BOSTON — Xander Bogaerts and Kyle Schwarber each homered, Nathan Eovaldi tossed 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball and the Boston Red Sox beat the rival New York Yankees 6-2 in the American League wild-card game Tuesday night.
Boston will face AL East champion Tampa Bay in a best-of-five AL Division Series starting Thursday in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Bogaerts hit a two-run blast in the first inning and Schwarber smacked a solo shot in the third. Eovaldi (1-0) allowed four hits, struck out eight and did not walk a batter. Alex Verdugo added an RBI double and a two-run single for the Red Sox.
Anthony Rizzo hit a solo home run in the sixth and Giancarlo Stanton hit one in the ninth for New York. Yankees starter Gerrit Cole (0-1) — who entered with a 5.06 ERA in six career starts at Fenway Park — allowed three runs on four hits, with three strikeouts, in two-plus innings.
It was the first meeting between the Red Sox and Yankees in the current wild-card game format. The teams played a one-game playoff in Boston for the AL East crown in 1978 when Yankees shortstop Bucky Dent — who was in attendance on Tuesday — hit his now-famous three-run homer over the Green Monster to win it.
In the first inning Tuesday, Stanton teased a solo blast with a towering fly ball to left field that bounced high off the Green Monster and ended up as a single.
With fans jeering Cole with chants of “Gerrit!,” Bogaerts crushed a two-out pitch from the Yankees’ starter into the center field bleachers following a Rafael Devers walk to put Boston ahead 2-0.
Schwarber homered over the Yankees’ bullpen in right field to lead off the home third and make it 3-0. Cole was lifted two batters later and was shown on the broadcast telling manager Aaron Boone “I’m out” during the mound visit.
Stanton nearly went deep again after Rizzo homered to make it 3-1 with one out in the sixth, driving a single off the wall in left. Aaron Judge was thrown out trying to score from first base after a relay throw home by Bogaerts.
Verdugo doubled in the sixth to restore Boston’s three-run lead and plated two on a bases-loaded single in the seventh.
–By Gethin Coolbaugh, Field Level Media