The Red Sox mentioned they had been going to return proper after Aaron Judge on this collection, however they didn’t persist with their phrase.
At least they saved him within the park.
Judge was walked 3 times, struck out as soon as and got here inside just a few toes of a historic dwelling run, however ended the evening caught at 60, one shy of Roger Maris’ American League file.
Despite protecting Judge quiet, the Red Sox fell aside within the late innings and took a 5-4 loss to the Yankees within the Bronx. The win clinched a playoff berth for the Yankees, who’ve now certified for the postseason in 24 of the final 28 years.
The Sox had been up 4-3 heading into the eighth, when the Yankees scratched collectively a run on a single, stolen base, floor ball and sacrifice fly to tie the sport in opposition to Ryan Brasier.
In the tenth, Josh Donaldson hit the game-winning RBI single off Kaleb Ort.
The story of the evening was Judge, who had his total household in addition to the whole Maris household watching him at Yankee Stadium. Whenever Judge got here to bat, all people within the park stood up, most holding their cell telephones excessive within the air in case Judge made historical past. The stress wasn’t what saved Judge within the yard; the Red Sox cautiousness was.
Manager Alex Cora mentioned earlier than the sport that the Sox would assault Judge with starter Michael Wacha, who entered the sport having held Judge to an 0-for-14 with 9 strikeouts off him. But the primary time Wacha met Judge within the first inning, he walked him on 4 pitches.
His second time up, Wacha walked him once more, although at the least this time he threw him just a few strikes first.
There was nowhere to place Judge his third time up within the fifth inning, when Wacha had males on first and second and one out. This time he attacked, and Judge went down swinging over a changeup.
A Giancarlo Stanton homer within the sixth inning put the Yankees forward 3-0, however the Red Sox answered with an enormous inning within the seventh.
Rookie Triston Casas stepped up and cranked a leadoff dwelling run, his third of the 12 months. It was his first style of Yankee Stadium and the left-handed hitting Casas seems like he’ll have some enjoyable hitting there. He hit a line drive that hardly cleared the fence down the right-field line, a prototypical homer within the Yanks’ new ballpark.
After Kiké Hernandez and Yu Chang reached base, Reese McGuire got here off the bench to hit for Connor Wong and smoked one other one over the right-field fence for a three-run shot that put the Sox forward 4-3.
The Yankees threatened within the backside of the inning, when Kyle Higashioka doubled off John Schreiber to convey up Judge with first base open. Schreiber had no real interest in going through him; he walked Judge on 5 pitches and escaped the seventh unscathed.
Brasier gave up the game-tying run within the eighth, then Judge practically made historical past within the ninth.
On a 2-2 depend in opposition to Matt Barnes, Judge hammered a excessive fastball excessive into the Bronx sky and the nation held its breath. Hernandez tracked again to the warning observe and camped below it, then hauled within the catch only a few toes in entrance of the fence in lifeless middle.
The ball traveled 404 toes at 113 mph off the bat, however didn’t have fairly sufficient on this chilly September night. It would’ve been a house run in 15 ballparks, in keeping with the Fox broadcast.
Wacha completed with six innings of three-run ball and was in line for the win till Brasier blew it within the eighth. Soon to be a free agent, Wacha has a 2.70 ERA.
With the loss, the Red Sox are 6-10 in opposition to the Yankees this 12 months.
Rich Hill takes the mound in opposition to Gerrit Cole on Friday evening. Judge is 2-for-4 with a double lifetime off Hill.
Source: www.bostonherald.com