Red Sox rally on Verdugo walk-off hit, defeat Yankees, 6-5 in 10 innings

BOSTON — This is why the Yankees aren’t letting up. After a defensive misplay kept the door open a crack Saturday night, the Red Sox slammed it open to for a 6-5 ,10-inning win over the Bombers at Fenway Park.

After Josh Donaldson dropped the ball after fielding Xander Bogaerts’ grounder, missing a chance at a game-ending double play, Alex Verdugo slapped a line-drive, two-run single to give the Red Sox their seventh walkoff win of the season.

Advertisement

It snapped a three-game winning streak for the Yankees (61-24), who maintain the best record in baseball. The Red Sox (46-39) pulled within 16 games of the  Bombers in the American League East

Wandy Peralta, who had not let a run score in his last seven appearances, came in to finish it off. He gave up a leadoff single to former Yankees prospect Rob Refsnyder, advancing the ghost runner to third, but Christian Vazquz’s fly ball to right was too shallow and the Red Sox held the runner at third because of Gallo’s arm. Jeter Downs, named after the former Yankee Hall of Famer, singled on a grounder that got past a devising Gleyber Torres at second base. Aaron Judge had started a Yankees rally in the 10th.

Advertisement

He smashed a rocket of a line-drive off Jake Diekman, driving it to deep center field, scoring ghost runner Jose Trevino from second to give the Yankees a 4-3 lead. Anthony Rizzo smacked a one-out double to the right-field corner to score Judge and then was thrown out trying to steal third. Giancarlo Stanton struck out to end the inning.

Clay Holmes, who had walked five batters in 38 innings pitched, came in with one on and two out in the bottom of the eighth to face Xander Bogaerts. He walked him and then gave up a ground ball through the hole at shortstop to Alex Verdugo to tie the game. It was just the third of 17 inherited runners he has allowed to score this season.

Michael King, who had come in with two out and two on in the sixth inning and gotten Trevor Story in, had given up a two-out double to J.D. Martinez to set up what the Yankees had hoped would be a four-out save for Holmes. That run was the first run charged to King since June 26.

Holmes was back to himself in the ninth, striking out Bobby Dalbec and coaxing a soft grounder to shortstop from Franchy Cordero. Josh Donaldson made a tremendous stop on Jarren Duran’s sharp grounder to send the game into extra innings.

Jordan Montgomery allowed two runs on five hits and a walk. He struck out four over 5.2 innings. It was 13th start (out of 17) in which he allowed two runs or fewer. Michael King came in with two outs and two on in the sixth to bail the Yankees out.

Montgomery had the Yankees’ offense to help him out.

Hicks hammered his sixth of the season, a 392-foot shot to right-center field off Red Sox right-hander Kutter Crawford in the fifth inning. Gleyber Torres scored in the sixth on Anthony Rizzo’s double to take the Yankees first lead of the night.. Rizzo, who was back in the lineup after missing four straight games with back spasms, scored on Josh Donaldson’s single.

Hicks has been having a bigger impact of late. He  had multiple hits in the  three previous games, the fifth time in his career and the second time this season that he had more than one hit in three straight games. He went into Saturday night’s game hitting .435/.519/.913 three Hicks’s fifth-inning home run got Montgomery off the hook Saturday night, tying the game.

Advertisement

Montgomery had given up a lead off single to Xander Bogaerts in the second and allowed him to score on Bobby Dalbec’s single to give the Red Sox a quick 1-0 lead. He retired eight straight and worked around a one-out walk to Dalbec in the fifth. He gave up a leadoff, first-pitch home run to former Refsnyder in the sixth and back-to-back, two-out singles to Xander Bogaerts and Alex Verdugo to end his night.

The Red Sox, who are desperate for pitching right now, got five solid innings from the rookie right-hander Crawford. He held the Yankees to the one run on four hits and struck out six.