Andrew Heaney pitched his best game so far as a New York Yankee and Anthony Rizzo had a game winning two-run single in the second inning on Wednesday night, as New York finished off a three game sweep of the Boston Red Sox with a 5-2 win at Yankee Stadium.
Xander Bogaerts got Boston off to a good start with a two out solo homerun about three rows deep into the second deck in right field in the top of the first inning to make it 1-0. New York took the lead for good in the second when Brett Gardner hit a sacrifice fly to score Giancarlo Stanton, Andrew Valazquez had an RBI single, and then Rizzo made it 4-1 with a sharp single down the line at first base that Bobby Dalbec couldn’t come up with and it scored a pair of runs. Nick Pivetta struggled and only lasted 1.2 innings before being pulled in favor of Garrett Richards. Richards kept the Sox in it, but Heaney settled down after the Bogaerts homerun. The Yanks added on with another Valazquez RBI single in the eighth. Hunter Renfroe hit a one out solo homer off Aroldis Chapman in the ninth, and with two out and the tying run at the plate Chapman was pulled. Lucas Luetge came on and retired Kevin Plawecki on a groundout to end it.
Pivetta (9-6) was charged with four runs on four hits with three walks in his short outing and took the loss. Richards in his new role out of the bullpen didn’t allow any runs or hits with one walk and five strikeouts in 4.0 innings. The offense was held to just four hits in dropping to 69-54 on the season. Velazquez and Gary Sanchez had two hits each for the Yankees (69-52), and Heaney (8-8) allowed one run on two hits in 7.0 innings to get the victory. Luetge got his first save by pitching to one batter in the ninth inning. Boston who has gone 14-18 since the All-Star break is now 1/2 game out of the second wildcard spot in the American League. The Sox try to right the ship when they return home to open up a three game series with the Texas Rangers Friday night, sending Chris Sale (1-0, 3.60 ERA) to the mound in the opener. Texas will counter with Dane Dunning (5-7, 4.06).
