Gleyber Torres' Game 1 pep talk, timely hitting lead Yankees to doubleheader sweep of Red Sox
The Yankees' Gleyber Torres hits a two-run single in the sixth inning in the first game of a doubleheader against the Red Sox on Tuesday in Boston. Credit: AP/Steven Senne
BOSTON – A mound visit from pitching coach Matt Blake and catcher Kyle Higashioka didn’t settle down Clay Holmes in the midst of a three-batter span in which the Yankees closer walked the bases loaded with one out while trying to protect a one-run lead in the ninth inning against the Red Sox.
What Holmes needed was a talking-to from Gleyber Torres.
Torres jogged to the mound, casually picked up the rosin bag, and said a few encouraging words.
On the next pitch, Holmes got Alex Verdugo to ground into a game-ending, 4-6-3 double play – a tough DP started by a charging Torres – and the Yankees took a 3-2 victory in the first game of a day-night doubleheader on Tuesday at Fenway Park.
The Yankees won the nightcap, too, 4-1, to sweep the twinbill and escape sole possession of last place in the AL East. The Yankees and Boston, both 73-72, are tied for fourth place with two games left to go in the series and 17 in the season.
Torres, who drove in the go-ahead runs in the opener with a two-run single in the sixth and added an RBI single in Game 2, said he told Holmes to let the Red Sox hit the ball.
“I didn’t say anything about pitching because I don’t know anything about pitching,” Torres said. “But just to refresh [him], like how nasty he is, every sinker, every secondary pitch . . . ‘You’ve got a really good defense, so you don’t have to strike out everybody.’ ”
Said manager Aaron Boone: “I think Gleyber went out to the mound and said, ‘Use your defense.’ So he had the right words for him and then Gleyber - that's a really good turn. His only chance to turn it was obviously being as aggressive as he was, to go run through that ball and get a good feed there to Anthony [Volpe] and a good turn by Volp there.”
The Game 2 victory was Boone's 500th as Yankees manager.
In one game, Torres - who has been the Yankees’ best player not named Aaron Judge this season – showed all his skills.
There was the two-run single inside the first-base bag, which came against a drawn-in infield and capped a three-run sixth-inning rally with the Yankees down 2-0.
Torres admitted he had purposefully cut down his swing because of the situation (“about time,” many Yankees fans will say).
Righthander Nick Pivetta had struck out 10 over the first five innings, including Torres twice, but the Yankees got on the board on DJ LeMahieu’s RBI double and had runners on second and third and one out when Torres came to bat.
“I felt like the first couple of at-bats I just tried to be so aggressive,” Torres said. “I felt like I was so aggressive I lost control at home plate. That last at-bat, I knew the situation . . . I don’t have to do too much. Just play ping-pong, I guess.”
It was Torres’ aggressiveness in the field that allowed him to complete what he admitted was a “really difficult” double play to end the game. He charged, spun and threw to second, and Volpe fired to a stretched-out LeMahieu to get Verdugo by a hair.
“I believe if I was to stay back, I think Verdugo’s going to be safe,” he said. “But I said, ‘Boy, if I attack the ball and I miss the ball, it’s going to be game over.’ So just believe in the moment, try to be . . . in control. I made a really good throw to second and Volpe finished the double play. It was a really good double play.”
In the nightcap, winning pitcher Carlos Rodon allowed a 400-foot home run over the Green Monster for the first big-league homer for Red Sox rookie Ceddanne Rafaela. That was the only run allowed in five innings by Rodon (3-5), who gave up four hits, walked four and struck out nine.
The Yankees tied the game at 1 in the fifth on Estevan Florial’s two-out RBI single. It was the first hit of the season for Florial, who was called up before Monday’s rainout to replace the injured Jasson Dominguez and started both games in center.
The Yankees took the lead on a run-scoring groundout by Jake Bauers in the sixth and added a pair of insurance runs in the eighth on Torres’ RBI single and a run-scoring catcher’s interference.
An unlikely relief crew of Zach McAllister, Anthony Misiewicz, Matt Bowman (yes, those are all Yankees) and Nick Ramirez (first career save) preserved the victory.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
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