doubleheader-opening 6-0 loss<\/a>, the Yankees cracked the Red Sox staff, pulled away late and rode tired arm after tired arm to a 9-2 victory in the nightcap \u2014 built on the strength of 13 singles.<\/p>\nA total of 91,580 fans across two games in The Bronx watched a long day of baseball that did not alter the race for the top wild card. The Yankees (77-59) maintain a three-game edge on the Red Sox in the American League wild card race, and the tiebreaker \u2014 should the teams finish with the same record \u2014 will be decided Sunday. The teams are 6-6 against the other before the series finale. The Rays (81-54) won and moved 4 \u00bd games clear of the Yankees.<\/p>\n
In what is certainly the biggest Yankees series of this month and arguably the second biggest of their season (behind next month\u2019s four games against the Rays), and in a head-to-head battle with the Red Sox that features eight total All-Stars, arguably the most important Yankees on Saturday night were Yerry De los Santos, Michael Fulmer, Paul Blackburn, Tim Hill, Brent Headrick and Brendan Beck, who combined for 5 \u00b9\/\u2083 innings in which they let up just one run.<\/p>\n
New York Yankees\u2019 Ben Rice, left, scores on a Jazz Chisholm Jr. sacrifice fly in the third inning during the second baseball game of a doubleheader against the Boston Red Sox on Aug. 30, 2026, in New York. AP Photo\/Corey Sipkin<\/p>\n
There were all sorts of hitting, fielding and decision-making concerns after a Saturday opener in which manager Aaron Boone acknowledged, \u201cWe played poorly.\u201d They played most poorly with their bats, held down by a second Red Sox lefty (Bennett, who threw six scoreless innings) in a series Boston stacked as many southpaws as possible to exploit a Yankees weakness.<\/p>\n
The first two games of the series included just seven Yankees hits \u2014 Paul Goldschmidt\u2019s Friday home run the only run-scorer \u2014 and 20 strikeouts. Of those seven, all were scattered: They had not logged multiple hits in any frame.<\/p>\n
With a righty on the mound, they finally broke through in the nightcap\u2019s third inning. Against Brayan Bello, who followed lefty opener Alec Gamboa (1 \u00b9\/\u2083 scoreless innings), they exploded for the only three runs they would need.<\/p>\n
There were good at-bats with helpful results, like Jos\u00e9 Caballero\u2019s leadoff single. There was good baserunning, like Caballero\u2019s ensuing steal of second. There was good situational hitting, like Luis Garc\u00eda Jr. just making contact with the bases loaded for an RBI fielder\u2019s choice and Jazz Chisholm Jr. following with a sacrifice fly.<\/p>\n
New York Yankees\u2019 Luis Garc\u00eda Jr., right, hits into a fielder\u2019s choice, scoring Trent Grisham, in the third inning during the second baseball game of a doubleheader against the Boston Red Sox on Aug. 30, 2026, in New York. AP Photo\/Corey Sipkin<\/p>\n
A good game became a laugher in the eighth, when the Yankees sent 10 batters to the plate against lefty Raymond Burgos and took advantage of sloppy Boston defense to run away with the game.<\/p>\n
Not that the bullpen needed the cushion.<\/p>\n
A group that was forced to cover 9 \u00b2\/\u2083 total innings Saturday because Carlos Rod\u00f3n (4 \u00b2\/\u2083, two runs in his third outing since an injured list stint) and Max Fried (3 \u00b2\/\u2083 innings, one run in his first outing back) was outstanding.<\/p>\n
New York Yankees pitcher Max Fried (54) walks to the dugout after pitching the first inning against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
The Yankees bullpen ensured that one bad inning from Bello is all the club required. Fried was lifted in the fourth inning with William Contreras on first for De los Santos \u2014 who had pitched just a few hours ago in the opener. <\/p>\n
Yet the increasingly reliable De Los Santos recorded the last out of the frame and two more in the fifth, when Fulmer \u2014 brought in earlier this week \u2014 entered and escaped the inning.<\/p>\n
Blackburn (who threw 19 pitches Friday and 22 Wednesday) looked fresh. As did Hill, who pitched a clean seventh, and Brent Headrick (pitching on a back-to-back), who let up an RBI triple from Willson Contreras but nothing more. After the Yankees lineup exploded in the eighth, it was Beck and not David Bednar for the ninth.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo beyond the box score with the Bombers\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Yankees by Greg Joyce, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
On a day they had one official loss, the Yankees will hope they did not suffer another with their shortstop.<\/p>\n
George Lombard Jr. twisted his right knee<\/a> on a second-inning check swing and remained in the game until he was lifted before the top of the fourth with what the club called discomfort that required tests. Caballero moved from third base to shortstop and Amed Rosario entered at third.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All over The Bronx on Saturday night was relief. From a Yankees offense that finally awoke, first with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[35539,3472,54119,34720,20,9,11,10,321,319],"class_list":["post-333030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-aaron-boone","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-jose-caballero","tag-max-fried","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}