BOSTON – The Red Sox ran the Yankees out of the building Friday night at Fenway Park.
Bringing on a base crash with nine steals against Jose Trevino and himself, the Red Sox cruised to a 9-3 win over the Yankees to take the series in front of a sellout crowd of 36,718.
It marks the first time this season that the Yankees (50-24) have lost a rubber game after winning each of their first six, leading to only four losses in 23 series.
With the speed the team displayed last night, the Red Sox’s nine stolen bases broke a single-game franchise record.
It also marked a tie for the second most steals the Yankees have given up in a single game in franchise history, trailing only 13 they allowed in 1907 games.
The Red Sox (37-35) took advantage of Trevino, who entered the night with the weakest arm among 60 qualified catchers, averaging 71.3 mph.
Trevino and Marcus Stroman were batting for six steals in the first before the Red Sox swiped four more against the Yankees’ bullpen.
On-base activity played a key role in the Red Sox taking a 4-1 lead, which the Yankees had cut to 4-3 by the sixth inning.
But after the Yankees blew a key chance to tie the game or take the lead in the seventh, the Red Sox blew it open by scoring three runs in the bottom of the seventh and two more in the eighth.
The Yankees will now be tasked with snapping back-to-back losses on Monday before welcoming the Orioles to The Bronx on Tuesday for a divisional matchup.
The Yankees received a scare in the seventh inning, when Anthony Rizzo collided with reliever Brennan Bernardino at first base and took a tumble that appeared to have stuck and/or landed on his right wrist.
Rizzo eventually got to his feet but left the game with what the Yankees called a “right arm injury”. He is set to see team doctors and undergo imaging on Monday in New York.
With Bernardino dropping a jumper from first baseman Dominic Smith on the play, the Yankees loaded the bases with no outs, trailing 4-3.
But the Red Sox brought on reliever Zack Kelly, who retired the next three batters to get out of the clock without scoring.
He started by throwing three straight balls to Gleyber Torres, who eventually streaked down the field for a three-run strike.
Trevino then struck out on three pitches before DJ LeMahieu smoked a line drive to right to center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela for the third out.
The night started with Aaron Judge smashing his 26th home run of the year, a sky-high blast from Kutter Crawford that lifted the Green Monster to put the Yankees up 1-0 in the first inning.
The Red Sox picked up the first steal in the bottom of the inning from Jarren Duran, and when he was stranded at second base, it set the tone for what was to come.
Stroman ran into trouble by walking Enmanuel Valdez with two outs in the second inning, which ex-Met Dominic Smith followed with a bloop to right-center field to put runners on the corners.
With Rafaela at the plate, Smith took a double, but Trevino couldn’t get a good enough hold on the ball and didn’t even throw it.
Rafaela then drove in two runs with a single up the middle that gave the Red Sox a 2-1 lead.
Stroman led off the third inning with a walk off David Hamilton, who returned to injury. Hamilton stole second, took third on Rob Refsnyder’s single to left field and then came around to score when Rafael Devers doubled.
In the fifth inning, the Red Sox pushed the lead to 4-1 off Stroman with more action on the bases.
Hamilton led off again with a single and promptly stole second on the first pitch to Refsnyder.
Two pitches later, he swiped third base, putting himself in position to score on Rafael Devers’ fly ball to center that went for a sacrifice fly.
Trevino got some revenge in the top of the sixth inning when he led off with a home run over the Green Monster, his eighth of the year.
Anthony Volpe then provided some solid basics of his own.
After a single, he picked up a pitch that Juan Soto grounded to second and made it all the way to third.
That made him score on a wild pitch to make it a 4-3 game.