London Stadium was the place to be last weekend, and crowds were thrilled with the outstanding hitting performances by the NY Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. Despite their strong performance, the Red Sox were taught a lesson, and the Yankees are now poised to run away with the AL East.
By Benyamin Davidson
In Saturday’s game, the Yankees took an early 6-0 lead in the first inning, the Red Sox quickly tied the score, but the game ended with a 17-13 victory for the Yankees. On Sunday, with of crowd of over 59,000, the Red Sox attacked Stephen Tarpley, Yankees pitcher, for four runs in the opening inning, scoring three home runs, but ending up losing the game 12-8.
“Right now, they are a lot better than us,’’ conceded Alex Cora, 43-year-old manager of the Red Sox whose club is now 11 games out of first. Last year, the Red Sox won the World Series championships, for the ninth time, making them tied for the third-most World Series Championships of any MLB team.
As reported by the NY Post, the Yankees have now earned 13 wins out of the 14 games, raising the NY team’s record to 54-28. In the two games against the Red Sox in London, the Yankees scored 29 home runs, producing 31 hits. It took until the eighth inning Sunday, but the Yankees homered for the 31st straight game and extended their MLB record. DJ LeMahieu , the 30-year-old star, went 3-for-6 and made two runs. LeMahieu boasts a .345 batting average, and the versatile second baseman leads the AL and has 61 RBIs.
Batting star and outfielder Aaron Judge, lavished generous praise on his teammate. “How many is he driving in?’’ Judge asked. “It is not if he is going to drive them in, it’s how many. It’s been a pleasure to play with him. It is just a professional at-bat.”
The question on many people’s minds was, how the teams racked up so many homeruns in the London ball park, which was built for soccer. “I don’t know. What I can tell you is that we are two good teams with good offenses,’’ answered Gary Sanchez, Yankees catcher, who facilitated a two-run single in the seventh inning but who left the game in the eighth after a slight injury to his left thumb. “Things like this are going to happen.’’
“I felt like we had a really good chance there, with our offense, to break through,’’ Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of using Ottavino. “It was the right spot for Otto. He came in and did his job and obviously the offense exploded.’’ Boone downplayed the victory, and rightfully says there is a long way to go in the season, which is not yet past the halfway point. For the Red Sox, though, the season has already been a long road and they have a gloomy outlook for the championships, trailing by 11.
