NEW YORK — The Yankees played home run derby Saturday, launching five long balls en route to a 7-4 win over the Boston Red Sox.
The Yankees have taken two of the first three games in the teams’ weekend set, with Hiroki Kuroda earning the victory in Saturday’s matinee showdown in the Bronx. John Lackey suffered the loss for Boston as New York’s offense fired on all cylinders.
Felix Doubront and Ivan Nova will battle in Sunday’s series finale, but let’s first glance over some notes from Saturday’s action.
– The Yankees launched five home runs. Brian McCann blasted two, and Carlos Beltran, Alfonso Soriano and Kelly Johnson each had one.
McCann and Soriano went back-to-back in the fourth inning, marking the Yankees’ first back-to-back homers since Robinson Cano and Mark Teixeira accomplished the feat on June 6, 2013.
McCann’s multihomer game was the 10th of his career. His last multihomer game came against the Toronto Blue Jays on May 28, 2013.
– Six Yankees players — McCann, Beltran, Soriano, Johnson, Jacoby Ellsbury and Yangervis Solarte — finished with two hits.
– Lackey surrendered four homers in his first loss of 2014. The right-hander was taxed for six runs on 10 hits in 5 2/3 innings.
Lackey said after the game he felt like his command wasn’t all that different from his previous two starts, in which he was much more effective. Lackey simply mislocated with a few pitches, and the Yankees’ offense made him pay.
Lackey now is 10-11 with a 4.99 ERA in 28 career starts against the Yankees.
– A.J. Pierzynski collected two hits, including a two-run homer in the second inning that temporarily tied the game at two apiece.
Pierzynski is 9-for-16 over his last five games.
– Mike Carp delivered a two-run single in the seventh to cut the Yankees’ lead to 6-4. The Red Sox were their own worst enemy, though.
Carp took off for second base with Mike Napoli on third and Xander Bogaerts at the plate. McCann gunned down Carp to end the inning.
“On the 0-2 count, we gambled a little bit to get 90 feet,” Farrell said. “I know we’re down two (runs) with Xander at the plate. (But) down 0-2 (in the) count, we’re thinking there might be a breaking ball so we sent (Carp) just to try to create something (and) be a little bit more aggressive, and it didn’t work out.”
– There was an obvious instant replay flub in the eighth inning with the Yankees leading 7-4.
Dean Anna hit a ball into the right-center field gap and hustled his way to a double. The only problem was that Anna came off the bag while finishing his head-first dive into second base, and Bogaerts applied a tag.
The umpires missed the call and ruled Anna safe. Farrell challenged the play, and despite clear visual evidence — at least from the television replays — that Anna came off the bag and was tagged, the call was upheld.
“We had probably five angles that confirmed his foot was off the base, and when the safe call came back, it certainly raises questions on if they’re getting the same feed we are (and) the consistency of the system,” Farrell said. “It makes you scratch your head a little bit on why he was called safe.”
