Mookie Betts had himself one heck of a game Friday night.
The right fielder went 4-for-5 in the Boston Red Sox’s 10-5 win over the New York Yankees at Fenway Park, blasting three home runs (two solo shots and one two-run dinger) in one game for the fifth time in his Major League Baseball career.
Betts led off the game with home run No. 1:
[nesn_embed_the_score team=”patriots”
Home run No. 2 for Betts came in the third inning:
But he wasn’t done there, clubbing his third home run of the game one inning later in the fourth:
After the game, Betts shared his excitement with NESN’s Guerin Austin.
“It’s a lot of fun,” he said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “Just to hit one is, you know, obviously something special. But to hit three in a game is just that much better.”
When asked what’s been different for him the month of July, Betts said he’s done a lot of hard work to get where he’s at today.
“Better late than never,” he said.
Manager Alex Cora was pleased with how Betts worked the count and took advantage of the strike zone Friday night.
“It’s always cool when he smiles on the field, and today was one of those big nights,” he said after the game. “So hopefully, it is the beginning of something great here.”
Here are some more notes from Friday’s Yankees-Red Sox game:
— Andrew Cashner earned his first win in a Red Sox uniform since being traded to Boston on July 13, giving up three runs (all earned) off 10 hits through 6 2/3 innings pitched.
In fact, Cashner had been looking forward to his first game as part of the famed Red Sox-Yankees rivalry since signing with Boston.
“It was awesome. I mean, just the fans, you feel locked in every pitch,” he said. “It was pretty loud, it was fun!”
Cora knew Cashner was excited about Friday night’s matchup, and was thrilled with how well he performed.
“(The Yankees) are a great offensive team and (Cashner) had them off-balance,” he said. “There was some good at-bats, but he made some pitches too, quick inning right away after we scored, shut down innings, so it was a great one for Cash.”
— Prior to this four-game series at Fenway, Boston was just 1-6 against the Yankees this season. They are now 3-6 against New York thanks to two straight wins over the Bronx Bombers.
— The Red Sox have scored 29 runs against the Yankees in the last two games.
— Boston now is 11 games above .500 for the first time this season.
