N.Y. Yankees: Bronx Bummer Leave Bombers on Brink

From the desk of:  BLAME CARLOS MAY

Red Sox lead series 2-1

I - BOS 5; NYY 4

II - NYY 6; BOS 2

III - BOS 16; NYY 1

GAME THREE

RED SOX   16

YANKEES    1

FINAL

Boston Red Sox Hand Bronx Bombers Worst Defeat in Franchise Post-Season History.

Featured prominently across the front of Boston's warm-up jersey reads their post-season mantra: Do Damage.  Monday at Yankee Stadium the Red Sox do just that, handing the Bronx Bombers their worst post-season defeat in their 115-year history, and pushing them to the brink of elimination.

Already lost upon Bomber fans' collective memory is Gary Sanchez becoming the first Yankee catcher to hit multiple home runs in one playoff game, or that Aaron Judge becomes the first Yankee since Reggie Jackson to homer in three consecutive playoff games.  With one more loss in this ALDS, all fans will remember is a 100-win regular season spiraling counter-clockwise down the toilet; rookie manager Aaron Boone's failure to get out of the first round a year after Joe Girardi leads them within one game of the World Series; and something a little closer to their heart, getting eliminated yet again by the rival Red Sox in their own yard.  Nothing short of two straight victories changes that narrative now.

This much, however, for the moment remains true as ever: the Yankees live and die by the home run.  Through two Yankees losses, they total just one home run - an Aaron Judge blast in the ninth inning of Game One.  In their Game Two victory, Judge hit his second of the series, and Gary Sanchez adds two.  From a Red Sox perspective, they trade home runs in Game One, and win; get out homered in Game Two and lose; then hit one home run versus zero for the Yankees in Game Three, and win.

Boston had already scored 14 runs on 17 hits before Brock Holt's two-run jolt in the ninth.  As an aside, he becomes MLB's first player to hit for the cycle in a post-season game.  Cycling back, the Yankees have hit four home runs versus Boston's three, but the Red Sox have now out-hit the Yankees 31-23, and outscored them 23-11, through three games of the ALDS.

Luis Severino's very first offering of the game clocked in at 95-mph.  Leading off for Boston, Mookie Betts hits said pitch 405 feet away to the base of the center field wall for a very long out.  After which, the route is on.  Severino faces 18 batters through three innings, allowing six earned runs on seven hits and two walks, with two strikeouts.  The Yankees bullpen (Austin Romine aside) allows eight more runs on ten hits and five walks, with just two strikeouts.

In a tale of two acquisitions, the Yankees acquire J.A. Happ, who through his career has pitched very effectively against the Red Sox.  In Game One, Boston knocks him out of the box after just two innings upon allowing five earned runs on four hits and a walk.  In turn, the Red Sox acquire Nathan Eovaldi, a one-time Yankee, whom likewise has a reputation for pitching well against his former club.  In Game Three at Yankee Stadium, Eovaldi pitches a gem, allowing just one earned run on five hits, no walks, with five strikeouts, through seven full innings pitched.  In the seventh he pops the radar gun at 100-mph.

With another victory on Tuesday, the Red Sox clinch a trip to the ALCS, but not before making a complete mess of the visiting locker room at Yankee Stadium for a second time this season.  If you're the Yankees, there's all the motivation you need.

Game Four features C.C. Sabathia versus Rick Porcello.

Sabathia last pitched twelve days ago against Tampa, in which he pitches five scoreless innings of one hit ball, with no walks and five strikeouts before being ejected.  Sabathia is afforded a similar break coming out of the all-star break, when he goes two full weeks between starts.  Upon his return, he allows two earned runs on six hits and two walks, with eight strikeouts against Kansas City.  Over his last five starts, however, C.C. has allowed 13 earned runs over 21.2 innings pitched for a 5.51 ERA.

In Rick Porcello's last start against the Yankees on Aug. 3, he tosses a one-hit complete game victory at Yankee Stadium.  Porcello's last appearance against the Yankees comes in relief, when he records two game critical outs on 15 pitches in the eighth inning of Game One at Fenway.

Should the Yankees win, another match-up between J.A. Happ and Chris Sale awaits in Game Five.

N.Y. Yankees: Nathan Eovaldi Who?

From the desk of:  BLAME CARLOS MAY

Red Sox lead series 3-0

I - BOS 15; NYY 7

II - BOS 4; NYY 1

III - BOS 4; NYY 1

GAME FOUR

New York Yankees

vs.

