The Yankees didn’t just need a bounce-back Saturday night. After getting blanked 6-0 in the first game of the doubleheader, they needed to show some life, some force, some sign that the day’s first beatdown wasn’t going to linger. They did all of that and then some, rolling past the Red Sox 9-2 at Yankee Stadium to split the twin bill and create some breathing room in the American League Wild Card race.
New York is now 77-59 and sits 3 games ahead of Boston for the AL’s top Wild Card spot. The split also leaves the season series knotted at 6 games apiece.
Ben Rice was at the center of the turnaround. He finished 2-for-5 with 3 RBIs, and his night fit the tone of the whole offense: constant pressure, traffic on the bases, and damage without waiting around for one swing to do everything.
Boston struck first when Nick Sogard hit a solo homer off Max Fried in the third inning, but the Yankees answered right away. Jose Caballero opened the bottom half with a single and stole second.
Trent Grisham walked. Rice then tied it with a single to right-center, and a throwing error helped Grisham move to third.
From there, Luis García drove in a run with a groundout, and Jazz Chisholm Jr. added a sacrifice fly. In a flash, a 1-0 deficit had become a 3-1 Yankees lead.
That inning mattered because it showed a different kind of offense. This wasn’t a night built around waiting for a three-run blast. The Yankees moved runners, stole bases, put the ball in play and kept Boston under pressure.
Fried’s return was part of the story too. Making his first start since August 13 after coming back from his second injured-list stint with a bone bruise in his left elbow, he wasn’t asked to do much.
Fried threw 63 pitches over 3 2/3 innings, allowing 3 hits and 1 run while striking out 4 and walking 1. The only real damage was Sogard’s homer.
The point wasn’t length. It was getting him back on a big-league mound, checking how the elbow held up and moving him closer to being fully stretched out again.
New York added another run in the sixth when Spencer Jones lifted a sacrifice fly to score García. Boston trimmed it to 4-2 in the eighth on Willson Contreras’ RBI triple, but that was the last gasp before the Yankees slammed the door.
Cody Bellinger and García started the bottom of the eighth with back-to-back singles. Amed Rosario knocked in Bellinger.
Spencer Jones then reached on an infield single to load the bases, and Austin Wells followed with a 2-run single. Caballero kept the inning alive with another hit, and Rice capped the burst with a 2-run single to center.
Five runs. Seven hits. No home runs needed.
That may have been the best sign of the night.
García finished 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored. Rosario went 2-for-2 with an RBI.
Caballero had 2 hits and swiped his 31st base. Wells drove in 2.
The Yankees finished with 13 hits and scored 9 runs for the fifth time since the All-Star break.
There was one concern mixed into the win: rookie shortstop George Lombard Jr. left after the third inning with right knee discomfort and will undergo imaging at NewYork-Presbyterian. Lombard had already singled before leaving.
He apparently tweaked the knee on a check swing in the second inning, stayed in long enough for another at-bat, then came out. Caballero shifted from third to shortstop, and Rosario moved to third.
Now the Yankees get Sunday’s chance to do more than split. Will Warren will start the finale against Boston left-hander Ranger Suárez. After the way they answered in Game 2, the next test is simple: bring that same approach again and take the series.
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