A night after the New York Yankees saw Masahiro Tanaka get destroyed by the Boston Red Sox and allow a Xander Bogaerts’ home run to leave Fenway Park, we saw an encore performance on Friday night.
After James Paxton allowed a leadoff home run to Mookie Betts, J.D. Martinez stepped into the box and matched Bogaerts’ achievement from the night before with another blast out of the ballpark.
While Paxton didn’t quite reach the seven-run disaster Tanaka experienced in the first inning on Thursday, he still needed more than 30 pitches to escape the inning with three runs allowed.
Boston might still be far behind New York in the standings, but its top hitters are loving every minute they get to face the Yankees’ starting rotation in this series. In less than 15 innings against New York’s pitching staff, Boston’s lineup exploded for 22 runs.
Even if the Red Sox don’t make another move at the trade deadline, they might be winners if New York’s rotation doesn’t get any reinforcements.