DJ LeMahieu, Domingo German lead Yankees to 9-2 victory over Red Sox

After a relatively low-scoring 4-2 win on Friday night, Saturday’s Yankees-Red Sox game went a little bit more like how last week’s Yankees-Red Sox series went. One team came out and scored runs early while pitching effectively, winning an easy game.

This time, the Yankees flipped the script from last week’s results, pounding out 14 hits in a 9-2 victory over the Red Sox.

Both teams traded home runs early. DJ LeMahieu led off the bottom of the first with a long opposite-field dinger off of Chris Sale, staking the Yankees to a 1-0 lead. After the Yankees stranded a runner, the Red Sox struck back when Andrew Benintendi launched a solo shot over the bullpen, tying the game.

The pitchers bounced back after the early home runs. Sale faced the minimum over the next two innings, and although the Red Sox threatened in the top of the fourth, putting two runners on with one out, German struck out Brock Holt and Mitch Moreland to escape trouble.

The Yankees rewarded German in the next inning. Singles from Edwin Encarnacion, Gio Urshela and Kyle Higashioka loaded the bases with two outs for recently-recalled Breyvic Valera, and he made the most of his chance. After Sale missed with two sliders, running the count to 2-0, Valera cracked a single into right field, giving the Yankees the one-run lead back. Alex Cora came out to talk to Sale, but Cora ended up ejected after challenging umpire Mike Estabrook’s strike zone.

Cora’s chat and subsequent ejection didn’t fire up the Red Sox, though. Brett Gardner promptly laced a two-run single, making it 4-1 Yankees. Then LeMahieu came up again, and lined a 2-1 changeup barely over the right field wall and into the seats, a three-run home run that extended the lead to 7-1. Thanks to some two-out thunder, the Yankees had blown the game open.

Aaron Judge, the ninth player to bat in the inning, kept things going by ripping a double down the left field line, and sending Sale out of the ballgame. Sale had already been visibly frustrated to that point, and was ejected by Estabrook after he let him know exactly what he thought about Estabrook’s strike calls. Colten Brewer came into the game for Boston, and Encarnacion welcomed him with an RBI single, capping the inning’s offense at eight runs. Encarnacion added another RBI single in the next inning.

Although Jackie Bradley Jr. clapped back with a solo shot of his own in the fifth, German struck out three more Red Sox over the next two frames, and left the mound pumped up after his seventh strikeout. He finished with seven innings of two-run ball, and earned his second win over the Red Sox in the week. Jonathan Holder closed things out with a quiet two innings of relief.

You won’t have to wait long for the next Yankees-Red Sox game – game two of the doubleheader starts at 7:00 ET. The Red Sox will start Brian Johnson, while the Yankees will go with a bullpen game.