Kenley Jansen wasn’t going to wait around any longer.
With the Red Sox clinging to a two-run lead, men at the corners and the top of the Yankees order due up, the veteran closer picked up the bullpen phone and called the dugout. The message to Alex Cora was simple: “I’m in.”
“He made the call,” Cora said.
As he has so often throughout his 15-year career, the veteran righty came through.
Jansen escaped the eighth inning jam, and after the Red Sox bats added a couple of insurance runs in the bottom of the frame, he shut down the heart of the Yankees order in the ninth to close out a thrilling 8-4 Red Sox win in front of an electric sellout crowd at Fenway Park.
Now Boston has a chance to pick up its second consecutive series victory against one of baseball’s elite teams.
“I don’t want to lose that game,” Jansen said. “Guys grinded their butts off today and when you see all your players hit all their cylinders and playing great baseball, you want to be a part and stop the momentum from the other side so we could get that win.”
Jansen’s four-out save capped off one of the best wins of the season for Boston, who jumped all over Yankees starter Carlos Rodon in the early innings and whose pitching staff held the line the rest of the way.
Rodon, whose first season in New York last year was an unmitigated disaster, has looked much more like the All-Star the Yankees thought they were signing recently. Coming into Saturday night the left-hander ranked among the AL’s best with a 2.93 ERA, and he’d won seven consecutive starts dating back to early May.
The Red Sox made sure he wouldn’t get to eight.
Boston came out swinging in the bottom of the first. Jarren Duran led off the inning with a double, Tyler O’Neill drove him in with an RBI double of his own, and after Rafael Devers walked Connor Wong scored O’Neill with an RBI single. Jamie Westbrook capped off the rally with an RBI double to make it 3-0.
New York quickly answered with two runs off Cooper Criswell in the top of the second, with DJ LeMahieu coming through with a two-run, two-out single, but the Red Sox got right back on the attack in the bottom of the frame. Ceddanne Rafaela led off with a single, Rob Refsnyder reached on a fielder’s choice and O’Neill singled, setting the stage for Devers to rip a two-run double to the left field gap, putting Boston up 5-2.
Rodon settled down from there, limiting Boston to one walk over his last three innings of work, but the Red Sox pitching staff made sure the lead held.
Criswell only went four innings, but he limited the Yankees to two runs on three hits, two walks and six strikeouts. Rookie Justin Slaten followed with 2.2 strong innings of his own, including a white-knuckle fifth inning in which he loaded the bases with one out before striking out Giancarlo Stanton to escape unscathed.
Slaten followed with a scoreless sixth and nearly made it through the seventh too, but after topping 40 pitches he allowed a solo home run to Juan Soto and a single to Aaron Judge, prompting Cora to bring in the lefty Brennan Bernardino, who forced a groundout from Alex Verdugo to end the inning.
Following the game, Slaten acknowledged that his first Red Sox-Yankees rivalry game hit differently than any other he’s played before.
“It’s everything you see as a kid growing up,” Slaten said. “It’s just a really surreal feeling honestly. I had to come in after I was done and just take a minute to think wow that’s my first time pitching in a game like that. All games matter, but it felt like these last two and the one tomorrow mean a little bit more.”
The Red Sox picked up some insurance in the seventh after Masataka Yoshida roped a ground rule double into the gap and Enmanuel Valdez drove him in with an RBI single. Yoshida narrowly beat Judge’s throw home, but was ruled safe and the call stood upon review.
That proved crucial after Greg Weissert, pitching against his former team for the first time since being acquired in the Verdugo trade this past winter, got himself in trouble after walking a pair and allowing a single to load the bases with one out. He drew a fielder’s choice from LeMahieu for the second out, which scored Rizzo, but after that Cora brought out the big guns, summoning Jansen for the four-out save.
Jansen drew an Anthony Volpe flyout to end the threat, and perhaps realizing Soto, Judge and Verdugo would all bat in the ninth, the Red Sox took no chances and kept applying pressure. Rafaela led off with a double, scored on an RBI single by Duran, and then Duran came around to score after Yankees catcher Austin Wells botched a pickoff attempt at third base, allowing him to score and making it 8-4.
That was more than enough for Jansen to work with, and he finished the game to close out his 11th save of the season. Following the win Cora heaped praise on his closer and the impact he’s had both on the mound and in the clubhouse.
“He’s in a great spot physically, mentally, I know people criticized him early in the season but you guys see him every day here and you see the work he puts and the way he talks about this situation, he’s into it. He wants to help us win,” Cora said. “He cares about his craft, obviously he’s shooting for a lot of stuff in his career, the more saves he gets the closer he gets to Cooperstown, but right now he’s in the moment, and we appreciate that.
“That guy has been amazing for me throughout the year,” he added. “Trying to help me out, mentoring guys and trying to clean up a few things rookies will do. He’s been amazing.”
The Red Sox will now look to clinch the series Sunday night. Kutter Crawford (2-6, 3.47) is scheduled to face Marcus Stroman (6-2, 2.82) on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball. First pitch is set for 7:10 p.m.
