Yankees 8, Red Sox 2: Bombers take crucial series in Boston

The Yankees pulled off a clutch victory on Saturday night and a solid, dominant win Sunday. Carlos Rodón turned in his second consecutive solid start to stifle the Red Sox offense, while Austin Wells and Alex Verdugo were stellar in powering New York’s own starting nine in an 8-2 triumph.

This game showed what the Yankees could be if some serious question marks are answered at the Trade Deadline—namely, the need for a leadoff hitter to get on base in front of Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, the need for a cleanup hitter, the need for length out of the starting rotation, and the need for the rest of the lineup to pull their weight.

Those things happened in this game, and, accordingly, the Yankees won a crucial rubber match against their archrivals. Verdugo started the night by ringing a double off of the Green Monster, and Judge drove him in with an opposite-field single to make it 1-0 Yankees after three batters. Verdugo has really shone this series. It also shows just how much the Yankees have been missing a consistent leadoff hitter in front of Soto and Judge. Getting consistent traffic on the bases in front of the two superstars is a must for the rest of the season.

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Another need for the Yankees is for the rest of the offense outside of Judge and Soto to get timely hits. Wells and Gleyber Torres helped in that regard in the first inning. Wells smacked a ground rule (really an automatic) double that sent Judge to third. Jazz Chisholm Jr. then struck out in his first at bat as a Yankee.

Torres drove Judge and Wells home with a sharply hit single before getting tagged out in between first and second.

It was refreshing to see Torres notch another clutch hit after his double in extras on Saturday night secured the victory. It wasn’t so refreshing to see him commit a dumb baserunning blunder that killed the rally. With Gleyber finally starting to come around, though, I’ll take the good with the bad that typically comes with Torres.

Carlos Rodón worked a 1-2-3 inning to start his night off. He used a pitch mix that had a healthy dose of changeups, in particular while striking out the lefty killer Rob Refsnyder. He was able to locate his fastball to induce bad swings and outs. The first three innings of Rodón’s outing went smoothly, letting up only one hit with three strikeouts in what can only be described as a welcome departure from his recent form.

The southpaw’s offspeed and breaking pitches looked really sharp tonight in the first three frames.

Speaking of sharp, Wells continued his hot hitting with a slap single to right, advancing to second after Tyler O’Neill bobbled the ball. He scored on a Ben Rice sacrifice fly to make it 4-0, New York. What was once steady improvement for Wells has turned into his emergence as a dark horse AL Rookie of the Year candidate, especially considering his steady defensive work. He entered today with a 1.019 OPS in July. Wells has really taken the opportunity presented by Jose Trevino’s absenteeism and ran with it.

Rodón’s great start turned rocky in the fourth. He gave up a mammoth home run to aforementioned lefty killer/erstwhile Yankee Refsnyder, who deposited a four seamer onto Lansdowne Street. Connor Wong scooped a poor slider over the Monster to make it 4-2. Rafael Devers then smacked a triple off of the Monster.

However, Rodón struck out the dangerous O’Neill, probably Boston’s most powerful righty, in an at-bat that included two fantastic changeups, though. He then got Romy Gonzalez to ground out to Volpe to make it two outs before he walked the freshly acquired Danny Jansen. Rodón struck out Ceddanne Rafaela to end the threat.

While the final slider was ultimately an uncompetitive pitch, that was just not an inning that Rodón was able to escape this past month and a half or so of play. He followed that up with an efficient 1-2-3 fifth inning, culminating in a strikeout of Refsnyder again on a changeup. Again, Rodón’s evolution and development of his repertoire is key to his future success.

Verdugo ripped his second two-bagger of the game in the seventh. Soto worked a walk after him to set up a Judge at-bat with two on and one out; the most dangerous hitter in the game was walked on four pitches. Wells then drove in Verdugo on a sac fly.

Again, Verdugo’s offensive performance in front of Soto and Judge this series shows just how much New York needs a leadoff hitter to get on consistently for Soto and Judge. Much like Rodón working out of a jam in the fourth, this rally was just not happening in the past six weeks. Maybe Verdugo heard Jasson Domínguez’s footsteps or maybe it’s playing against his former team in Boston, but whatever is making Verdugo regain his April form needs to continue.

Rodón entered the bottom of the seventh with 95 pitches. He was able to get Gonzalez to fly out before letting up a single to the Yankee killer Jansen to end his night. The biggest story for Rodón tonight was his effective use of the changeup. He was able to get swings and misses, racking up seven strikeouts while giving the Yankees’ bullpen some much-needed length.

Jake Cousins came on in relief of Rodón and promptly gave up a squib single to Rafaela to make it runners on the corners with one out. He worked out of the jam by painting a two-seamer in on Dom Smith and striking out Jarren Duran on a (probably missed) checked swing.

Cousins’ 33-percent whiff rate is in stark contrast to the rest of the ‘pen. What a find he’s been for the Yankees. He’s really gotten some big outs in tough situations for them during his brief tenure in pinstripes.

Chisholm picked up his first hit a Yankee, his infield knock staving off a hitless debut. He reached second on a grounder by Torres, but appeared to hurt his jaw or cheek by running into Gonzalez as he turned second. He showed some cheek by stealing third, which was unoccupied. He then scored on a sac fly by LeMahieu, who pinch-hit for Rice.

Here we had another sequence of play demonstrating what was missing from the Yankees during this horrendous stretch. Chisholm manufactured that run through attentive baserunning. He only reached first originally because of his speed. LeMahieu got the job done to extend the lead.

Caleb Ferguson came on to finish the job. It was only three matches, so it would be foolish to extrapolate off of this series. Still, these were thrilling wins, and the way this game was won felt like some demons were excised. Next up, the Yankees travel to Philadelphia to take on Zack Wheeler and the Phillies

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