Josh Donaldson provides walk-off win for Yankees on Opening Day
On a day the Yankees' front office failed to reach a contract extension with Aaron Judge — the franchise’s biggest star — Yankees players succeeded in delivering for their fans.
Josh Donaldson led off the 11th inning with an RBI single off Kutter Crawford to give the Yankees a season-opening 6-5 victory over the Red Sox on Friday afternoon at the Stadium.
“It was nice for my first game here to be able to help the team win,” Donaldson said after the Yankees' first walk-off victory on Opening Day since 1957.
Donaldson drove in Isiah Kiner-Falefa with a hard ground ball to the left of second base that went between shortstop Jonathan Arauz and second baseman Trevor Story. Kiner-Falefa started the inning at second base per MLB’s extra-inning rules.
“I felt like we showed some resiliency today,” Donaldson said.
Multiple times.
The Red Sox, who led 3-0, 4-3 and 5-4, took that last lead in the top of the 10th when Xander Bogaerts fisted an inside fastball from Michael King for a one-out RBI single to left. He drove in Christian Vazquez, who started the extra frame on second base.
The Yankees, who had rallied from a 3-0 first-inning hole, quickly tied it. With pinch runner Marwin Gonzalez starting the inning at second, lefthander Jake Diekman hit DJ LeMahieu on the foot. Joey Gallo’s groundout to second advanced the runners and, after Aaron Hicks was intentionally walked to load the bases, Red Sox manager Alex Cora brought in righty Ryan Brasier to face Kyle Higashioka. Aaron Boone sent up pinch hitter Gleyber Torres, and his sacrifice fly to center on an 0-and-2 pitch tied it at 5-5.
“He was ready to go,” Boone said of Torres, who started the game on the bench in favor of LeMahieu at second base. “That’s a tough spot where you’re down 0-2, shadows late, first at-bat of the season, everything on the line right there . . . just really a good job of sticking his nose in there and getting a good piece of one. Proud of him.”
King, flashing some nasty stuff, struck out two in the 11th before Donaldson won it. King was part of a cadre of seven relievers who were mostly excellent.
Down 4-3 with one out in the eighth, the Yankees tied it on LeMahieu’s homer to right-center. They trailed 3-0 before they ever batted, but they got a two-run homer into the bleachers in right-center by Anthony Rizzo in the first and a 116-mph laser just over the rightfield wall by Giancarlo Stanton to tie it at 3-3 in the fourth.
Gerrit Cole, who was knocked out in the third inning of the Yankees' wild-card loss at Fenway Park last October, allowed three runs and four hits in four innings Friday. Cole, who threw 64 pitches in his final spring training start April 1, threw 68 pitches (42 strikes). He walked one and struck out three.
Former Yankee Nathan Eovaldi, who while with the Red Sox has more often than not had his way with his old team, allowed three runs and five hits in five innings. He walked one and struck out seven.
The day’s biggest hit might have taken place in the bottom of the first with the Yankees trailing 3-0, courtesy of Rafael Devers’ two-run homer into the second deck in rightfield and J.D. Martinez’s RBI double.
After Donaldson bounced to second, Judge flared a single to right and Rizzo ripped a 414-foot homer to make it 3-2.
“A huge lift,” Boone called the blast.
Rizzo, part of a Cubs team that won the 2016 World Series, felt that way about the win — that it was huge.
“It’s one game that [could] be a deciding factor over 162,” he said. “That’s the mindset. Every year there’s going to be a team in the division where it’s coming down to one game, so they all matter. It is just one game, yes, but the mindset is they all matter and it’s time to go.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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