![]() ![]() ![]() Aaron Judge then reached on an infield single, and that was all for Eovaldi. Eovaldi went with a first-pitch curveball, but he caught a little too much of the strike zone and Rizzo curled one around the pole in right field to put the Yankees on the board. Eovaldi got a quick first out to start the inning, but then Rizzo stepped in. We knew Alex Cora was going to be more aggressive given the stakes of this game, and we saw it at the first sign of trouble since the first for his starter. Unfortunately, Holmes has been electric for New York since he came over at the trade deadline, and he got out of that third inning before coming back out for a scoreless fourth.Īfter Luis Severino gave New York’s bullpen another scoreless inning in the fifth, Eovaldi was back out for the sixth. The Yankees ace couldn’t record an out in the third inning, and the Red Sox had a big chance to break this one open with Clay Holmes coming in. Schwarber was sitting all over it and blasted it out to right field for a solo shot, putting the Red Sox up three.īoston would get two more runners on with the next two batters, and that was it for Cole. Kyle Schwarber led off the inning - and hit leadoff in this game - and Cole tried to get a 1-2 fastball by him above the zone. Kevin Plawecki added a double to the tally in the second, but that was all they got there, with the top of the order coming back around in the third. Photo by Rob Tringali/MLB Photos via Getty Images The ball flew 427 feet out to center field, and the Red Sox struck first with a 2-0 lead. For come reason Cole threw a 2-1 changeup and it stayed right over the plate, and Bogaerts crushed it. They say the slate is wiped clean when the postseason starts, and Bogaerts certainly took that to heart. The Red Sox shortstop had a tough second half, and had an especially bad second half of September to close out the season. It looked a little troublesome right off the bat with two quick outs and Cole looking great, but Rafael Devers extended the inning with a big walk to bring Xander Bogaerts to the plate. ![]() The Yankees ace is obviously one of the best pitchers in baseball - probably the second best in the world right now - but the Red Sox have had a little success against him this year, and they got to him in this one again. ![]() And then he really buckled in, tossing perfect frames in the third, fourth, and fifth innings.Īnd then there was the other side of things, with Cole on the mound. He’d strike out the next batter he faced after Stanton to end the inning, and then only allowed a single in the second, this one hit just a few feet in front of the plate on a swinging bunt. Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images That said, Stanton thought it was gone, watched it out of the box and only got to first, and Eovaldi was dialed in from there. The one time where it did look like he may have been getting into a little bit of trouble was in the first, as Anthony Rizzo started the inning off with a hard-hit out and then Giancarlo Stanton put one off the Monster a couple batters later. This time? This time he had all of his pitches working, and he had it all working as he was working in different arm angles and changing the speed of his delivery. In that outing, he had none of his secondaries working and he couldn’t miss bats. It was especially refreshing to see this version of Eovaldi after his last time out against New York when he didn’t make it through three innings. Those who were surprised by what they saw perhaps should not have been. But Eovaldi still had the best season for a playoff team, and has a track record of domination coming into the game. To be fair, it’s not a ridiculous concept, as Cole has the contract and the track record to back it up. A lot of that attention, though, went to the other guy. One of the big storylines coming into the game on Tuesday was the battle of the teams’ respective aces, with Gerrit Cole taking on Nathan Eovaldi. Things got a little dicey in the middle as the Red Sox offense stalled out a bit, but big performances from Boston’s bullpen held the ship steady until the Red Sox broke it open with a couple of big hits from Alex Verdugo, and that was that. Nathan Eovaldi was electric, and Boston chased Gerrit Cole out of the game with no outs in the third thanks in part to two homers. The home park was rocking in a way I’m not sure we’ve seen in 15 years, and it sure seemed like the Red Sox players fed off that energy. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |