Final, Yankees win 6-4: Mike Napoli hit his 13th home run of the season and drove in two runs, but it wasn’t enough for the Red Sox to avoid the loss.
The Red Sox (49-61) brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth, but closer Dave Robertson preserved the victory for the Yankees (56-53).
Jackie Bradley Jr. looked at a picture-perfect strike three and Christian Vazquez flied to defensive replacement Ichiro in right before Brock Holt deposited a single in right field. But Dustin Pedroia was unable to keep it going when Chase Headley made yet another impressive defensive play in this series to gun out Pedey and end the contest.
Mid 9th, Yankees 6-4:Â To the bottom of the ninth we go …
Teixeira ripped a single past the outstretched glove of Holt in the overshift, but Mujica was able to get Beltran to miss on a splitter for the second out of the inning. Headley dunked a Texas leaguer just in front of Bradley in center for a single, sending Teixeira to second.
Drew gave his former team a bit of a scare when he scalded a pitch to deep right, but Nava made the catch look easy by the wall and immediately handed the ball to a young fan in the front row.
Top 9th, Yankees 6-4: Layne did his job, retiring all three batters he faced, including Ellsbury on a strikeout to open the ninth. He’ll give way to Edward Mujica.
End 8th, Yankees 6-4: Napoli struck out swinging on the 10th pitch of his at-bat, then Nava and Bogaerts went down relatively easily with groundouts. Time is running short for the Red Sox to come back.
Mid 8th, Yankees 6-4:Â Finally a clean inning for Red Sox pitchers. Layne relieved Wilson and induced a groundout to second by Gardner and a lineout to right by Jeter.
Top 8th, Yankees 6-4: Alex Wilson has had an active night on comebackers, but it’s gone for him now. After gloving a comebacker and flipping to first to retire Cervelli, the right-hander will be relieved by left-hander Tommy Layne.
End 7th, Yankees 6-4:Â Ortiz gets one run back for the Red Sox, but that is all. He hit a hot liner to left that was caught, bringing in Holt for what will go down as a sacrifice fly.
Cespedes, still looking for a big hit as a member of the Red Sox, skied a pop out near the mound, which Headley caught.
Bottom 7th, Yankees 6-3:Â The Red Sox have the beginnings of something going, but the Yankees aren’t taking any chances. Kelley will come out as Girardi looks to protect this lead.
Vazquez grounded out, but Holt walked and Pedroia singled to right.
Right-hander Dellin Betances will come in to face Ortiz.
Mid 7th, Yankees 6-3:Â Why can’t the Red Sox get players like Stephen Drew? Oh, riiiiight …
Drew plated Beltran, who led off the inning with a ground-rule double, with a one-out double over Nava’s glove in right. Bogaerts flashed some fancy leather to snag a grounder up the middle by Prado for the second out, and then Drew messed up.
Cervelli swung through strike two, which Drew thought was strike three, so Drew started jogging back to the dugout. But, of course, it wasn’t strike three, and Vazquez fired the ball to second base for the out.
End 6th, Yankees 5-3: Despite the starting pitchers struggled with their command, the strike zone has actually been fairly generous today.
Nava struck out looking on a pitch that appeared to be outside, then Bogaerts flied out harmlessly to center. Bradley struck out swinging and was thrown out by Cervelli when the ball squirted away.
Mid 6th, Yankees 5-3:Â You never know which hit might be Jeter’s last. He got an extra one in the sixth.
After Gardner struck out, Jeter nubbed a soft roller toward short. Bogaerts charged hard, fielded with his bare hand and threw to Napoli for what was initially ruled an out. A video review reversed the call, giving Jeter an infield single.
Jeter was ultimately erased at second on a fielder’s choice grounder by Ellsbury, followed by a groundout to second by Teixeira.
End 5th, Yankees 5-3:Â The Red Sox’s best scoring chance in a while went for naught, as Napoli watched strike three to end the inning and the threat.
Bottom 5th, Yankees 5-3:Â Cespedes came up in his first big situation as a member of the Red Sox but could not deliver.
Pedroia and Ortiz collected back-to-back singles after Holt led off with a flyout. Cespedes the flied out as well.
Apparently, that was enough for Joe Girardi to go to the bullpen. Shawn Kelley will come in to face Mike Napoli.
Mid 5th, Yankees 5-3:Â Badenhop deserves some credit for bridging the Red Sox from a struggling starter to get to their bullpen without adding to the damage.
Unfortunately, Craig Breslow came in and promptly gave up a bomb to Teixeira.
Teixeira’s leadoff homer way over the Green Monster doubled New York’s lead to two runs. Breslow did manage to escape further damage, but it wasn’t easy.
Beltran struck out and Headley popped out to second, but Drew walked and Prado singled sharply off the base of the wall in left. Both advanced on a passed ball before Cervelli grounded out to short.
