A third straight series win over the rival New York Yankees is within grasp for the Red Sox as the teams continue their three-game weekend set in Boston on Saturday night.
The series opener on Friday saw Boston score five unanswered runs to come from behind for a 9-7 win. Masataka Yoshida’s two-run single in the eighth inning proved to be the difference in a see-saw type game at an energetic Fenway Park, where the fans are getting increasingly loud.
“There’s a big difference between what’s going on here right now compared to earlier in the season,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said, per MLB.com. “With all due respect, it felt like a museum earlier in the season, the Fenway experience. But now, they’re into it and they like the team and understand who we are and what we’re trying to accomplish. Are we the best team in the big leagues? We’re not. We know that. But the way we go about it on a nightly basis, I know people are liking what they see.”
The Red Sox have a 5-2 lead in the season series, which concludes Sept. 12-15 with four games at Yankee Stadium.
Boston’s Kutter Crawford (6-8, 3.37 ERA), who is scheduled to start on Saturday, had won three straight outings before losing to the Dodgers last Sunday in Los Angeles. He allowed six runs on seven hits — including five home runs — over five complete frames.
“I just wasn’t as sharp as I had been,” Crawford said of his most recent outing. “Just left a few pitches over the middle of the plate, and they didn’t miss.”
Crawford will look to continue his career success against the Yankees, having gone 4-1 with a 1.96 ERA in eight career appearances (six starts) in the head-to-head series. He has three wins and a no-decision in his past four starts against New York.
The second of Crawford’s three recent victories overall was a seven-inning scoreless outing on July 7, capping Boston’s series win in New York.
Crawford will have a new mate in the rotation, as the Red Sox re-acquired left-hander James Paxton from the Dodgers on Friday. He spent the 2023 season with Boston.
“We’ll decide what we’re going to do in the upcoming days. I talked to him this morning. He seems excited,” Cora said.
The Yankees could not break from their recent rut on Friday, losing a third straight game and fifth in their past six.
Austin Wells joined Anthony Volpe and Aaron Judge in going deep for New York. Wells was 3-for-5 on Friday, hitting his sixth homer out of eight total in the past 20 games.
“You can read body language sometimes, and there’s some certain times where we’re hanging our head a little bit and you just need a little kick in the butt to get it going again,” Judge said.
Giancarlo Stanton soon could be returning to the lineup, as he is slated to skip a rehab assignment after dealing with a hamstring strain that has sidelined him since June 23.
“He’s physically probably at that point (where he could return), but we want to make sure he’s in a really good spot,” Yankee manager Aaron Boone said.
New York right-hander Marcus Stroman (7-5, 3.51) looks for his first win since June 22 when he makes the Saturday start. He took the loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday, allowing three runs (two earned) on five hits in 5 1/3 innings.
Stroman has allowed two earned runs or fewer in 11 of his 20 starts this season, but the Red Sox hit him for four in a June 16 loss at Fenway Park.
He is 7-5 with a 3.69 ERA in 17 career starts against Boston.
