Saturday night brought a month’s worth of drama to The Bronx, and for the first time in a long time, the Yankees came out on top.
The Yankees finally beat the Red Sox, 3-1, in six innings, on a stormy night at the Stadium, after losing their first seven meetings of the season.
It only took a rainstorm, some bad umpire calls, another strong outing from Gerrit Cole, and a pair of home runs from Gary Sanchez and Gleyber Torres.
“It was a good win to stop the bleeding, especially against the Red Sox,’’ Cole said.
At first, it didn’t appear that the Yankees would avoid a third straight loss. They had been shut out on Friday, and it wasn’t until Greg Allen doubled to right-center with two out in the fifth inning that they got a hit off Boston right-hander Nathan Eovaldi.
However, DJ LeMahieu tied the game with an RBI single after Allen’s double, and they took the lead in the sixth inning with back-to-back homers by Sanchez and Torres.
The game was called after a 52-minute rain delay in the sixth inning due to the weather worsening throughout the night.
“It got pretty bad out there at the end,” manager Aaron Boone said.
The storm hit after the game had been delayed by nearly an hour, despite the fact that the weather was fine at the time.
The Yankees, on the other hand, will take any break they can get at this point.
“To finally push through against those guys was certainly nice,’’ Boone said. “Now we’ve got a big one [Sunday].”
After a devastating loss in Houston to end the first half, the Yankees returned from the All-Star break with six players on the COVID-19 injured list, only to be blanked by Boston on Friday.
Cole, on the other hand, followed up his shutout in Houston with another strong outing, this time with Sanchez at the plate because Kyle Higashioka is out with COVID-19.
The Red Sox got to Cole in the second inning after stranding a runner at third in the first. Christian Arroyo hit an RBI single to left, putting the Yankees in yet another early hole.
In the first inning, Eovaldi hit Rougned Odor and Sanchez with pitches, but then retired the next nine batters before Torres walked with two outs in the fourth.
After a hiccup in the second inning, Cole was unstoppable. After Arroyo’s RBI single, he gave up just one hit and retired the next 10 batters before walking Rafael Devers with two outs in the sixth.
Hunter Renfroe followed with an infield single, and Cole walked Jarrad Duran to load the bases for Vazquez after a visit from pitching coach Matt Blake.
