Bronx, NY (SportsNetwork.com) – Baseball’s most intense rivalry went to
another level Friday night … or Saturday morning if you’re keeping score.
The Red Sox and New York Yankees played the second-longest game by innings in
their historic matchup, but in the end Xander Bogaerts scored on Mookie Betts’
sacrifice fly in the 19th inning to send Boston to a 6-5 win.
“We were finally able to keep a one-run advantage,” Red Sox manager John
Farrell said. “We could go on and on about some individual plays, but this was
a test of endurance.”
The game lasted 6 hours, 49 minutes, the longest in the 115-year history of
the Red Sox.
That didn’t include a 16-minute delay due to a power outage in the 12th
inning.
“It was one game, but it seemed like six,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.
It was the second-longest contest between the teams, only short of an Aug. 29,
1967 game that went 20 frames, a 4-3 New York win.
Esmil Rogers (0-1), the eighth pitcher for the Yankees, gave up a one-out
single to Bogaerts, who then stole second. After Ryan Hanigan walked, the
players advanced on a passed ball. Betts then lifted a sacrifice fly to center
and there was no play at the plate.
Rogers, who lasted 4 2/3 innings, then managed to retire Dustin Pedroia on a
fly ball to right.
“That was his last hitter. That was the only place we could go,” said Girardi,
who added that the next pitcher would have been first baseman Garrett Jones.
Steven Wright (1-0) gave up six hits and two runs over the final five innings
to get the win in the opener of this three-game set, which ended at 2:13
a.m. ET.
Incredibly, the teams will be back on the field for a 1:05 p.m. start on
Saturday.
Edward Mujica, filling the closer’s role with Koji Uehara beginning the season
on the disabled list, had quickly retired the first two hitters in the ninth.
His fastball on the inner half to Chase Headley on a 2-1 count was crushed
into the second deck in right, however, giving the Yankees renewed life and
setting the stage for the drawn-out ending.
Mujica’s blown save denied Wade Miley a win in his Boston debut. The left-
hander, one of three new additions to a revamped Red Sox rotation, held
the Yankees to two runs and four hits while striking out six over 5 1/3
innings in the lefty’s Boston debut.
There was more drama in the 16h when David Ortiz homered to right, but Mark
Teixeira actually had the tying homer on his 35th birthday. His second homer
of the season came after well after midnight a leadoff blast to left field
to start the home 16th.
Pablo Sandoval singled in Pedroia in the 18th, but Carlos Beltran doubled in
John Ryan Murphy in the bottom portion. Didi Gregorius grounded out to strand
Beltran at third.
“It’s hard. Our guys did a good job of coming back, coming back, coming back.
It’s a grind,” Girardi said.
Nathan Eovaldi’s first start as a Yankee didn’t go quite as well. The hard-
throwing 25-year-old, acquired from Miami over the winter, was reached for
three runs and eight hits in 5 1/3 innings.
Eovaldi never had a clean inning and got into some early trouble when Pedroia
singled off a triple-digit fastball and Hanley Ramirez laced a base hit two
batters later to put two on in the top of the first inning.
Sandoval, who entered the game 8-of-11 lifetime against Eovaldi, then socked a
flat slider into center field for an RBI single.
Daniel Nava’s single off the glove of a diving Teixeira plated two runners in
the sixth, but New York finally broke through in the bottom of the sixth.
Miley surrendered a leadoff walk to No. 9 hitter Gregorio Petit, a base hit to
Jacoby Ellsbury and Alex Rodriguez’s sharp single up the middle brought the
Yankees within 3-1.
After a walk to Teixeira loaded the bases and ended Miley’s night, Brian
McCann greeted Robbie Ross with a sac fly to the warning track in right.
Game Notes
It was the longest game for the Yankees by innings since 1976 when they beat
Minnesota in 19 innings … Bogaerts and Sandoval each had four hits, part of
an 18-14 Boston advantage in the hits department … Ortiz now has homered six
times in his last 13 games against the Yankees … Eovaldi is winless in 10
starts (0-8, 2 ND) since collecting his last victory at Cincinnati on Aug. 8
of last season … Bogaerts and Gregorius were each members of the Dutch
National Team that won the 2011 Baseball World Cup. Both players were later
knighted by the Dutch government for the accomplishment … Boston left 20 men
on base compared to 13 for the Yankees.
