Late-inning offensive surge powers Yankees over…
All over The Bronx on Saturday evening was reduction.
From a Yankees offense that finally awoke, first with a three-run third inning and later a five-run eighth. From a Yankees, properly, reduction corps that didn’t bend. From a Yankees membership that escaped a very long day of baseball with the Red Sox no nearer to pulling off what could be a historic comeback.
After the offense may do nothing proper against lefty Jake Bennett in the doubleheader-opening 6-0 loss, the Yankees cracked the Red Sox workers, pulled away late and rode drained arm after drained arm to a 9-2 victory in the nightcap — constructed on the strength of 13 singles.
A complete of 91,580 followers across two video games in The Bronx watched a long day of baseball that didn’t alter the race for the top wild card. The Yankees (77-59) preserve a three-game edge on the Red Sox in the American League wild card race, and the tiebreaker — ought to the groups end with the same file — will probably be determined Sunday. The groups are 6-6 against the other before the sequence finale. The Rays (81-54) gained and moved 4 ½ video games clear of the Yankees.
In what is actually the largest Yankees sequence of this month and arguably the second largest of their season (behind next month’s 4 video games against the Rays), and in a head-to-head battle with the Red Sox that options eight complete All-Stars, arguably the most important Yankees on Saturday evening have been Yerry De los Santos, Michael Fulmer, Paul Blackburn, Tim Hill, Brent Headrick and Brendan Beck, who mixed for 5 ¹/₃ innings in which they let up just one run.
New York Yankees’ Ben Rice, left, scores on a Jazz Chisholm Jr. sacrifice fly in the third inning during the second baseball recreation of a doubleheader against the Boston Red Sox on Aug. 30, 2026, in New York. AP Photo/Corey Sipkin
There have been all kinds of hitting, fielding and decision-making considerations after a Saturday opener in which supervisor Aaron Boone acknowledged, “We played poorly.” They performed most poorly with their bats, held down by a second Red Sox lefty (Bennett, who threw six scoreless innings) in a sequence Boston stacked as many southpaws as potential to exploit a Yankees weak point.
The first two video games of the sequence included just seven Yankees hits — Paul Goldschmidt’s Friday home run the only run-scorer — and 20 strikeouts. Of those seven, all have been scattered: They had not logged a number of hits in any body.
With a righty on the mound, they finally broke through in the nightcap’s third inning. Against Brayan Bello, who adopted lefty opener Alec Gamboa (1 ¹/₃ scoreless innings), they exploded for the only three runs they might need.
There have been good at-bats with helpful outcomes, like José Caballero’s leadoff single. There was good baserunning, like Caballero’s ensuing steal of second. There was good situational hitting, like Luis García Jr. just making contact with the bases loaded for an RBI fielder’s alternative and Jazz Chisholm Jr. following with a sacrifice fly.
New York Yankees’ Luis García Jr., proper, hits into a fielder’s alternative, scoring Trent Grisham, in the third inning during the second baseball recreation of a doubleheader against the Boston Red Sox on Aug. 30, 2026, in New York. AP Photo/Corey Sipkin
A superb recreation grew to become a laugher in the eighth, when the Yankees despatched 10 batters to the plate against lefty Raymond Burgos and took benefit of sloppy Boston protection to run away with the sport.
Not that the bullpen needed the cushion.
A bunch that was pressured to cowl 9 ²/₃ complete innings Saturday because Carlos Rodón (4 ²/₃, two runs in his third outing since an injured record stint) and Max Fried (3 ²/₃ innings, one run in his first outing back) was excellent.
New York Yankees pitcher Max Fried (54) walks to the dugout after pitching the first inning against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. IMAGN IMAGES via GWN Connect
The Yankees bullpen ensured that one unhealthy inning from Bello is all the membership required. Fried was lifted in the fourth inning with William Contreras on first for De los Santos — who had pitched just a few hours in the past in the opener.
Yet the more and more dependable De Los Santos recorded the last out of the body and two more in the fifth, when Fulmer — introduced in earlier this week — entered and escaped the inning.
Blackburn (who threw 19 pitches Friday and 22 Wednesday) regarded contemporary. As did Hill, who pitched a clean seventh, and Brent Headrick (pitching on a back-to-back), who let up an RBI triple from Willson Contreras but nothing more. After the Yankees lineup exploded in the eighth, it was Beck and not David Bednar for the ninth.
On a day that they had one official loss, the Yankees will hope they didn’t undergo another with their shortstop.
George Lombard Jr. twisted his proper knee on a second-inning test swing and remained in the sport until he was lifted before the top of the fourth with what the membership called discomfort that required exams. Caballero moved from third base to shortstop and Amed Rosario entered at third.
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