It was fitting that the last pitcher for the Boston Red Sox in the opener of the Yankees rain-forced doubleheader at Fenway Park today was named Chris Martin. Because the Yankees have put on some cold play.
Clarke Schmidt once again tried to fill a hole in the Yankees' starting rotation, and once again widened it. And the Yankees did him few favors. Jake Bauers led off the game with a ground-rule double. After Giancarlo Stanton took a dubious called 3rd strike, Gleyber Torres hit a home run to make it 2-0 Yankees. The rest of the way, the Yankees only had 3 baserunners, 2 hits and a walk.
Schmidt got into trouble in each of the 1st 4 innings, but got out of it without allowing a run each time. His luck ran out in the 5th, and the Sox tied the game. Michael King came in for the 6th, and he was awful, allowing 3 runs. The Sox got another run in the 7th, off Nick Ramirez.
Red Sox 6, Yankees 2. WP: Nick Pivetta (4-4). No save. LP: King (1-3).
With Aaron Judge in the lineup, the Yankees are 30-19, and scoring 5.0 runs per game. Without him, they are 9-13, scoring 3.5 runs per game. Big difference. How big is it? Over the last 11 games, Stanton is batting .132; over the last 12, Anthony Rizzo is at .089; and over the last 28, DJ LeMahieu is at .181. As Rito Moreno might have said on The Electric Company, "That was terrible, that was horrible, that was nasty."
The nightcap of this doubleheader is set to start at 7:00, on ESPN. Luis Severino starts against Bryan Bello.