A pitchers’ duel between Cam Schlittler and Ranger Suárez on Sunday afternoon eventually gave way to a battle of the bullpens.
And while that meant another good day of Yankees pitching, they were at risk of wasting it because an Aaron Judge-less lineup lacked much punch for most of the game.
Turns out it was saving its best for last.
Cody Bellinger delivered a go-ahead blast in the bottom of the eighth inning before the Yankees piled on from there, leading to a 6-1 win over the Red Sox at a sold-out Yankee Stadium.
After Red Sox reliever Justin Slaten struck out the first two batters of the frame, Bellinger, arguably the Yankees’ most valuable all-around player so far this season, clobbered his ninth home run to break a 1-1 tie.
That marked the first of five straight batters to reach base, including an RBI single from Trent Grisham and a three-run homer from Jazz Chisholm Jr. against lefty Joe La Sorsa to give David Bednar some more breathing room in the ninth.
Fernando Cruz, Brent Headrick, Tim Hill and Bednar combined for 3 ⅓ scoreless innings in relief of Schlittler as the Yankees (38-26) split the two-game series with the Red Sox (27-36).
Facing his hometown team that he dominated in the AL wild-card series clincher last October, Schlittler was not quite as sharp but still plenty good as he held the Red Sox to one run across 5 ⅔ innings.
The only problem for the Yankees was that Suárez was even better, holding them to one run across 6 1/3 innings before his bullpen let him down.
Suárez retired the first nine Yankees in order before Paul Goldschmidt led off the fourth inning with a bloop single. One out later, Bellinger added another bloop single and one out after that, Grisham lined a single to center, though Goldschmidt was held at third.
That loaded the bases for Anthony Volpe, who drew a 3-0 count before flying out on a 3-1 pitch to end the threat.
But the Yankees broke the scoreless tie the following inning, as José Caballero doubled before Goldschmidt sliced a two-out single for the 1-0 lead in the fifth.
The Red Sox quickly tied it back up, though, in the top of the sixth while knocking Schlittler out of the game. After Ceddanne Rafaela singled, Willson Contreras came up with two outs and smoked a bullet off the base of the left-field wall. The Yankees may have had a chance to nab Rafaela at the plate, but Volpe’s relay throw was well up the line, allowing him to score easily on Contreras’ double.
Cruz then relieved Schlittler and got Masataka Yoshida to fly out to strand Contreras in scoring position.
The Yankees had another chance to score in the bottom of the sixth, after Grisham drilled a two-out double, but Volpe popped out on the first pitch he saw from Suárez.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
