Martinez smacked a ground-rule double out to right field to break up the no-no. The Yankees ace did have some shaky control, especially relative to his typical standards, but it didn’t really matter because there was nothing in the way of hard contact.īoston was held without a hit until J.D. Going up against Gerrit Cole, they just couldn’t get anything going. That was basically the game right there, as the Red Sox were not in a position where they were mounting a ton of offense. The only issue is Kyle Schwarber just misplayed it and let it fall in behind him, bringing home a seventh run that would be charged to Eovaldi. That brought Hirokazu Sawamura to the mound, and he should have gotten out of it with a quick pop up. With the hole now 6-0, Eovaldi gave up another base hit, and then after recording two outs he issued a walk to end his night. He got a 2-2 cutter down and in and somehow muscled it the other way for a three-run shot, and the rout was on. Rizzo started the inning by scraping a double high off the Monster, and after a walk to Judge, Stanton came up. And sure enough, the wheels fell off in the third. He did get a 1-2-3 second, but even that had some ominously hard contact. Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty ImagesĪnd sure enough, it just didn’t get any better for Eovaldi as the night went along. That extra run really shouldn’t feel like all that much, but it felt like a back-breaker. Instead, Gleyber Torres hit a base hit to make it 3-0. If he could get out of it with just a 2-0 deficit, there was some positivity. He did allow one more on a ground out, but then a fly ball that was too shallow to score the third run came down for out number two. Instead, Judge settled for an RBI double to put New York on the board right away.ĭespite the early deficit, it did seem like Eovaldi might be able to escape without the inning getting too bad. He left a splitter up in the zone on the inner half to Aaron Judge, and was extremely fortunate it wasn’t hit 600 feet. Anthony Rizzo followed that with another base hit, and then Eovaldi made perhaps his worst pitch of the night. The tone was set right away when Eovaldi got to two strikes on DJ LeMahieu, but the Yankees leadoff man fought through the at bat and eventually smacked a base hit to start the game. ![]() Unfortunately, Eovaldi just couldn’t miss bats, and the Yankees jumped all over him early and often. He needed to keep that up for this game, because this Yankees lineup is one that is extremely hard to beat if you’re giving up a bunch of contact. His five-pitch mix has been on another level of late, and he’s been missing a ton of bats. We learned that the hard way on Friday.Īlthough Eovaldi had been the best pitcher on the team by a long shot in this second half - and all year, obviously - he didn’t look like the same guy in this game. That doesn’t mean he will always come through in a big spot, though. ![]() The way he pitched in 2018, I think that conversation is forever out of the question with him. Nathan Eovaldi is, as we all know, no stranger to pressure, and not the type of pitcher with whom we worry about that sort of the thing. The offense did get one big inning off the Yankees ace, but that was too little too late and New York struck first this weekend. Nathan Eovaldi just didn’t have it, and Cole very much did in the first half of the night. ![]() Instead, the energy was sapped out of Fenway early and this was never much of a game. Taking place at Fenway with the two pitchers each team would potentially opt for if they were to make it to the one-game playoff - Nathan Eovaldi for Boston, Gerrit Cole for New York - it was setting up for an electric night. Friday was very much a potential Wildcard Game preview, aside from just being a huge game to start a huge series in this race.
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