Any aspirations that the 2019 Boston Red Sox had to try and pick up a playoff spot in the American League Wild Card race took a big hit over this past week. James Paxton pitched over six innings of shutout baseball, and five starters had two hits each as the New York Yankees made it three of four wins over the weekend by shutting out Boston 5-0 Monday night at Fenway Park.
The only thing Sox fans had to cheer about Monday was the return of David Ortiz. Big Papi addressed the crowd and threw out the first pitch prior to the game. Paxton and Boston starter Eduardo Rodriguez went toe to toe in a scoreless game through four innings. Austin Romine provided the only scoring the Yanks would need with a one out solo homer to right field in the top of the fifth. Rodriguez kept the hosts in the game by allowing just the one run in his six innings. New York (95-50) though would break it open against the Boston bullpen in the seventh. Gio Urshela hit a solo homer to left center, DJ LeMahieu an RBI single to left, and Gleybur Torres added a sacrifice fly to left to make it 4-0 off Darwinzon Hernandez. Luke Voit added another with a line drive RBI single to left in the ninth. Boston (76-68) went 2-5 for the week against Minnesota and New York, and have fallen to 8.5 games back of the second playoff spot with just 18 games left.
Rodriguez (17-6) ended up with a final line of 6.0 innings pitched allowing one run on five hits, with one walk and nine strikeouts in the loss. Jackie Bradley Jr. had three hits and Christian Vazquez had two on the night for the Boston offense. The Sox stranded 10 runners on base and lost 13 games out of 19 against the Yankees on the season. Paxton (13-6) allowed no runs on four hits, with three walks and seven strikeouts in 6.2 innings. Aaron Judge, Torres, Voit, Urshela, and Romine all had two hits each. New York is currently in a tie for the best record in the American League with Houston in a battle for home field throughout the American League playoffs.
Boston will open up a three game series at Toronto on Tuesday night at 7:07 p.m. Nathan Eovaldi against T.J. Zeuch is the scheduled pitching matchup.
Boston center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. makes a catch in a game earlier this season at Fenway Park against the Los Angeles Angels. Bradley Jr. had three hits on Monday night as the Sox dropped their third straight game against their rival New York Yankees. Photo courtesy of Delaney Gardner
