Yankees salvage Red Sox doubleheader with late-inning offensive surge after ugly Game 1 loss
All over The Bronx on Saturday night was relief.From a Yankees offense that finally awoke, first with a three-run third inning and later a five-run eighth.From a Yankees, well, relief corps that did not bend.
From a Yankees club that escaped a very long day of baseball with the Red Sox no closer to pulling off what would be a historic comeback.Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.
After the offense could do nothing right against lefty Jake Bennett in the doubleheader-opening 6-0 loss, the Yankees cracked the Red Sox staff, pulled away late and rode tired arm after tired arm to a 9-2 victory in the nightcap — built on the strength of 13 singles.A total of 91,580 fans across two games in The Bronx watched a long day of baseball that did not alter the race for the top wild card.The Yankees (77-59) maintain a three-game edge on the Red Sox in the American League wild card race, and the tiebreaker — should the teams finish with the same record — will be decided Sunday.
The teams are 6-6 against the other before the series finale.The Rays (81-54) won and moved 4 ½ games clear of the Yankees.In what is certainly the biggest Yankees series of this month and arguably the second biggest of their season (behind next month’s four games against the Rays), and in a head-to-head battle with the Red Sox that features eight total All-Stars, arguably the most important Yankees on Saturday night were Yerry De los Santos, Michael Fulmer, Paul Blackburn, Tim Hill, Brent Headrick and Brendan Beck, who combined for 5 ¹/₃ innings in which they let up just one run.There were all sorts of hitting, fielding and decision-making concerns after a Saturday opener in which manager Aaron Boone acknowledged, “We played poorly.” They played most poorly with their bats, held down by a second Red Sox lefty (Bennett, who threw six scoreless innings) in a series Boston stacked as ma...