BOSTON --- Apparently it’s not just a London Stadium thing.
The Red Sox offense spent Thursday night administering another battering to the Yankees on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. The difference here was Boston’s pitching staff finally held up its end of the bargain.
New York’s first visit of the season to Fenway Park could hardly have gone worse. Masahiro Tanaka made the wrong kind of history as the Red Sox enjoyed a 19-3 demolition in front of a [...]
BOSTON --- Apparently it’s not just a London Stadium thing.
The Red Sox offense spent Thursday night administering another battering to the Yankees on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. The difference here was Boston’s pitching staff finally held up its end of the bargain.
New York’s first visit of the season to Fenway Park could hardly have gone worse. Masahiro Tanaka made the wrong kind of history as the Red Sox enjoyed a 19-3 demolition in front of a sellout crowd of 37,591 fans.
Xander Bogaerts bracketed the fireworks with a pair of home runs, crushing a three-run shot to left in the bottom of the first inning and a solo shot to left in the eighth. Eight different players recorded multiple RBI for Boston, tying an American League record as the Red Sox kicked off this four-game weekend series in style. It was a new season high in runs scored for Boston and was more than enough to move 10 games over .500 for the second time.
The Red Sox piled up seven runs in the first, their most against the Yankees since plating eight during a 9-5 win in September 1989. Tanaka was charged with 12 earned runs in 3 1/3 innings, the first time Boston has reached that number against an opposing starting pitcher since 1949. Carl Mays was the last New York starter to allow as many as 12 earned runs, doing so in 1923.
Six of Tanaka’s previous seven pitches were out of the strike zone when he threw a 3-and-1 fastball to Bogaerts in the first. It landed 451 feet away on Lansdowne Street, a majestic drive that made it 3-0. Jackie Bradley Jr. and Mookie Betts added two-run doubles with two outs as the Red Sox poured it on early.
Boston backed up its seven-run opening inning with five more in the fourth. Rafael Devers sent a rocket above the Monster Seats for a leadoff solo homer and Michael Chavis added an RBI double down the line in left. Mitch Moreland lashed a two-run ground-rule double down the line in right and Christian Vazquez sent an RBI double to left, making it 12-2.
The Red Sox kicked again in the fifth, this time against left-handed reliever Stephen Tarpley. Andrew Benintendi lined an RBI single to right, Chavis smoked an RBI double off the wall in center and Vazquez plated a run with a routine grounder to short. It was a 15-3 lead enjoyed by the hosts.
Devers shot an RBI double inside the bag at first in the sixth and New York turned to a position player for help on the mound in the eighth. Austin Romine received the same rough treatment, as Sandy Leon skied a two-run homer to the Red Sox bullpen in right. Bogaerts followed one batter later with another drive to deep left, completing the onslaught.
Rick Porcello grinded his way through six innings for Boston, throwing 112 pitches to match his second-most in a start this season. Porcello required 47 of those to escape the second, and Colten Brewer was warming behind when Aaron Judge flew to deep center with the bases loaded. Kyle Higashioka’s leadoff homer to left in the fifth was the only other blemish against Porcello, who retired 13 of the final 15 men he faced.
Four straight New York hits had Porcello in all sorts of trouble, as an RBI single to left by Gleyber Torres put the Yankees on the board. Mike Tauchman won a nine-pitch battle by dropping a single into left-center and D.J. LeMahieu drew a 10-pitch walk to force in a run, making it 7-2. Bradley ran down Judge’s drive near the Red Sox bullpen, preserving Boston’s comfortable lead.
bkoch@providencejournal.com
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