The New York Yankees had three hits on Friday night. If you’re new to baseball, three hits isn’t very many. In fact, it was utter domination from a pitching staff that many had questions about coming into the season.
The Red Sox now own the season series over the Yankees, 7-1. With five games remaining in the season series, the Red Sox clinched the season series and the playoff tiebreaker.
The lone run on Friday came via Connor Wong RBI double in the seventh inning. I wish I had more for tonight, but that was about it. Brayan Bello dominated (once again), and the defense did its job behind him. Max Fried was fantastic, but Bello proved he was just as good. The bullpen did the job behind him, and that was all she wrote.
Bello was dominant against the Yankees, as usual. Going into Friday night, Bello had a 2.21 ERA against the Yankees. He threw seven innings of shutout baseball before handing the ball to Garrett Whitlock. His changeup was the key pitch. The strike rate wasn’t high, but he consistently spotted the ball arm-side and down, and generated weak contact with it. His sinker also generated a 78% strike rate, including four outs. I’ve had too many beers to fully break down this outing, but he was magnificent, and deserves credit for being dominant against the Yankees once again.
Connor Wong has taken a lot of shit this season. His performance with runners in scoring position is less than inspiring, making him an easy target. On Friday night, though, he had the only RBI of the night, doubling in Nathaniel Lowe for the game’s only run.
The squirrel on the field in the 4th inning absolutely captivated America (read: the 10 dudes in my apartment playing a drinking game to determine our fantasy football draft order). My friends don’t like baseball on a “watch every regular season game” level, but were all locked in while the squirrel was on the screen in the fourth inning.
I think the guy was biased towards the Red Sox, but he was consistently bad. I can’t wait for the ABS system to bring some accountability to the system.
My fantasy football draft order game is mostly the luck of the draw. I haven’t been lucky this season. I’ll keep drinking till I get a pick.
