Opener Alec Gamboa departed in the second inning, yielding to Brayan Bello with a runner on first. The Sox used the same template as the earlier contest today: score early with a solo homer. This time it was Nick Sogard in the top of the third, notching his third hit in his last four at-bats.
Unfortunately, Bello let things get away from him in the third. Three hits, a walk, a hit batsman, a sac fly, stolen base and an error later, the Yankees had plated three (all earned). Bello followed with a nine-pitch fourth inning and a similarly 1-2-3 fifth, making it look easy again, and giving the offense time to chip away at the deficit.
In the sixth, the Sox tried to do just that, starting off with a walk and a HBP and no outs. They forced another pitching change too but then quickly ended the inning, with a sequence that included two K’s in a row. So much for that rally.
The sixth was also rocky for Bello, with two Yankee singles and a double steal. After a sac fly that scored a run, Chad Tracy had seen enough. Raymond Burgos, freshly back in the bigs, got the Sox out of the inning.
Meanwhile, things were real quiet at the dish between Sogard’s third-inning homer and Abreu’s eighth-inning double. That double seemed to light a fire under them, as Willson Contreras followed it with a triple…but he was stranded there.
In the bottom of the eighth, there was an embarrassing defensive moment when a pop fly dropped between Sogard and Abreu. Then another when Burgos didn’t cover first base, allowing the bases to fill because Contreras, who’d fielded the ground ball, had nowhere to throw. Several runs scored on single after single after single [blah blah let’s not dwell on it too much], then the bases loaded for the second time in the inning. The Yankees batted around, sending Bellinger to the plate twice in the eighth. They scored five times in the inning, all on singles, all on Burgos.
On the night, every spot in the batting order scored a run.
Not our night at all. The Yankees evened up the season series again with the split of the doubleheader.
None tonight. There were flashes from players like Bello, Sogard, and Burgos—and in fact, each of them occupied a place on this list…until they didn’t.
While he alternated chaos with masterful 1-2-3 innings, the Dr. Jekyll in him won out today. He was lifted after 4.1 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 1K.
Grateful to him for serving as a sacrificial lamb and saving the rest of the bullpen, but his 5 ER were worse than Bello’s four. Sigh. 2.1 IP, 7H, 5 ER, 2K.
They spent themselves in the ninth inning of Game 1 and apparently lost the momentum. The Yankees demonstrated how chipping away with singles can accomplish a lot, but the Sox were sleeping in class.
Gosh, I don’t know if there really was a POTG tonight. Certainly there wasn’t much to choose from for the Sox tonight, so let’s give it to Nick Sogard’s homer to get them on the board.
