After an exciting but relatively tame 1-0 win last night to clinch the season series over the Yankees, Boston took the series on Saturday afternoon with a 12-1 victory that marked its eighth straight win against the Evil Empire.
Truthfully, after the Red Sox remembered what to do with men on base early in the game, it was as good as over with Garrett Crochet on the mound. He completed seven dominant innings, striking out 11 while allowing only five hits and one earned run on a dinky solo shot by Giancarlo
Stanton, which Boston responded to with a home run by Trevor Story to take a 5-1 lead in the top of the fifth. After Story’s third RBI of the day, I figured the Sox were in a pretty good place for the remainder of the afternoon, considering how feeble New York looked against a nasty Crochet. And for a while, this was enough, until the ninth inning rolled around and they decided to both pour some more salt in the wound and make the Yankees make a fool of themselves with a seven-run inning to cap it all off. Jarren Duran’s first hit of the day drove in Roman Anthony to start things off before frequent hero Nathaniel Lowe grabbed his first RBI of the day, setting up Story to score on a Ceddanne Rafaela single and make it 8-1. David Hamilton kept the line moving by running out a groundball to Anthony Volpe, which forced Volpe’s second-worst error of the series with a massive overthrow of first base to bring in another run.
Then, after a tough month and a half, Carlos Narvaez got the last laugh on a sunny afternoon in New York, as Rafaela came in to score on a balk by Paul Blackburn before Narvaez launched a two-run homer on the very next pitch to get us to the final score of 12-1.
Everything about this win was truly beautiful. Anthony looked more himself after struggling yesterday — Alex Cora revealed on Friday that he was a bit “under the weather” — Narvaez found the power he’s been greatly lacking as of late, Crochet was the monster we know he is capable of being, and everyone in the starting lineup got at least one hit besides Alex Bregman.
So let’s take that bludgeoning of a ninth inning into tomorrow’s series finale and make it nine straight wins against the enemy and jump a clear couple of games above the AL East rival.
Three studs
Garrett Crochet
Although we pretty much know what to expect every time Crochet takes the mound, it doesn’t make his 7-inning, 11-strikeout outing — against a rival, no less — any less astounding. Crochet was slicing and dicing all day, and once again served as a pillar upon which Boson could build a quality win.
Trevor Story
As a Colorado native and part-time Rockies fan, Trevor Story’s resurgence this season has been one of the best things to happen within a talented team. When he’s raking, good things happen. And tight games become much easier to win.
Carlos Narvaez
Boston’s catching has been the exact opposite of something to write home about since mid-July, but Narvaez looked much more like the bat we’ve come to know him to be this afternoon. That homer was exactly what he needed, and exactly the exclamation point with which Boston should end an 11-run win over their rival.
Three duds
No duds today! Really solid production from across the lineup, and the bullpen did their part in the two innings they were required to do so. Greg Weissert had a rocky start, but Justin Wilson bailed him out, and Jordan Hicks had a surprisingly unproblematic ninth inning on the back of a double-digit lead.
