Aaron Judge hit a two-run double, and Giancarlo Stanton followed with a long two-run homerun in the eighth inning Sunday night leading the New York Yankees to their first sweep since 2015 at Fenway Park with a 6-3 win over the Boston Red Sox. New York now holds the top American League wild card by one game with six regular season games left.
Boston (88-68) took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning on an RBI sacrifice fly by JD Martinez. New York took their first lead in the fifth when Gleyber Torres scored on a double play ball hit by Gio Urshela with the bases loaded, and DJ LeMahieu followed with an RBI single to make it 2-1 Yankees. The Red Sox took advantage of two errors during one at bat in the seventh inning to take the lead again. Jose Iglesias and Alex Verdugo led off with singles, and moved to second and third base on a wild pitch Joely Rodriguez. Christian Vazquez scored Iglesias with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-2. After Kike Hernandez struck out, Kyle Schwarber pinch hit. LeMahieu dropped a foul pop at third base keeping Schwarber alive, and then he reached on a second error during the at bat when left fielder Joey Gallo misplayed a ball allowing Verdugo to score to make it 3-2 Boston. The guests took advantage of two missed outs by the Sox in the eighth to win the game. Urshela led off with a walk against Garrett Richards, but pinch runner Tyler Wade was thrown out at second by Vazquez with LeMahieu batting trying to steal. LeMahieu then walked and Anthony Rizzo hit a sharp double to right field, bringing Adam Ottavino out of the bullpen. Ottavino looked as if he had struck out Judge, as Vazquez held the foul tip but lost it on the transfer out of the glove but it was called a foul ball by home plate umpire Joe West to keep the at bat alive. Judge took the next pitch off the wall in center on a bounce for a two-run double, and then Stanton finished off a huge weekend by clearing the monster in left for a three-run lead. The homerun traveled an estimated 448 feet.
Eduardo Rodriguez in his no decision allowed two runs on six hits with one walk and eight strikeouts in 5.0 innings. Richards (7-8) was charged with the loss, while Ottavino had a blown save. Hernandez, Rafael Devers, and Verdugo had two hits a piece. Chad Green (10-7) won in relief of Jordan Montgomery, with Aroldis Chapman picking up his 30th save. LeMahieu and Stanton had two hits a piece as New York improves to 89-67. Stanton becomes just the fourth Yankees player in history to have at least three homeruns and 10 RBI in a three game series against the Red Sox. The other three were Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Mickey Mantle. Boston starts a three game series in Baltimore on Tuesday night with Chris Sale (5-0, 2.57 ERA) on the mound against Bruce Zimmermann (4-4, 4.83) for the Orioles. The Sox are 1.5 games ahead of Toronto for the second wild card, and 2.5 games ahead of Seattle.
