All over The Bronx on Saturday night was relief.
From a Yankees offense that finally awoke, first with a three-run third inning and later a five-run eighth. From a Yankees, well, relief corps that did not bend. From a Yankees club that escaped a very long day of baseball with the Red Sox no closer to pulling off what would be a historic comeback.
After the offense could do nothing right against lefty Jake Bennett in the doubleheader-opening 6-0 loss, the Yankees cracked the Red Sox staff, pulled away late and rode tired arm after tired arm to a 9-2 victory in the nightcap — built on the strength of 13 singles.
A total of 91,580 fans across two games in The Bronx watched a long day of baseball that did not alter the race for the top wild card. The Yankees (77-59) maintain a three-game edge on the Red Sox in the American League wild card race, and the tiebreaker — should the teams finish with the same record — will be decided Sunday. The teams are 6-6 against the other before the series finale. The Rays (81-54) won and moved 4 ½ games clear of the Yankees.
In what is certainly the biggest Yankees series of this month and arguably the second biggest of their season (behind next month’s four games against the Rays), and in a head-to-head battle with the Red Sox that features eight total All-Stars, arguably the most important Yankees on Saturday night were Yerry De los Santos, Michael Fulmer, Paul Blackburn, Tim Hill, Brent Headrick and Brendan Beck, who combined for 5 ¹/₃ innings in which they let up just one run.
There were all sorts of hitting, fielding and decision-making concerns after a Saturday opener in which manager Aaron Boone acknowledged, “We played poorly.” They played most poorly with their bats, held down by a second Red Sox lefty (Bennett, who threw six scoreless innings) in a series Boston stacked as many southpaws as possible to exploit a Yankees weakness.
The first two games of the series included just seven Yankees hits — Paul Goldschmidt’s Friday home run the only run-scorer — and 20 strikeouts. Of those seven, all were scattered: They had not logged multiple hits in any frame.
With a righty on the mound, they finally broke through in the nightcap’s third inning. Against Brayan Bello, who followed lefty opener Alec Gamboa (1 ¹/₃ scoreless innings), they exploded for the only three runs they would need.
There were good at-bats with helpful results, like José Caballero’s leadoff single. There was good baserunning, like Caballero’s ensuing steal of second. There was good situational hitting, like Luis García Jr. just making contact with the bases loaded for an RBI fielder’s choice and Jazz Chisholm Jr. following with a sacrifice fly.
A good game became a laugher in the eighth, when the Yankees sent 10 batters to the plate against lefty Raymond Burgos and took advantage of sloppy Boston defense to run away with the game.
Not that the bullpen needed the cushion.
A group that was forced to cover 9 ²/₃ total innings Saturday because Carlos Rodón (4 ²/₃, two runs in his third outing since an injured list stint) and Max Fried (3 ²/₃ innings, one run in his first outing back) was outstanding.
The Yankees bullpen ensured that one bad inning from Bello is all the club required. Fried was lifted in the fourth inning with William Contreras on first for De los Santos — who had pitched just a few hours ago in the opener.
Yet the increasingly reliable De Los Santos recorded the last out of the frame and two more in the fifth, when Fulmer — brought in earlier this week — entered and escaped the inning.
Blackburn (who threw 19 pitches Friday and 22 Wednesday) looked fresh. As did Hill, who pitched a clean seventh, and Brent Headrick (pitching on a back-to-back), who let up an RBI triple from Willson Contreras but nothing more. After the Yankees lineup exploded in the eighth, it was Beck and not David Bednar for the ninth.
On a day they had one official loss, the Yankees will hope they did not suffer another with their shortstop.
George Lombard Jr. twisted his right knee on a second-inning check swing and remained in the game until he was lifted before the top of the fourth with what the club called discomfort that required tests. Caballero moved from third base to shortstop and Amed Rosario entered at third.
