Boston Red Sox’s Hanley Ramirez follows through on his solo home run during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees in Boston, Friday, Sept. 16, 2016.
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Mookie Betts said it was his greatest moment in baseball.
“I was trying to go to the moon”, Ramirez told reporters after the game. Boston (83-64) maintained its two-game lead atop the American League East after the second-place Baltimore Orioles’ win over the Tampa Bay Rays. The score was now 5-4 Red Sox, with Hanley Ramirez up next and the dugout going wild.
Montero’s blast to left came off Brewers reliever Blaine Boyer for his third career walk-off home run and gave the National League Central champions their seventh walk-off win of the season. NY is also 7-3 in their last 10 against the AL East, and 1-5 in their last six overall. 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.
It’ll be an interesting last 2 games of the season for both the Orioles and the Blue Jays, since they will be facing off against each other, perhaps with the wildcard home court advantage on the line.
NY got to Buchholz in the fifth by stringing together several hits. “It’s huge, man. Hanley is a guy that has been doing some unbelievable things”.
The Yankees and Red Sox more often than not come up with epic contests, and this one gets automatic entrance to the pantheon. Can’t ask for more than that.
Perhaps the great Yankees’ sell-off will change that one day, but that day is not today, and that is why there probably won’t be a tomorrow come October 2 – the final day of the regular season – for the Yankees.
The Yankees could always mention the excavation of a replica No. 34 Ortiz jersey that was buried by a Red Sox fan in an attempt to hex the team during the construction of the new Yankee Stadium in 2008. Yankees 1B Mark Teixeira returned after missing two games with a neck ailment and hit eighth.
To be sure though, they are definitely under the gun having fallen a full three games behind in the standings for the final Wild Card spot. It was only a few days ago that Mike Lupica in the same Daily News newspaper was referring to Girardi as “the real hero of the Yankees season”. The calls for Brian Cashman’s head for not bringing in a reliable and experienced starter to back up Tanaka may get louder. “We were in a pretty good position going into the ninth inning and we weren’t able to close the deal”.
The 22-year-old Berrios (2-7) allowed two runs in four innings and has given up 12 homers in 48 2/3 innings.
Ortiz had three RBIs and three hits – two for extra bases to give him 1,186 in his career.
The Red Sox lineup looked quite weak all game not really putting much together in the beginning, but finally catching some ground in the 9th inning against one of the games best relief pitcher Dellin Betances.
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With the crowd chanting “Papi!” Right in the very first inning, Gary Sanchez smashed into a 5-4-3 double play after Jacoby Ellsbury drew a walk. Girardi said his fastball was starting to “leak” and he didn’t want him to face the middle of the order a third. “Everyone’s exhausted this time of year”.
