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The Red Sox were down to their final strike and on the verge of losing for the tenth time in their last eleven Friday games. The opportunity they squandered the previous inning felt like the best chance they were going to get for a comeback, and with it gone, defeat felt immanent.
But Masataka Yoshida had other ideas. On the eighth pitch of his at bat, in front of a stadium full of screaming Yankee fans who thought it was the last of the night, he took Clay Holmes deep:
Boom! To extra innings we go for the second time in as many games!
Actually, Justin Slaten had to get through the bottom of the ninth inning first, but he set the Yankees down so fast on six pitches, it almost felt like that frame didn’t even happen.
With the Yankees back on their heels, Ceddanne Rafaela immediately ambushed the first strike he saw from Tommy Kahnle and delivered what proved to be the game’s knockout punch.
Embedded in the euphoria of the moment and the setting are the potentially even more wonderful nuggets of who hit the home run and to where. Ceddanne Rafaela, known mostly for his glove and versatility, went deep to just right of dead center field at Yankee Stadium to win a baseball game. In a park the gives up a ton of cheap home runs, that certainly wasn’t one of them!
The Red Sox signed Rafaela to an eight year extension at the start of the season figuring if they could get anything out of his bat, he’d be a worthwhile player. Now, he’s got ten bombs on the year, and he’s launched enough of them to certain parts of the ballpark to let you know, they’re legit.
While he’s never going to be a power first guy, he’s a 22-year-old energetic staple of the next Red Sox core, and he’s now showing he might have 20 home run pop in the bat as well as the ability to take a clutch at bat late in games. He’s an absolute joy to watch, and it seems like he’s impacting the game in a positive way for the Red Sox almost every night now.
As a side note, I just love this picture of him showing off his muscle rounding the bases. The entire moment was just perfect!
So, to tie this all together, Ceddanne Rafaela and Masataka Yoshida each had the biggest hits of their Red Sox careers within minutes of each other, and they came in a fashion that wounded the Yankees. Inject that into my veins!
Three Studs
Masataka Yoshida: For his game tying home run in the ninth
Ceddanne Rafaela: For his game winning home run in the tenth
Alex Cora and the Bullpen: This is the part of the game that could easily get lost, but I want to underscore it and go into some detail here because I think it’s extremely important.
In the fourth inning, the Red Sox were imploding. Tanner Houck came out of the early rain delay and didn’t have command of any of his pitches. He got away with it in the third inning because of some hideous base running by the Yankees seen here:
But in the fourth, he wouldn’t be so lucky. After walking Juan Soto and Aaron Judge to lead off the inning, he ended up in a bases loaded, one-out situation when his own defense let him down.
We’ll get to more of Valdez in a moment, but this is where the game could have easily caught fire and gotten out of control. And that feeling only amplified after Houck walked the next batter, Anthony Volpe.
But Alex Cora snuffed it out and made the move that planted the seed for the fireworks later in the evening. He pulled Houck for Bailey Horn who got out of the inning with only an additional RBI groundout, and from there, the Yankees never scored again for the rest of the night.
This is where the game turned. As good as Houck’s been all year, as low as his pitch count was (68 pitches), and as much bullpen as they had to use yesterday in the 12-inning game against the Marlins, it would have been so easy to give him a little more rope. Instead, Cora pushed the right button the bullpen only walked a single guy the rest of the night.
Three Duds
Tanner Houck: Easily the most disappointing part of the night. This is two stinkers in a row for him. After getting lit up by the Padres last time out, Houck walked four guys and only struck out one tonight. Hopefully he rediscovers his form next time out.
Emmanuel Valdez: I don’t care that he had two hits, that double play absolutely needs to be made! This is not the first time his defense has jeopardized a game either. He’s a liability up the middle, and unless he can get the bat going more than he’s shown, he can’t keep getting this much playing time. The Sox are building a solid core up the middle, and I don’t envision him as part of that.
Wilyer Abreu: Pinch hit in the eighth inning when the Yankees were trying to give the game away and struck out when he needed to get the ball in play. He also struck out again in the tenth inning with Duran on second when they could have added some insurance runs. He ended up with a -.153 WPA despite only taking two at bats tonight.