Boston Red Sox

FROM

FENWAY PARK

New York Yankees: Boston Red Sox Proving Stronger, Faster, Smarter, and Just Better.  Bombers Need to Regroup, Move On, and Revisit This in September.

Champ Adams is officially a non-issue.  The rookie making his major league debut against the Red Sox at Fenway Park on Saturday allows three earned runs on just three hits and a walk through five innings pitched.  If you're the Bronx Bombers, you take that every time.

Because in Game Three, the Yankees face Nathan Eovaldi, whom the Red Sox acquire from the Tampa Bay Rays prior to the trade deadline.  As a former Yankee, the organization's highly touted analytics department should know him very well after making 48 starts for them during the 2015 and 2016 regular seasons.  Unfortunately for Eovaldi, he misses all of 2017 while recovering from Tommy John surgery, then misses the first two months of this season after undergoing elbow surgery in March.

In ten starts with Tampa, Eovaldi pitches with mixed results.  Along with an 8.3 K/9 average, he surrenders 48 hits and just eight walks through 57 innings pitched for a respectable 0.982 WHiP.  His 4.26 ERA while with the Rays, however, is a product of surrendering eleven home runs.

On Saturday, Eovaldi makes his second start for the Red Sox.  He faces 26 batters, and throws 93 pitches with 65 (69%) going for strikes, including 18 first pitch strikes.  He surrenders no runs on just three hits and a walk, and strikes out four through eight innings pitched for a clutch well earned victory.

Over his last two starts in a Red Sox uniform, Eovaldi is yet to yield a run through 15 innings pitched, with only seven hits and one walk allowed, and nine strikeouts.

Saturday's game took just 2:33 to play, during which time the Yankees hardly recognized him.

Fans who remember 1978 might argue, but the Yankees picked the worse time possible for losing their bearing.  Eight and a half games now separate the Red Sox from the second place Yankees.  If fans were clinging to hope of winning a division title before this modern Boston Massacre, they can be heard praying for a Wild Card today.

All that's left for this series is to salvage Game Four.  Otherwise, these last three games are not the be all/end all for the Yankees season.  Their goal moving forward should be making those final six games scheduled for late September meaningful again.  I contend Brian Cashman's transactions will not go for naught.  Regroup and continue mission until Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, and J.A. Happ all return to the fold.

That being said, if Aaron Boone isn't the one lighting a fire under his team's feet, at least Phil Nevin tried.  Otherwise, this weekend is largely on Boone.  Alex Cora already made damn sure of that.

In the meantime, I'm led to believe more and more that Aaron Judge will ultimately decide the Yankees fate.

GAME FOUR:

Didi and Stanton, and maybe Andujar, are presently wielding the only productive Yankee bats worth mentioning.  Otherwise, the Yankees generally hit David Price very well.  Tonight just might be their night.  Masahiro Tanaka is a pro's pro.  He'll want to salvage this game for the Yankees with a statement, i.e., eight innings of scoreless two-hit baseball.  And like Alex Cora did Saturday by creating work for Craig Kimbrel, so too does Aaron Boone need to get Aroldis Chapman some much needed work.

The Red Sox do a better job of making contact and strike out far less than the competition.  When on base, they'll continue running like thieves in the night.  Tanaka's split-finger is an ideal pitch to run wild on, and the Red Sox will do just that.  Like Tanaka, David Price should be a motivated camper.  The Red Sox smell sweep, and how sweet it would be.  I belive there's a part of David Price that wants to prove once and for all he belongs in this rivalry.

I'm going with trends.  The Yankees are losers of four straight and falling fast like a pinstriped piano out of the Boston sky.  Make that cloudy skies above, because when it rains, it pours, and therefore I say the Red Sox complete the sweep.

But it won't be easy.

GAME FOUR

Yankess    4

Red Sox   5

10-innings

Red Sox Complete Four Game Sweep of Yankees; Increase A.L. East Lead to 9.5 Games.

Mookie Betts crushes a Masahiro Tanaka fifth inning offering over the Green Monster and completely out of Fenway Park.

The Yankees take a 4-1 lead in the seventh, but the Red Sox came back with three runs in the ninth inning against Aroldis Chapman.  Andrew Benitendi then drives in the winning run in the tenth.