Yankees bats erupt and Sevy dominates as the Yankees win the finale versus Boston 9-2

The Yankees entered Sunday night’s contest against the Boston Red looking to take three of four games against the AL East leaders, Boston Red Sox. Fresh off a 5-1 win on Saturday, the Yankees sent Luis Severino to the bump to square off against Cy Young candidate, Chris Sale. The Yankees took an early lead in the bottom of the third inning when Chase Headley hit a line drive home run to left field. The Yankees then increased their lead to 3-0 in the bottom of the third when Holliday and Frazier went back to back. A huge inning in the sixth allowed the Bombers to increase the lead to 9-1, which eventually led to their 9-2 victory.

Photo Credit: AP | Bill Kostroun

In the first inning, Severino started off extremely strong as he was able to retire the Red Sox in order. Eduardo Nuñez led off the game with an easy ground ball to Didi Gregorius. Following Nuñez, Andrew Benintendi grounded out to Starlin Castro and Mookie Betts popped out to Chase Headley at first.

In the bottom of the first, the Yankees had a real chance to give Severino a lead. Brett Gardner led off with a ground ball to second. Following Gardner, Headley singled up the middle to give the Yankees their first hit of the game. Sánchez reached on an infield single to Rafael Devers at third base. Following a pass ball on Sandy Leon, the Yankees were positioned with second and third with only one out. Starlin Castro had a chance to drive in a run, but he was unable to do so, when he struck out swinging. Aaron Judge also had a chance to drive in a couple of runs as he also struck out swinging.

In the bottom of the third inning, Headley led off the inning with a rocket homerun to left field. Down 0-2 in the count, Sale left a pitch over the middle of the plate, and Headley hammered it to left. Sale knew it was a home run as soon as it came off the bat of Headley. Sánchez followed Headley with an easy ground out to short while Castro was called out on a check swing. To conclude the inning, Aaron Judge was called out on strikes on a slider on the outside of the plate.

After a first pitch out in the bottom of the fourth inning, Matt Holliday had a strong at-bat against Sale working the count to 3-2. Holliday then crushed a towering home run to center field increasing the Yankee lead to 2-0. Following Holliday, Todd Frazier started an AB with a hard hit foul that landed just foul. Sale then left a slider in the heart of the plate that Frazier crushed to go back-to-back to increase the lead to 3-0. Ellsbury followed with a strong at-bat leading to a walk. Ellsbury then stole second base before Gardner was called out on strikes. To end the big inning, Headley grounded out to first.

Photo Credit: AP | Bill Kostroun

In the top of the sixth inning, the Red Sox finally struck on a couple of costly errors by the Yankees. The inning started off with a groundout to second before Nuñez reached on an error by Frazier. Benintendi then lined out to left before the Red Sox rally began. Mookie Betts would then reach on a throwing error by Frazier which allowed Nuñez and Betts to advance another base. A pass ball on Sánchez allowed the Sox to score a run before Sevy was able to strike out Mitch Moreland keeping it a 3-1 game.

The Yankees bounced back in the bottom of the sixth inning as they put up a huge inning. The inning started off with a walk to Holliday, before Frazier struck out swinging. Ellsbury then singled off of Robby Scott, which was then followed by a Gardner walk. Headley struck out before El Gary drove in Holliday with his second infield single of the game. Castro then unleashed a bases clearing double to right to add insult to injury, after Gary's infield single was ruled a hit rather than an out by instant replay. Judge would follow Castro with a moonshot homerun to left adding two more runs.  Gregorius would reach on a walk before the inning would finally end on a strikeout to Holliday. The Yankees totaled six runs in the bottom of the sixth to increase their lead to 9-1.

Photo Credit: AP | Bill Kostroun

In the bottom of the ninth, Giovanny Gallegos would allow a run as Leon drove in Sam Travis on an RBI single to left field.

Tommy Kahnle, Chasen Shreve, and Gallegos would pitch the seventh, eighth, and ninth to lock down the series win as the Yankees took three of four games against the Sox. This was a must win game for the Yanks as they were able to decrease the lead in the AL East to 3.5 games with around four weeks remaining in the regular season.

The Yankees will begin a three-game set with Orioles in Baltimore starting on Monday. With both teams sitting at the top of a competitive AL Wildcard race, this should be an exciting series for baseball fans.

Winning Pitcher: Luis Severino (12-6, 3.03 ERA): 6.0 IP, 2H, 0 ER, 9 K, 0 BB

Losing Pitcher: Chris Sale (15-7, 2.85 ERA): 4.1 IP, 7H, 3 ER, 6 K, 2 BB

Notables:

Chase Headley: 2-4, RBI, HR

Gary Sanchez: 2-5, RBI,

Aaron Judge: 2-5, 2 RBI, 2-R HR

Starlin Castro: 3-5, 3 RBI, 2B

Matt Holliday: 2-2, RBI, HR

Todd Frazier: 1-4, RBI, HR

Jacoby Ellsbury: 3-3, R

Article by: Benjamin Paglia

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