NEW YORK (AP) — Garrett Crochet retired 17 consecutive batters after allowing Anthony Volpe’s second-inning homer, pinch-hitter Masataka Yoshida lined a go-ahead, two-run single off reliever Luke Weaver, and the Boston Red Sox beat the New York Yankees 3-1 on Tuesday night in their AL Wild Card Series opener.
Crochet improved to 4-0 against the Yankees this year, throwing a career-high 117 pitches in a marquee duel of ace left-handers against Max Fried. Crochet struck out 11 and walked none over 7 2/3 innings while allowing four hits.
Pitching with a lead after Yoshida’s go-ahead hit in the seventh, Crochet extended his streak of retired batters until Volpe singled with one out in the eighth. Crochet’s final pitch was his fastest at 100.2 mph, which Austin Wells took for a called third strike.
Ex-Yankee Aroldis Chapman retired José Caballero on a flyout to finish the eighth, and Alex Bregman, playing his 100th postseason game, hit an RBI double in the ninth off David Bednar.
Paul Goldschmidt, Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger loaded the bases with consecutive singles starting the bottom half, but Chapman recovered to get the save when he struck out Giancarlo Stanton, retired Jazz Chisholm Jr. on a flyout and fanned Trent Grisham.
Boston improved to 13-12 against the rival Yankees in the postseason, winning nine of the last 10 meetings.
Game 2 in the best-of-three series is Wednesday night.
Crochet threw the most pitches in a postseason game since Washington’s Stephen Strasburg tossed 117 against St. Louis in 2019.
Fried pitched shutout ball for 6 1/3 innings but a Yankees bullpen that had a 4.37 ERA during the regular season, 23rd among the 30 teams, faltered again.
Weaver relieved with no one on, got ahead of Ceddanne Rafaela 0-2 in the count, then walked him on 11 pitches.
Nick Sogard grounded a hit into right-center, hustling to second when Judge didn’t sprint to pick up the ball. Yoshida lined the next pitch, a fastball at the letters, to center for a 2-1 lead.
Weaver had a 1.05 ERA in his first 24 appearances, was sidelined for 2 1/2 weeks by a strained left hamstring, then had a 5.31 ERA over his final 40 games.
Fried got 19 swings and misses, striking out six and walking three while allowing four hits in 6 1/3 innings. He escaped a second-and-third, two-out jam in the fourth, then first-and-second, one-out trouble in the fifth.
Volpe, who slumped to a .212 average this year, put the Yankees ahead when he drove a sinker to the opposite field, where the ball landed a half-dozen rows into the right-field seats. Volpe’s drive would have been a home run in all but one big league stadium: Fenway Park.
Up next
Yankees LHP Carlos Rodón (18-9, 3.09 ERA) and Red Sox RHP Brayan Bello (11-9, 3.35) start Wednesday.
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