BOSTON --- If this season does indeed play out as an extended grudge match between the Red Sox and Yankees for supremacy atop the American League East and beyond, circle Wednesday night as the first real flash point.
The benches cleared twice and New York supplied the majority of the offensive fireworks in a wild affair at Fenway Park, the kind of game that can only turn up the heat on one of the oldest rivalries in all of sports.
Boston dished out most of the punishment [...]
BOSTON --- If this season does indeed play out as an extended grudge match between the Red Sox and Yankees for supremacy atop the American League East and beyond, circle Wednesday night as the first real flash point.
The benches cleared twice and New York supplied the majority of the offensive fireworks in a wild affair at Fenway Park, the kind of game that can only turn up the heat on one of the oldest rivalries in all of sports.
Boston dished out most of the punishment on the scoreboard in Tuesday’s series opener and was on the receiving end 24 hours later. Gary Sanchez cracked a pair of two-run homers and Giancarlo Stanton showed signs of life at the plate as the Yankees battled past the Red Sox, 10-7, in nearly four hours of fantastic theater.
David Price lasted just one inning in the shortest start of his career, departing for precautionary reasons due to what Boston staff members termed a “sensation” the pitcher felt in his left hand. Stanton’s two-run triple to right center and a two-run blast by Sanchez off an advertising board above the Monster Seats gave New York a 4-0 head start in the top of the first. In was the beginning of the end for the nine-game Red Sox winning streak and just the second loss suffered by a club riding the best start in franchise history.
Tyler Austin’s RBI single made it a 5-1 game in the third, but that was less impactful than his slide into second base on a force play later in the inning. Austin carried over the bag, with his spikes clipping the right foot of Boston shortstop Brock Holt, and tempers flared. There was no real venom in that confrontation, but more was to come in the seventh.
The Yankees padded their lead in the interim against the Red Sox bullpen, with Didi Gregorius lifting a sacrifice fly to left in the fourth and Sanchez launching a towering drive toward the light tower in left center off Heath Hembree for a second homer of the night. It was 8-1 and Boston looked all but finished.
New York starter Masahiro Tanaka had retired 10 straight men into the bottom of the fifth, only allowing a solo homer to left by Hanley Ramirez in the first. The Red Sox proceeded to bat around, with Mookie Betts ripping an RBI double into the corner in left and J.D. Martinez pouncing on a fat splitter down the middle to drive one into the bleachers in center. The grand slam was Boston’s third of the home stand, the sixth of his career for Martinez, and made it an 8-6 game.
Matt Barnes couldn’t hold it there, as the Yankees answered immediately against the third Red Sox reliever in the sixth. Stanton’s RBI single up the middle and another sacrifice fly by Gregorius, this one to center, restored a four-run lead. Three New York relievers held the Red Sox mostly at bay over the final four innings, with Jackie Bradley Jr. notching his third hit and scoring on a wild pitch in the ninth.
There was one matter of business left to settle – or, perhaps, left to be continued – in the top of the seventh. Joe Kelly dotted Austin between the shoulder blades with a 98 mph fastball, and this time cooler heads didn’t prevail. Austin spiked his bat with his right hand and headed for the mound, with Kelly landing a couple haymakers and Austin connecting solidly to the temple of Red Sox third base coach Carlos Febles with a right hand. Austin and Kelly were both ejected for their respective roles in the fracas, and the bad blood has ample opportunity to spill over against with 17 games remaining this season between the two clubs.
bkoch@providencejournal.com
On Twitter: @BillKoch25