For the fifth game in a row, a Red Sox starting pitcher gave his team at least six innings.
Six scoreless innings, to be precise. And with that as the foundation, Boston narrowly hung on for a 4-3 victory and their third consecutive series win against an American League East rival.
“I think at the end of the day, if we pitch we’re gonna be fine,” manager Alex Cora said before Saturday night’s game with the Yankees. “If we continue to be consistent the first five, six innings, we should be OK.”
Before Saturday, Hunter Dobbins had pitched in 10 big-league games since his April 6 debut and faced a new opponent each time. The Yankees became his first-ever repeat customers, and he served it up even better the second time around. Facing the team he now famously told the Herald he’d sooner retire than ever play for, Dobbins blanked the Yanks through the end of the sixth, struck out five, and yielded just two hits and one walk.
After giving up a pair of homers to Aaron Judge the weekend before, Dobbins struck out the Yankees captain in each of his first two at-bats.
According to Elias Sports, Dobbins is the first Red Sox rookie to pitch at least six scoreless innings with two or fewer hits allowed since Clay Buchholz – who happened to be in attendance – on Sept. 1, 2007. Dobbins is the first Red Sox rookie to do so against the Yankees since Scott Taylor in relief on Oct. 3, 1992, and Dana Kiecker as a starter on Sept. 21, 1990.
And on a mere 82 pitches.
“That was a lot of fun,” Dobbins said. “I mean, getting to go out there after we won last night, knowing we could win the series tonight. The crowd was amazing. It always is here. But to be able to perform for our guys like that, you know, go six strong and for (Alex Cora) to have the faith in me to go and face the top of their lineup for the third time, it meant a lot.”
Carlos Rodón’s second of back-to-back starts against Boston was an improvement, too, but only slightly. After getting tagged for five earned runs last weekend, he yielded four runs, three earned, on seven hits, two walks, and struck out four in five innings.
After coming through with the walk-off hit in the 10th inning of Friday night’s series opener, Carlos Narváez got Boston on the board immediately on Saturday. His first-inning single, combined with an error by the shortstop, gave the Red Sox a 1-0 lead.
The Red Sox tallied just seven hits, including a pair of doubles from Trevor Story, who drove in Boston’s second run in the fourth inning. Batting in the leadoff spot, Rob Refsnyder began the contest with a first-pitch double, then hit a first-pitch single in his next at-bat. Romy Gonzalez’s fifth-inning double extended Boston’s lead to 3-0, and Marcelo Mayer’s sixth-inning sacrifice fly plated their fourth and final run.
Mayer also made several slick plays to ensure Dobbins walked off the mound with his shutout bid intact, including back-to-back clean throws to first to complete a 1-2-3 sixth inning.
Few things are certain in baseball, though, and the efficacy of the Boston bullpen is rarely among them.
After Dobbins’ dominant outing, the Yankees quickly began to chip away at Boston’s 4-0 lead. Luis Guerrero threw 17 pitches, and only eight of them were strikes. He recorded one out in the seventh, allowed New York’s first run to score, and left behind runners on first and second for Justin Wilson, who promptly gave up an RBI single to Austin Wells.
Greg Weissert allowed the Yankees to pull within a run in the ninth, but successfully converted the save to bring the Red Sox back to .500 (36-36).
