NEW YORK – It’s been a long time since the Red Sox had an ace left-hander to bring to a southpaw showdown with the Yankees.
The Red Sox won 10-7 on Saturday.
In classic rivalry fashion, it was more of a messy tug-of-war than a showdown.
“I said, ‘Bro, I’ve seen that game plenty of times,’” manager Alex Cora said, relaying a conversation he had with Alex Bregman. “Like yesterday, right? Like 8-1 and here we go again, and we grind and we get it close and second and third, one out in the seventh… Just watching today and listening, you know, at one point we couldn’t hear the PitchCom and all that stuff. (Justin) Wilson on the mound.
“So people enjoy it, you know, that’s the reason we play at 7:30 tonight and we’ll play at 7 o’clock tomorrow, regardless of where we’re at,” Cora added, referring to this weekend’s back-to-back national broadcasts on FOX Sports and ESPN.
Garrett Crochet yielded a season-high five earned runs on six hits in six topsy-turvy innings. He issued one walk, struck out nine, and was charged with a balk. Throwing 97 pitches, 67 for strikes, he induced 15 swings-and-misses, issued one walk, was charged with a balk, and struck out nine.
Crochet said it felt good to get his “feet wet” in his first-ever rivalry game, which was also his first career start against the Yankees, but he wasn’t pleased with his own results, especially the length of his outing.
“Outside of you know, three or four pitches, I felt like my line doesn’t reflect how I threw the ball tonight,” the Sox starter explained. “Six innings is the bare minimum, though, you know? … I’ve typically been able to get out of the jam with runners in scoring position, tonight I didn’t, you know. Threw a dozen-plus pitches that I didn’t need to, and you know, could’ve been into the seventh, you know, could’ve gave the guys a little bit more of a breather.”
“That’s the whole (expletive) part of my job,” Crochet said. “Put the team in a position to win, so it doesn’t really mean anything more than it should. That’s just me doing my job.”
Crochet’s nine punch-outs included three by Aaron Judge, who’s still hitting .390 with a 1.234 OPS after going 0-for-4 in the contest. It was only the third time the Yankees captain went hitless with three or more strikeouts this season.
“You don’t see that often,” Cora said of Judge’s 0-for-4, three-strikeout night. “It’s a challenge for everybody right now. He’s on top of the world. … I don’t know if I’m right, I might be wrong, but getting a taste last year of the World Series, kind of like, you know, pushed him to be better? Which is hard to believe, right, because he’s been amazing for years.”
The Sox skipper suggested that Judge’s incredible season may be partially motivated by wanting to prove he can lead the Yankees without Juan Soto, who signed a record contract with the crosstown rival Mets in December.
“A lot of people thought or had this wrong idea that his year last year was because Juan was here,” Cora said.
Crochet has struck out 32 batters over his last three starts; according to MLB’s Sarah Langs, he’s the first Red Sox pitcher to strike out at least 30 batters over a three-game span since Chris Sale and Eduardo Rodriguez in ‘19, and the club’s youngest pitcher to do so since Jon Lester in 2009.
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It began well enough for Crochet, who needed 10 pitches to get through a 1-2-3 first, which he bookended with a pair of strikeouts to leadoff man Paul Goldschmidt and Judge. The bottom of the third went the same way.
But pitching with a one-run lead – thanks to Kristian Campbell’s first RBI since May 26 – in the bottom of the second, Crochet got knotted up. He gave up a leadoff single to Cody Bellinger, who stole second after Jasson Domínguez struck out looking, and third while DJ LeMahieu worked a walk. Austin Wells’ 10th home run of the year went just far enough, 343 feet to the short porch for a 3-1 Yankees lead.
It was the only advantage the Yankees got. The second time his teammates handed him a lead, Crochet hung on, even as the lower-two thirds of the Yankees lineup hit him hard again in the fourth and tacked on another two runs.
“He gave us what we needed, forget the line,” said Cora. “There were some plays defensively that we didn’t make, put him in a bad spot. … We needed six, regardless. We’ll take it.”
Ryan Yarbrough had triumphed in his three outings against the Red Sox last season, but those were relief appearances with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays.
Starts were another story. Yarbrough entered Saturday with a career 7.68 ERA over nine starts against the Red Sox, with 37 earned runs on 56 hits and just 27 strikeouts over 43.1 innings. All of said games were with another divisional rival, the Tampa Bay Rays, between 2018-21. Yarbrough’s last start against Boston was Sept. 6, 2021, a seven-run drubbing in which he lasted just two innings.
A very different cadre of Boston batters stepped up to the plate four seasons later, but the end result was similarly productive: they tormented Yarbrough into an early to the tune of eight earned runs on nine hits, including Romy Gonzalez’s first homer of the season, in just four innings. He issued two walks, hit a batter, and only struck out three.
For just the 28th time in this season, the Red Sox scored first. They jumped out to an early 1-0 advantage in the second, and reclaimed the lead with a five-run top of the third in which Yarbrough faced the entire lineup and forced relievers to begin warming in the Yankees bullpen.
Unfortunately for the Red Sox, Yarbrough’s silver-platter start was over after the fourth and the Yankees bullpen wasn’t nearly as generous. Yerry De los Santos yielded one hit and two walks, but kept Boston from adding on in his three innings of work, and Mark Leiter Jr. pitched a scoreless eighth.
Those wasted opportunities proved costly in the bottom of the eighth when Justin Wilson, who’s been so reliable for Boston, became the latest Red Sox reliever to scuffle. After allowing just one earned run over 15 appearances dating back to April 26, Wilson gave up two earned runs .
That Ceddanne Rafaela threw home instead of to the cutoff man – for the second time this week – when Ben Rice singled to center to drive in both runs, didn’t help matters. Such defensive decisions don’t register as errors, but they still hurt the Red Sox in crucial moments. (The Red Sox also lead MLB in errors.)
Boston’s double-digit scoring night was due in large part to two of the club’s coldest hitters: Campbell went 2-for-3 with a pair of runs batted in, and Trevor Story, who twice delivered when he came up with the bases loaded. In the third, Story’s fifth double of the year cleared the bases and retook the lead for the Red Sox. After the Yankees pulled within a run in the eighth, Story’s two-run single gave Boston much-needed breathing room.
“Huge. Very important for him,” Cora said of Campbell. “Today was a great day for him.”
All told, the Red Sox tallied 14 hits, twice as many as their rivals, and went 7 for 18 with runners in scoring position.
“Credit to the guys getting on base ahead of me, putting together really good at-bats against some good pitchers,” said Story. “Always feels good to come through with men on base and I feel like that’s what we’ve been missing a little bit lately.”
Aroldis Chapman, who spent seven seasons in pinstripes, closed out the win for the Red Sox with a 1-2-3 ninth.
While some of his teammates have been vocal about their eagerness to participate in the storied Red Sox-Yankees rivalry, Crochet saw the weekend differently.
“It’s nice being able to, you know, get a win versus a division opponent,” he said. “But I mean, the rivalry, you know, it’s for the fans… we’re trying to win every game.”
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