|
ON THIS DATE (July 21, 2013) ...
Mike Napoli came to the plate in the eighth inning on with a chance to be the hero. The Red Sox had the bases loaded with one out in a tie game with the Yankees. Napoli grounded into a double play and extra innings followed. When Napoli came to the plate again, this time on Monday
morning, he didn't miss his second opportunity. Napoli belted a home run to straightaway center field in the 11th inning to end a wild night at Fenway Park as the Red Sox beat the Yankees, 8-7. He was mobbed by his teammates at home plate after ending the thrilling victory over the Yankees.
At that joyous moment for the Red Sox, it hardly mattered at all that Napoli had struck out three times. All that was relevant was the sheer force Napoli put into that solo rocket of a walk-off homer against Yankees reliever Adam Warren that landed in the bleachers in straightaway center.
By the time Napoli reached home, the strong-armed David Ortiz had ripped the first baseman's jersey open.
Earlier in the night, Napoli hit a towering blast that soared over the Green Monster and onto the street to turn a 3-1 Yankees lead into a 4-3 edge for Boston. On this evening, Napoli produced more power than he did between June 2 and July 5, when he went
deep just once.
Through their first 100 games, the Red Sox have 60 wins, nine of which have come via a walk-off hit.
The first two innings were ugly as Ryan Dempster threw 50 pitches, the Sox committed two errors, and the Yankees built a 3-0 lead. The game lasted four hours and 46 minutes and had multiple personalities. By the time the Yankees overcame a four-run deficit,
it was a 7-7 game entering the bottom of the seventh. From there, it evolved into a fierce bullpen duel in which the Yankees never went to Mariano Rivera, instead holding him out for a save situation that never came.
And the Red Sox, who are without Andrew Bailey and Andrew Miller for the rest of the season, utilized two relievers at the end of the game who have spent most of the season in the Minors. Lefty Drake Britton worked a scoreless 10th, working around a hit and
a walk. Righty Pedro Beato, the sixth Red Sox reliever, got the win by keeping the Yankees off the board in the 11th. Beato, a native New Yorker, won his second game with the Sox. The Red Sox bullpen threw 5 2/3 innings, allowing one earned run.
Dempster recovered from a shaky opening and left with a 7-4 lead. Over 5 1/3 innings, Dempster give up six hits and five runs, just three of which were earned. Thought it was hardly his best performance, Dempster did outpitch C.C. Sabathia, who continued a
strangely mediocre season by giving up nine hits and seven runs over five-plus innings.
After Jonny Gomes put Boston up, 7-3, with a solo homer in the fifth, the Yankees climbed back into it in the sixth. Brett Gardner came up with an RBI single that knocked Dempster out of the game. On came lefty Craig Breslow, who was greeted with a
line-drive single to center by Ichiro Suzuki, then an RBI single to left by Robinson Cano that slimmed Boston's edge to 7-5. But Breslow made the pitch he needed, getting an inning-ending double play off the bat of Lyle Overbay. Eventually, New York
did climb all the way back. With two on and one out in the seventh, Junichi Tazawa came on for Breslow. Chris Stewart dropped down a bunt, and third baseman Jose Iglesias committed the third error of the night for Boston, making a wild throw to first. That allowed
a run to score, slimming the deficit to a run. Luis Cruz tied it up with a fielder's-choice grounder.
Ultimately, a hard-fought battle came down to a huge swing by Napoli. The Sox are 6-3 against the Yankees this season.
Jose Iglesias went 1 for 5 in the Red Sox' 8-7 11-inning victory Sunday, extending his slump to 10 for 50. Shane Victorino was back in the lineup after missing Saturday's game with a sore left hamstring, an issue that has dogged him for weeks. He went 2 for
5, hitting a two-run single in the fourth.
|
.jpg)
