Brandon Workman lit the match, Ryan Brasier supplied the gasoline and Brett Gardner started the fire with one swing on Wednesday night. The Yankees rode the sudden spark to a 5-3 victory, one that dealt Boston only its second sweep in the past two years.
NEW YORK - Each night of this wretched season to date seems to bring with it a different culprit for the Red Sox.
This time it wasn’t the starting pitching. You might even be able to excuse the offense, pedestrian as it was after staking Boston to an early lead.
Wednesday was the time for a perceived weakness in the winter months to sting the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. A bullpen that has been generally sturdy to this point buckled under the Bronx heat, handing New York a second win in as many games of the abbreviated series.
Brandon Workman lit the match, Ryan Brasier supplied the gasoline and Brett Gardner started the fire with one swing. The Yankees rode the sudden spark to a 5-3 victory, one that dealt Boston only its second sweep in the past two years.
Gardner’s one-out grand slam to right field in the bottom of the seventh inning was the 100th home run of his career, and it was quite the time to notch such a milestone. New York erased a 3-1 deficit, handed Nathan Eovaldi a no-decision after a dominant six innings in his best start to date and sent the Red Sox to Tampa Bay on the sourest of notes.
Brasier and Matt Barnes have operated at the back end of the relief corps to date, leaving Boston with three outs to steal in the seventh. Workman allowed a leadoff single to Clint Frazier and issued walks to Mike Tauchman and Austin Romine, loading the bases for the top of the order. Brasier worked ahead 0-and-2 on Gardner before leaving a fastball out over the plate, one Gardner lined to the second row of the bleachers in right field.
It was only the fifth homer allowed by Brasier in the big leagues but his second at this venue. Neil Walker did the honors with a three-run shot last Sept. 18, and the Yankees forced the Red Sox to wait two extra nights before clinching a third straight American League East title. Such an achievement feels light years away now, as Boston finds itself rooted in the basement ahead of a three-game set with the first-place Rays.
The Red Sox loaded the bases themselves in the next half-inning, but the Yankees maintained the two-run lead thanks to a free agent reliever they elected to sign away from the Rockies. Adam Ottavino was in a two-out jam before inducing Eduardo Nunez to fly weakly to right and Aroldis Chapman cleaned up in a 1-2-3 ninth.
Boston jumped on top only three batters into this one. J.D. Martinez launched a first-pitch fastball from J.A. Happ to Monument Park in the first, a 424-foot solo homer to center that made it 1-0. The Red Sox were only 3-6 this season when taking the lead, a stark contrast to the 10 consecutive games won by Boston when striking first in the 2018 postseason.
Happ was done in by the long ball again in the second, as the stadium’s cozy dimensions in right field came back to bite the hosts. Mitch Moreland lined a leadoff single to right and Christian Vazquez lifted a lazy fly that settled into the second row, a two-run homer to give the Red Sox a 3-0 lead. Vazquez’s round-tripper carried a mere 337 feet, a certain out at Fenway Park and a game-changing swing at this venue.
Eovaldi invited some trouble in the fourth by issuing his lone walk to Luke Voit leading off. Gleyber Torres hit a bouncer to deep short and Nunez couldn’t glove the throw from Xander Bogaerts, putting two men on with nobody out. Frazier grounded a one-out double inside the bag at third and the Boston lead was shaved to two.
Eovaldi staunched the bleeding there, fanning Tauchman on a filthy 3-and-2 split-fingered fastball down in the zone for the second out. Some help from his defense helped Eovaldi complete the escape, as Steve Pearce made a terrific backhanded dive on a bouncer by Gio Urshela and flipped to Eovaldi covering. The right-hander set New York down in order in each of his final two frames, finishing at 104 pitches.