bader led off the bottom of the 7th with an infield single off John Schreiber. Billy McKinney walked, and Anthony Volpe hit a 367-foot homer to right center — tie game!

5. IKF Was SAFE

In a 5-5 tie game, Isiah Kiner-Falefa led off the bottom of the 8th with a single off Chris Martin. After a line out and fly out — IKF was still on 1st, attempting to steal 2nd to get in scoring position — when Anthony Volpe ripped a shot down the line in left.

IKF rounded the bases as old friend Rob Refsnyder — the left fielder — stumbled while fielding the ball and threw it back while falling. IKF came home and was called SAFE. Boston challenged. Replays showed it to be razor close — from one angle it appeared IKF’s foot got in. Certainly not enough evidence to overturn the call.

But the umps overturned the call. The Yanks challenged that catcher Connor Wong had blocked the plate, but umps said he didn’t.

6. Holmes Blows 9th Again

Just like a week before when Clay Holmes runied everyone’s Sunday afternoon by blowing a 7-3 lead in the 9th to kick off the 8-game losing streak — there was Clay Holmes out their in the 9th again, again ruining everyone’s Sunday afternoon: single, walk, groundout, double to Justin Turner and it was 6-5 Boston.

Holmes finally got two groundouts to strand runners on 2nd and 3rd but the damage was done.

7. Allen Almost Ties It

In the bottom of the 9th, Greg Allen — brought in the game as a pinch runner in the 7th and who then replaced Billy McKinney in left (McKinney replacing Jake Bauers in right) — led off with a shot to right that hit the tippy top of the right field wall and bounced back in for a double.

The refs had to review the play to make sure.

DJ LeMahieu then walked to put 1st and 2nd, nobody out.

But ace reliever Kenley Jansen got tough — striking out Aaron Judge and Gleyber Torres, and getting Ben Rortvedt on a fly to center for the old ballgame.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401472873

 

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