Game 156 / 86-70 / 2nd / -5 GB : How many times have we seen this? One or two mistake pitches by a starter, the offense tanks and the Yankees lose another game. Two fastballs from Ivan Nova that had no sink where brutalized by Travis Shaw and Jackie Bradley, Jr. for 2-run homers, and that was enough. The already anemic Yankees offense ran into a buzzsaw of red-hot Boston pitching — who came off a 3 game set at home against Baltimore where they didn’t allow a run.
Here’s the box score, full recap, and video highlights.
Red Sox 5, Yankees 1
It Was This Kind Of Night
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- Not Super, But… Outside of the two bad pitches that resulted in 2-run homers, Nova had a decent outing. He went 7 full innings (a season best), scattered 7 hits while striking out 7. All within 92 pitches, 62 for strikes. He cannot be relied on for a (possible) postseason start at the moment, but he still tantalizes with that electric stuff. If this teammates did anything with the bats tonight, this would be a different story.
- Double Delay A victory by the Yankees tonight would have been the unequaled milestone of 10,000 wins in organization history. The Red Sox also ruined any chance the Bombers had to lock down a Wild Card Game berth — where the Twins, Rangers and Angels all needed to lose in combination with a New York win. At this writing only the Rangers cooperated, as the Twins defeated the Indians, and the Halos are still playing in Oakland.
- A Hole in the Bats Yeah, give Boston’s defense major credit for their nice glovework tonight, but the Yankees offense is scaring absolutely no one these days. And these days are quickly coming to an end. In their last 6 games, New York has plated 14 runs — hitting only 2 home runs while — worse yet — hitting .154 with runners in scoring position. Don’t even bother doing the math. It’s not pretty and won’t hold up at serious crunch time — as in the Wild Card Game.
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“We need to do a little bit better job against left handers. We ran into a bunch of lefties this weekend, we ended up winning three out of four games, we didn’t score a ton of runs. They were close ballgames. But it’s something we need to do a better job.” ‐ Joe Girardi (h/t: Chad Jennings/LoHud)
MEMORY LANE : On today’s date in 1934, at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D. C., Babe Ruth hits his 659th and final home run wearing pinstripes. The ‘Bambino’ had 49 homers with the Red Sox prior to coming to New York and will add six additional round-trippers with the Braves before retiring next season …
On September 28, 1932, in the opening game of the World Series, Lou Gehrig‘s home run leads the Yankees to a 12-6 win over the Cubs …
On today’s date in 1951, Allie Reynolds pitched his second no-hitter of the season as the Yankees defeated the Boston Red Sox, 8-0, in the opener of a doubleheader. The Yankees clinched the American League pennant with an 11-3 victory in the second game …
In 1961, Whitey Ford goes six innings for the victory in the Yankees’ 2-1 win over the Red Sox to finish the season with a 25-4 record. ‘Slick’ hurls 283 innings during the campaign without allowing a stolen base …
(h/t: NationalPastime.com, Baseball-Reference.com, Today in Baseball History)
FOOTNOTES : Michael Pineda (12-8, 3.99) takes the hill tomorrow night (7pm EST/4pm PT) against Rick Porcello (8-14, 5.04). Let’s go Yankees! …
