Back-to-back homers by Gary Sanchez, Gleyber Torres back Gerrit Cole vs. Red Sox
Gary Sanchez of the Yankees celebrates his sixth-inning home run against the Red Sox with third base coach Phil Nevin at Yankee Stadium on Saturday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
It’s symbolic, perhaps, what the Yankees were able to do through all the rain clouds.
With their season potentially on the brink against the AL East-leading Red Sox, the trade deadline around the corner and six players on the COVID-19 injured list, it seemed unlikely that this dormant offense would choose Saturday night to finally wake up. But as the rain poured and Gerrit Cole dominated at Yankee Stadium, they found one more gear to help them overcome this latest flavor of adversity.
Though they were able to get little going against Nathan Eovaldi — they were 3-for-44 in the series and 0-for-14 on Saturday before picking up their first hit — the moment the door to the visiting bullpen opened, they feasted. Back-to-back solo home runs to right-center by Gary Sanchez and Gleyber Torres in the sixth put them ahead 3-1 before the game was called because of inclement weather ahead of the seventh inning.
"I thought it was a big win," Cole said. "I thought I caught a couple breaks. It was a good win for the club, a good win for us to be able to stop the bleeding, especially against the Red Sox."
It was the Yankees’ first win against Boston in eight tries this season, but it wasn’t all good news. The Yankees lost Tim Locastro to an ACL tear suffered when he made a catch in foul territory while colliding with the wall in the first inning.
Cole (10-4, 2.63) was everything the Yankees needed — even without personal catcher Kyle Higashioka, who’s on the COVID-19 injured list. He allowed a run, five hits and two walks with 11 strikeouts in six innings despite the trying circumstances. It was his seventh game with at least 10 strikeouts, matching the MLB high shared by Tyler Glasnow and Jacob deGrom. He had pitched a three-hit shutout against the Astros in his previous start, striking out 12 and throwing 129 pitches.
The Red Sox scored their sole run off Cole in the second. Jarren Duran singled on his first major-league swing and scored from second on Christian Arroyo’s two-out single.
The Yankees didn’t get their first hit against Eovaldi until the fifth, but they managed to tie the score in nearly the same breath. With two outs, Greg Allen doubled to the gap in right-center and scored when DJ LeMahieu singled to left on the seventh pitch of his at-bat.
After striking out Alex Verdugo and J.D. Martinez to begin the sixth, Cole got himself into trouble, walking Rafael Devers, allowing an infield single by Hunter Renfroe and walking Duran to load the bases. He escaped by striking out Christian Vasquez, who was ruled to have been unable to check his swing.
Red Sox bench coach Will Venable and catcher Kevin Plawecki subsequently were ejected by third base umpire Laz Diaz.
The game was briefly stopped in the bottom of the sixth after a fan apparently threw something at leftfielder Verdugo, prompting Alex Cora to take his players off the field. A man was escorted out by security before play resumed. Shortly after that, the Yankees took the lead.
With one out in the sixth and Hirokazu Sawamura pitching, Sanchez slammed a low fastball into the first row in right-centerfield. A fan reached for it and it hit him in the forearms; Sanchez’s 16th homer was upheld after video review. Two pitches later, Torres homered to the same general area for a 3-1 lead. It was his first homer in 29 games since June 5 and fourth of the season.
"Every day is so important right now for us as a team, and certainly tonight was the case," Aaron Boone said. "To finally push through against those guys is certainly nice and now we’ve got a big one tomorrow."
It helps, too, that Sanchez and especially Torres helped them do it. "Those are two key figures for us in our offense, so for them to fire away [is important]," Boone said. "I know there’s been a lot of talk about Gleyber and not hitting the ball out of the ballpark but I felt like he’s been swinging the bat well."
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
