Despite a solid win to open the series against their big rivals, the Boston Red Sox showed once again why they’re so bad this season, as the inconsistency in their starting pitching and hitting returned. The New York Yankees picked up a 5-1 win behind a home run and big hitting from Brian McCann, hoping that it’s once again the right step in the direction of somehow making the playoffs.
It was a great day on the mound for Hiroki Kuroda, picking up his 10th win for a third straight season, quite a contrast to the first game in the series as the Red Sox seemed to get a home run almost every at bat. This time, they were limited to only six hits throughout the entire game, with Kuroda giving up only four in seven innings, striking out eight batters and walking just one.
For the Red Sox it was Anthony Ranaudo on the mound, picking up his first loss this season. He wasn’t too bad, but without any kind of run support, as Mookie Betts, David Ortiz, Allen Craig (no surprise there) and Xander Bogaerts all went hit-less, his three runs earned in 5.1 innings, allowing six hits and striking out just one batter was a bad enough performance to earn him his first loss this year.
Brian McCann was in the zone on the night with his 17th home run of the season, making it a two run homer to kick things off with in the 2nd inning. He added another RBI single in the 7th inning, reaching 61 this season. He finished with a 4-for-4 day at the plate, seeing only 16 pitches coming his way as he bumped his batting average to .244, which is almost 20 points lower than his career average.
Jacoby Ellsbury with a sacrifice fly and Brett Gardner with an RBI single also brought in runs for the Yankees, who improved to 71-66 and stopped a three game losing streak that took them a bit off course in their bid to make the playoffs this season, hoping not to miss it two years in a row, something that hasn’t happened to them in 20 years.
They are now 9.5 games behind the Baltimore Orioles in the AL East, which means a close to nothing chance of actually making the postseason by winning the division. Their wild card probabilities aren’t looking too hot either, finding themselves tied with the Cleveland Indians to be four games behind the Detroit Tigers, who are hanging on to the second wild card ticket for the time being.