Headed our way on Saturday afternoon, we’ve got another installment of the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox from Fenway Park in a big Major League Baseball rivalry series.
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Kirby Yates entered the game and became the fourth Yankees reliever in the span of one inning.
BOSTON (AP) – It wasn’t as timely as the one the night before, but don’t ask Hanley Ramirez which home run was better.
Cessa (4-2) gave up a solo home run to Hanley Ramirez (2-for-3, 2 RBI), one night after Ramirez’s three-run shot off closer Dellin Betances completed the Red Sox’s comeback in a five-run ninth – scoring a stunning, 7-5 victory against their sworn rivals.
There were still two on and two outs when Ramirez worked a 3-1 count and then sent the next pitch to straightaway center field. That tied the slugger with Frank Robinson for 11th on the all-time list for extra-base hits.
“The middle of the order has been powerful, and it has been consistent”, manager John Farrell said of Nos. NY is also 7-3 in their last 10 against the AL East, and 1-5 in their last six overall. The homer was Big Papi’s 34th this year, tying the record for most home runs by a player in their age 40 season.
The Red Sox, meanwhile, gain ground on their closest peruser in the division, because Baltimore lost to Tampa By 7-6, and so the Sox now have a two game lead over the Orioles for the division crown, and a two-game lead over Toronto, who snapped a losing skid by beating the Angels last night.
NY is four games behind co-leaders Baltimore and Toronto in the wild-card race.
Ortiz orchestrated a large part of this win, giving the Red Sox some life in the eighth inning with a home run to slice the Yankees’ lead to 5-2 before his bloop single in the ninth.
Mets 3, Twins 0: Bartolo Colon limited the Twins to three singles in seven innings, Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera hit consecutive home runs off rookie Jose Berrios in the third, and NY beat Minnesota in the opener of their final homestand this season.
Things started off well for the Yankees as they smacked around Red Sox starter Eduardo Rodriguez for four runs before he departed after just 2 1/3 innings of work. Betts singled to make it 5-4, and Gary Sanchez’s passed ball put runners on second and third before Ramirez ended it.
Dustin Pedroia led off with a single, but was thrown out trying to get to second by Brett Gardner from left field.
Hanley Ramirez repeatedly received questions about his lack of home run power while hitting just one homer during April and four over the first two months of the season. Betts was also called for the potential inning-ending out stealing second, but the replay review showed he was safe.
Much like convenience-store lackey Dante Hicks in Kevin Smith’s seminal 1994 film Clerks, the New York Yankees weren’t even supposed to be here.
Rule No.1 for the former Mets farmhand if the Yankees are to get back on track is pretty simple vs. Boston tonight: Keep the ball inside the ballpark.
NY took a four-run lead in the third inning and still led 5-1 before David Ortiz hit a solo shot in the eighth. He created a couple of jams for himself, but to the left-handers he was able to go to a couple of changeups to get some soft contact. “He’d bend a little bit, but stayed away from the big inning”. TV: 1:05 p.m. ET, FOX PITCHING MATCHUP: Yankees RH Bryan Mitchell (1-1, 2.45 ERA) vs.
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Less than a week after winning seven straight games to climb back in the postseason race, the Yankees have managed to erase most of that progress these last few days.
