Once again, the Yankees (40-37 overall, 19-19 away) are a mess this season but as always, that is not the Red Sox' (47-31 overall, 23-17 home) problem at all. Good for Boston for taking advantage of the situation as they destroyed the Yanks 9-2 this afternoon on a sweltering day at Fenway Park. Thanks to another three-game sweep of their biggest rival, the Sox improved to 6-0 against the Yankees in 2021. Standings wise this was a very important contest since coupled with Tampa Bay's (47-32) unexpected loss 6-4 to the Angels (37-40), the Sox retook the lead in the AL East. They are a half game ahead of the Rays (with a game in hand), six games in front of Toronto (40-36) and now 6.5 ahead of the lifeless Yankees.
The craziest part of a very surprising victory was that Red Sox starting pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez (6 IP, 2 ER, 5 hits, 8 Ks, 0 BBs) clearly outdueled New York's ace Gerrit Cole (5 IP, 6 R (5 ER), 6 Ks, 2 BBs) who is typically one of the best pitchers in baseball. For E-Rod (6-4), it was his first win in nine starts while Cole (8-4) suffered through his worst outing of the season. The home team wasted no time taking control of the game as center fielder Kike Hernandez laced a home run over the Green Monster (his 7th of the season) on the first pitch of the game for Boston. It soon became 4-0 Red Sox when third baseman Rafael Devers (3-for-4) crushed a three-run bomb to right field (his 19th of the season!). That was only in the first inning so naturally Boston added two more runs in the third inning: designated hitter J.D. Martinez hit a solo home run to center (his 15th of the season) and shortstop Xander Bogaerts (2-for-4 with 2 runs scored) came around on catcher Christian Vazquez's sacrifice fly to make it 4-0 in favor of the good guys.
Fittingly, New York's only two runs came from a two-run shot by their star outfielder Aaron Judge (his 17th home run of the season) that went over the Green Monster in the sixth inning. Boston's offense wasn't done as they ended up scoring as many runs today (9) as they had combined in the last two days. In the seventh, Devers knocked in Bogaerts with an RBI single that pushed the Red Sox' lead up to 7-2. Vazquez added his own solo homer (his 4th of the season) that went into the Monster Seats in the eighth inning then Kike drove in second baseman Marwin Gonzalez with an RBI double later on in the frame.
This weekend was so bad for the Yankees that you have to believe that ownership could be exploring many possible trade ideas along with some personnel changes. The Red Sox outscored them 18-7 over the weekend in the series. Aaron Boone seems like a nice enough guy (and I have to admit I liked him very much as a commentator at ESPN-his previous position) but I don't think that he's cut out to be an MLB manager-at least not in a huge market like NYC. Remember that this is a guy who had never coached or managed at any level until he got one of the most coveted positions in baseball. Haha with an empty resume like that, who could have seen this coming?
There is no off-day for the Red Sox tomorrow even though it's Monday. They begin a four-game series with the Royals (33-43 overall, 15-24 away) at Fenway followed by a six-game West Coast road trip that starts in Oakland (47-33 overall, 25-18 home) and ends in Los Angeles where they'll meet the Angels (37-40 overall, 21-19 home) for three games. Kansas City stinks, they have lost five straight games although keep in mind that the Royals won two out of three at home vs. the Sox a few weeks ago. Today was the start of another heatwave in the Boston area so you are crazy if you want to attend any of the Royals series unless you have access to a luxury box with air conditioning. Mr. Human Puddle himself Garrett Richards (4-5) faces the sneaky good Danny Duffy (4-3) tomorrow night (7:10, NESN) in the series opener; on Tuesday night (7:10, NESN), Nick Pivetta (6-3) takes on Brad Keller (6-8); on Wednesday night, it will be Martin Perez (5-4) vs. Mike Minor (6-5) in a battle of mediocre lefty starters; in Thursday afternoon's (1:10, NESN) series finale, it is Nathan Eovaldi (8-4) against TBA for KC who arguably has been their best pitcher during this miserable season.
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