Yankees clinch play off birth with historic victory
Photo: Howard Simmons/New York Daily News
After being put on the rack by the Red Sox in the previous three games, the Yankees clinched one of the two American League wild cards with their 10,000th win in franchise history.
Three solo homeruns by Carlos Beltran, Greg Byrd and Rob Refsnyder made the difference.
In the bottom of the second inning, Carlos Beltran put the Yankees on the board with a solo homerun to right center field on a 3-2 offering by Rich Hill. Walks by John Ryan Murphy and Didi Gregorius put Murphy in scoring position. The Yankees cashed in when Brendan Ryan singled to left field and drove in Murphy.
In the seventh, two Yankees got a basehit. With one out Greg Byrd hit a solo homerun to right center field and Didi Gregorius singled to center field on a line drive. But as the next two hitters struck out, Gregorius wasn’t able to score a run, even though he stole his fifth base.
Another solo shot was hit by Rob Refsnyder in the bottom of the eighth. Refsnyder slammed the first pitch that he saw over the left centerfield fence to give the Yankees a 4-1 lead. The Red Sox had scored their sole run when Mookie Betts singled to left field to drive in Deven Marrero from second.
Of all pitchers, C.C. Sabathia kept the Red Sox in check. The tall guy who is dealing with a sore right knee, limited the Red Sox to one run on six hits while walking and fanning three for the win (6-10). Adam Warren pitched three innings of one hit ball and Dellin Betances closed the game by retiring the side and striking out two.
Rich Hill worked six innings for the loss as he gave up two runs on four hits, walked three and struck out six.
How did the Duthcies do in this game? Well, Didi Gregorius went 1 for 2, raising his batting average by a point to .263. He walked once, struck out once, left a runner on base and stole his (aforementioned) fifth base of the season.
Xander Bogaerts couldn’t add some hits to his total as he went 0 for 2. Bogaerts walked twice and left three runners on base. Thanks to this, his batting average fell a point to .322.
Once again the Yankees needed the long ball to clinch the victory. A historic victory as the team won it’s 10,000th game in franchise history. It took the team 112 years to reach this fact as they won their first game nine days into the 1903 season.
The greatest play of the game was the behind-the-back grab of Adam Warren as he fielded Sandy Leon’s groud ball.
The Yankees will head to Baltimore for the final three games of the season.
It remains to be seen who will be their opponent in the AL Wild Card game. The Houston Astros have the best shot to clinch the second wild card but the Anaheim Angels are one game behind. If the Yankees will face the Astros, it is very likely that they will face Dallas Keuchel who will be a tough hurdle to take. The Astros’ starter is 19-8 with a 2.47 ERA and a WHIP of just over 1.00. He is limiting his opponents to an average of .215.