The Boston Red Sox lost game two of the Wild Card series to the New York Yankees in part due to sloppy baseball.
In the bottom of the fifth inning with two outs and a runner on second base, Aaron Judge hit a soft fly ball to left field. Jarren Duran charged the ball and went into a dive, only for the ball to hit off his glove and drop in for a hit.
With two outs, Trent Grisham was running on the play. With Duran on the ground, he couldn’t recover in time to attempt to throw the runner out at home, and the Red Sox fell behind by a run.
“As I was coming in, I thought it was hit a little harder than it was,” Duran said. “I kinda gained more ground than I thought. I didn’t have to go into a full dive there … it’s on me.”
Trevor Story tied the game in the sixth inning with a solo home run, but that was the final run the Red Sox scored on Wednesday. It wasn’t their final opportunity, though.
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In the seventh inning with the game still tied, Masataka Yoshida hit a ground ball up the middle with two runners on. Jazz Chisholm made a diving stop and threw to first. The ball skipped away from first baseman Ben Rice, but Nate Eaton didn’t react in time to score from third base. Story flew out to deep center field to end the inning and the threat. The Red Sox didn’t have a runner advance to second base in the final two innings of the game.
Thursday will feature a winner-take-all game between the two bitter rivals. Connelly Early will get the start for the Red Sox against Cam Schlittler for the Yankees.
“I have complete confidence in this team. We’ve been through stuff like this before, and we’ve been resilient all year, so I’m excited to see what we do tomorrow,” Duran said.
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