Yankees refuse to let George Lombard Jr. injury derail cathartic blowout win over Red Sox

Coming off as depressing a showing as they've had all season in the makeup game this afternoon (a rescheduled June game and it looked like it), the Yankees opened the nightcap silently as well. But any depressed fan who thought they knew the ending was proven wrong, then very wrong, then astoundingly wrong.

Down 1-0 in the bottom of the third, the Yankees rode a Ben Rice RBI single and a pair of productive outs to a 3-1 lead they never relinquished. A 10-pitch Spencer Jones at-bat made it 4-1 against Brayan Bello, and "27th man" Raymond Burgos was entirely unable to contain the Yankees' attack in the eighth, letting the game unravel as New York added five more.

The only blights on this one? Brent Headrick added another earned run to his ERA, and shortstop George Lombard Jr. left early after tweaking his knee at the plate in the second inning. Lombard played through it and reached base, then came to the plate again and laced a 98 MPH line drive.

If the issue is semi-serious, then his pain tolerance is ridiculous. Still, Lombard Jr. left for tests mid-game - and his replacement, the much-maligned Amed Rosario, laced a double off the wall to score the game's fifth run. The Yankees' offensive outburst was a pretty thorough response to the Lombard Jr. bummer - which also coincided with some nasty discourse about his error-prone defense. The spotlight giveth and taketh away.

Yankees may lose George Lombard Jr. as Red Sox gain Roman Anthony in finale

Nice of the Mayor of Worcester to decide to show up after the Yankees made it official that Boston could no longer win this four-game series. Hope the couple of extra days in The Woo were worth it.

Anthony's locker, along with Trevor Story's, were cleared out in the Triple-A clubhouse after the game, as Boston decided the time was finally right for reinforcements ... right as the biggest series of the season to date was ending and Will Warren prepared to take the mound.

While the Yankees couldn't manage to activate their bats and sweep the doubleheader, they made a significant statement in winning two very different kinds of night games in a 24-hour period. Lombard Jr. deserves a breather and the Yankees deserve their kudos, but if they can navigate a vacated bullpen one more time - with David Bednar lurking after the Bomber bats kept him in the 'pen on national television Saturday night - then they've got a shot to really make things interesting.

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