New York Yankees Recap: Michael Pineda Shuts Down Red Sox In Series Opener

After taking two out of three from the Oakland Athletics, the New York Yankees (47-39) began a three game series tonight at Fenway Park against the Boston Red Sox (41-46). It was a good pitching matchup on paper as Michael Pineda went up against Boston’s best starter, Clay Buchholz (7-7, 3.26). The Yankees’ offense would help out their starter by jumping out to a 4-0 lead and Pineda threw seven strong innings en route to New York’s 5-1 victory and their third straight win.

The Yankees would get the scoring started in the top of the first inning. With two outs, Alex Rodriguez crushed a Buchholz changeup over the Green Monster for a solo home run. His 17^th home run of the season gave the Yankees an early 1-0 lead.

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New York would tack on three more runs in the fourth inning. After a Brian McCann leadoff single, Didi Gregorius would double to left two batters later to put runners in scoring position. After facing Gregorius, Buchholz would leave the game with right elbow tightness.

Later in the inning, the Yankees had the bases loaded (thanks to a Mike Napoli error) and two outs and would begin to take advantage of some big Red Sox miscues defensively. Facing Robbie Ross Jr., Jacoby Ellsbury hit a routine groundout to second that Brock Holt bobbled, which allowed McCann to score. Then, Brett Gardner was able to beat Ross Jr. to the first base bag on a head first slide to make it 3-0. Finally, it was Rodriguez who drew a bases loaded walk to give the Bronx Bombers a 4-0 lead.

As for Michael Pineda (9-5, 3.64), he had a strong outing tonight against the Red Sox. He went 6.2 innings, gave up one run on seven hits, struck out six, and did not walk a batter on 89 pitches (68 strikes) to get his ninth win of the season. The only mistake Pineda made came in the bottom of the fifth. With one out, Mookie Betts hit a solo home run over the Green Monster for his tenth of the season to make the lead 4-1, Yankees.

Pineda would run into some trouble in the bottom of the seventh. With one out, Alejandro De Aza hit a bunt back to Pineda, who threw the ball away, and allowed De Aza to reach second. After Sandy Leon grounded out to first, Joe Girardi went to Justin Wilson to face Betts. The left-hander would strike out Betts swinging with a 96 mile per hour fastball to end the inning.

The Yankees would tack on one more insurance run in the top of the eighth. The inning began when Chris Young walked and Gregorius was hit by a Craig Breslow fastball. Later in the inning, Jacoby Ellsbury would hit a base hit to center field that scored Gregorius and extended the lead to 5-1. It was Ellsbury’s third RBI in the last two games.

After Dellin Betances struck out two batters in a 1-2-3 eighth inning, Andrew Miller came in for the ninth inning in a non-save situation. Despite Cole Figueroa making an error on a Hanley Ramirez ground ball to begin the inning, Miller would retire the next three Red Sox in order, including a strikeout of Shane Victorino to end the game.

Next Game: The New York Yankees will be back in action tomorrow night against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. You can catch the game on FOX at 7:15 PM ET. Ivan Nova (1-2, 2.65) gets the start for the Yankees against rookie Eduardo Rodriguez (4-2, 3.69) for the Red Sox.

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