Half of the Yankees’ six hits came in that inning, but the key play was a Jacoby Ellsbury fly ball that Red Sox rookie Andrew Benintendi misplayed in left.
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Second opinion for Eovaldi: After a contrast MRI on his sore right elbow, Yankees starter Nathan Eovaldi will go for a second opinion.
But after leaving him out of the lineup the first two games at Fenway, Girardi installed A-Rod in Thursday’s cleanup spot against Eduardo Rodriguez, a lefty he’d had success against, only to watch him go hitless in three at-bats, including a strikeout. Rain is in the NY forecast Friday night.
Granted, the run scored on a dribbler that traveled maybe 15 feet, but it was still A-Rod’s most meaningful contribution in almost a month, helping the Yankees to a 4-2 win and a series victory against the Red Sox at Fenway Park on Thursday.
With the Sox up 2-1 after seven innings, Rodriguez was pulled for Brad Ziegler – the righty who entered with a 0.87 ERA since joining the Sox – to begin the eighth. The Yankees did not disclose the results but did say Eovaldi will seek a second opinion.
“I really thought he might hit a ball in the seats tonight”, manager Joe Girardi said.
Thursday marked just the 11th professional game Benintendi has played in left field after coming through the system as a center fielder.
Asked about the possibility of rain interfering with his final game as a Yankee, Alex Rodriguez said there’s been no talk of contingency plans if the game gets washed out. While Rodriguez will be playing the final game of his big league career on Friday, the Yankees will host the ceremony at 6:50 p.m. EDT with a 7:35 p.m. start scheduled.
Farrell said he got a call from Ortiz on Thursday morning and the retiring slugger said he was OK.
“I’ve been so focused on this week [that] I don’t even have time or energy to think about anything else”, said A-Rod, who restated that he still feels he can play. His status for Thursday’s series finale was uncertain following the Yankees’ 9-4 win over Boston.
“The way he walked off the field, the way he came off the field last night, it was certainly a question”, Farrell said. “We added one of the game’s greatest players at a discounted price because there were considerable offsets of salary, and we got a lot of production from him for quite some time”.
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Michael Pineda pitched well, but Hanley Ramirez had two run-scoring hits, including a tie-breaking double in the fifth.