End 4th, Yankees 4-3:Â Uh, OK.
Green struck out the side — Bogaerts and Bradley swinging, Vazquez looking — and we’re moving on to the fifth.
At least that helped get the pace of this game back on track.
Mid 4th, Yankees 4-3:Â Badenhop worked himself into a tight spot, picking up right where Webster left off, but did not sustain any damage.
Cervelli singled to left field, where Cespedes is playing very deep, to lead off. Gardner bunted him to second, but he was stranded there when Jeter and Ellsbury grounded out.
End 3rd, Yankees 4-3:Â The Red Sox didn’t exactly come storming back after giving up the lead.
Ortiz flied out to left and Cespedes grounded out to third before Napoli took a two-out walk. But Nava grounded out back to Green to end the inning.
Mid 3rd, Yankees 4-3: Badenhop managed to limit the damage, forcing Prado to ground out to get the Red Sox off the hook.
Webster’s final line is not very pretty. He went 2 2/3 innings, gave up four runs on just two hits, but with an unsightly six walks.
Top 3rd, Yankees 4-3: Just as the Red Sox took the lead, Webster gave it right back to the Yankees.
Webster walked Martin Prado, Francisco Cervelli and Brett Gardner to open the half-inning, loading the bases with no outs. Jeter delivered with a well-placed blooper over first base for a two-run double.
Having closed their deficit to one run, the Yankees then evened it up on a groundout by Ellsbury to second that scored Gardner from third. Webster was able to get Teixeira to ground out, but Beltran flicked a base hit into shallow left to score Jeter and give New York the lead.
Unfortunately for Webster, it wasn’t over. He gave up two more walks, to Headley and Drew, before manager John Farrell finally came out to replace him with Burke Badenhop.
End 2nd, Red Sox 3-0:Â Welcome to Boston, Yoenis Cespedes.
Cespedes rapped a single to left field in his first at-bat as a member of the Red Sox, and even got to cross home plate when Mike Napoli crushed one over the Green Monster for a two-run home run.
Daniel Nava walked, making it the first three batters of the inning reaching base, but Xander Bogaerts flicked a harmless fly to right field. Bradley hit a dribbler to the left of first base that might have snuck through, since Greene backed off, but Drew recovered to flip the ball with his glove to Teixeira for the out.
Just when it seemed Greene might escape without further damage, Christian Vazquez grounded back up the middle, bringing in Nava from second. Holt kept the inning going with a single to right before Pedroia popped out.
Mid 2nd, 0-0:Â The second inning went far more smoothly for Webster than the first did.
Carlos Beltran and Chase Headley grounded out before Stephen Drew struck out. At least Drew made it to 10 pitches before he whiffed, so that’s something.
End 1st, 0-0:Â After Webster’s tough first inning, Shane Greene breezed through his half of the frame, relatively speaking.
Holt grounded out to first, then Dustin Pedroia took a pitch on the outside corner for strike three. David Ortiz did the same, putting the Red Sox down in order.
Mid 1st, 0-0:Â Derek Jeter has had a decorated career, but a baserunning blunder might have cost the Yankees a big first inning.
Webster issued a leadoff walk to Brett Gardner, who took second when Brock Holt muffed Jeter’s hot chopper to third. With two on and none out to begin the game, Jacoby Ellsbury hit a sinking liner to center that was tracked down by Jackie Bradley Jr.
Bradley was then shocked to look up and see Jeter straying far from first base, and double-pumped before throwing to Mike Napoli for the easy double play. Mark Teixeira’s flyout to right ended the threat.
2:45 p.m.: If Yoenis Cespedes is to follow in Anthony Ranaudo’s footsteps with a victorious Boston Red Sox debut, it will be Allen Webster’s job to get the team off to a good start.
Webster makes his second start of the season and ninth start of his career with the Red Sox against the New York Yankees on Saturday. The 24-year-old right-hander gave up two runs over 5 1/3 innings in his previous start Sunday against the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Red Sox (49-60) are looking to make it two in a row over the Yankees (55-53), who are 3 1/2 games out of the second wild-card spot.
Brock Holt is back at third base and Daniel Nava is in right field, which is a bit of a surprise given that Cespedes was explicitly acquired to be the everyday right fielder. That is still the plan, according to Red Sox manager John Farrell, but Cespedes’ late arrival Friday afternoon, coupled with the early game Saturday, limited the amount of preparation work Cespedes could do in what is a difficult Fenway Park right field.
Christian Vazquez is behind the plate, with David Ross heading to the 15-day disabled list. Cespedes is in left with Allen Craig sitting. Craig turned his ankle running the bases Friday but Farrell said Saturday was a planned day off all along.
There is rain in the forecast, so stick with us if the skies start to darken. We’ll provide game or meteorological updates as they come.
First pitch is scheduled for 4:05 p.m.
