Josh Donaldson homered for the third time in as many games and Matt Carpenter added a solo shot to lift the visiting New York Yankees to a 12-5 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Friday.
Donaldson belted a three-run homer in the first inning, and Carpenter and Gleyber Torres each had three hits and drove in two runs. Joey Gallo added a two-run triple in the third inning for the Yankees, who have scored 34 runs during their three-game winning streak.
Miguel Castro (5-0) allowed one hit and struck out three batters in 1 1/3 scoreless innings to pick up the win in relief of Nestor Cortes.
Boston’s Trevor Story and Bobby Dalbec each launched a solo homer and Rob Refsnyder had a season-high four hits. Christian Vazquez had a two-run double and joined J.D. Martinez with three-hit performances for the Red Sox, who have lost four straight games and fell to 9-20 against American League East opposition this season.
Boston’s Rafael Devers, who earlier in the day was chosen the starting third baseman for the AL All-Star team, exited the game after the fourth inning due to lower back pain.
Torres’ RBI single to left-center field opened the scoring in the first inning before Donaldson deposited a 2-1 changeup from Connor Seabold (0-2) into the seats atop the Green Monster in left field. The homer was the ninth of the season for Donaldson.
Vazquez halved the deficit with a two-run double in the first inning before Carpenter answered with an RBI double in the second. Gallo tacked on two more runs in the third, though he was thrown out at the plate in a bid for an inside-the-park homer.
Seabold took the loss after permitting seven runs on nine hits in 2 2/3 innings. He walked two and struck out two.
Carpenter sent a 1-0 fastball from Michael Feliz over the wall in right field to lead off the fourth inning. The homer was the ninth in 24 games for Carpenter this year after he had seven in 180 games stretched over the 2020-21 seasons.
Donaldson scored on a throwing error to extend the Yankees’ lead to 9-2 later in the fourth.
Solo homers by Story and Dalbec in the fourth and Refsnyder’s run on a groundout in the sixth trimmed New York’s advantage to 9-5. The Yankees, however, answered with solo runs in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings.
Lucas Luetge pitched 3 1/3 scoreless inning for his first save of the season.
New York won the opener of the four-game series 6-5 on Thursday.
–Field Level Media