Yankees and Red Sox slug it out just like the old days

The Yankees out-slugged the Red Sox 10-7 in the second game of their first series this season as the two teams also slugged it out on the field.

The Yankees came back from a humiliating loss and stopped the high-flying Red Sox’s winning streak at nine games. The club’s bats came alive with four runs in the first inning, knocking out Red Sox starter David Price.

The good news is that six of the Yanks’ 12 hits in the game came from Giancarlo Stanton, who went 3-for-5 with a triple and three RBI, while Gary Sanchez homered twice and doubled, driving in four runs.

Brett Gardner and Aaron Judge added two hits apiece, with Gardner scoring three runs and Judge scoring twice. Didi Gregorius chalked up two RBI with a couple of sacrifice flies.

The other run scored by the Yankees came from an RBI single off the bat of first baseman Tyler Austin in the third inning. Austin then set in motion the slugfest on the field with a hard, but legal slide into second base to stop a double play — catching Red Sox shortstop Brock Holt with a cleat in the left leg.

The play caused the two dugouts to empty after Holt started a verbal assault on Austin before tempers were calmed without any punches thrown. The play was challenged by the Red Sox, and rejected because that kind of call is not reviewable under MLB rules.

Masahiro Tanaka seemed to be cruising, allowing just one run on a solo homer by Hanley Ramirez, Masa had a low pitch count in the bottom of the fifth inning with the Yankees up 8-1.

Suddenly, the Red Sox’s bats came alive, scoring six runs, highlighted by a run-scoring double by Mookie Betts, and then a two-out grand slam by J.D. Martinez, bringing the score to 8-6.

The Yankees bounced back with two runs in the sixth inning, before bringing in Chad Green who shut down the Sox in the bottom half of the inning, just before the ‘brouhaha’ in the top of the seventh.