The New York Yankees will be looking for more from their offense Sunday night when they visit the Boston Red Sox for the final contest of a three-game series.
After beating the Red Sox 8-1 Friday, the Yankees were held to six hits in an 8-4 loss on Saturday. New York drew six walks but stranded nine runners. The Yankees were 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
“We had chances,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I don’t think we had a ton of hits. What, five or six hits? But we had some traffic. Couple chances to get back in the game. Got their starter (Cooper Criswell) out of there in just four innings because we really made him work. Overall I thought we were giving tough at-bats all night. We just couldn’t quite break through enough.”
Juan Soto is one Yankee who did break through. Soto hit his 18th home run of the season in the seventh inning, but it came with the bases empty.
“Impressive to watch him take an at-bat and the battle that it is,” Boone said. “Whether he’s 2-0 or 0-2 (in the count) it’s just kind of getting underway. It’s impressive what he continues to do.”
Boston used five pitchers in Saturday’s win. Kenley Jansen entered the game in the eighth inning with runners on first and third and recorded a four-out save.
Jansen retired Soto, Aaron Judge and Alex Verdugo in the ninth.
“One pitch at a time,” Jansen told Fox Sports after Saturday’s game. “Doing this for so long you just have to understand even though we have the pitch clock you gotta find a way to slow this game down and just go one pitch at a time. That’s an unbelievable lineup over there. Gotta give them credit, but at the same time I know what’s my best pitch and I just gotta go out there and do work.”
Sunday’s matchup features two right-handed starting pitchers. New York’s Marcus Stroman (6-2, 2.82 ERA) will be opposed by Boston’s Kutter Crawford (2-6, 3.47).
Crawford seemed to turn a corner in his last start, when he went six innings in a 4-1 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday. He recorded a season-high eight strikeouts and walked one. Two of the four runs the Phillies scored against him were unearned, with the other two coming on solo home runs by Kyle Schwarber.
Crawford had a 5.82 ERA in his six most recent starts leading up to Tuesday’s loss.
“Last couple (starts) I thought were trending in the right direction as well, and then (this) was kind of putting all that together,” Crawford said following Tuesday’s loss. “Obviously, Schwarber got me a couple of times there, but mechanically, pitch shapes, the way I was attacking the zone, felt a lot better.”
Crawford has pitched well against the Yankees. He has a 2-1 record with a 1.90 ERA in six games (four starts) against New York. He has 26 strikeouts in 23 2/3 innings.
Stroman tossed 5 2/3 scoreless innings during Tuesday’s 10-1 victory over Kansas City. He’s 7-4 with a 3.51 ERA in 16 career appearances (all starts) against the Red Sox.
–Field Level Media
