Christian Vazquez slides around Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez to score on a double by Marwin Gonzalez during Boston’s 5-2 win Friday night in New York. Frank Franklin II/Associated Press
NEW YORK — Rafael Devers hit a three-run homer in the first inning off Michael King, Marwin González added a two-run double and the Boston Red Sox beat the New York Yankees 5-2 Friday night in the first of the rivals’ 19 meetings this season.
Former Yankee Nathan Eovaldi (7-2) won his third straight start, taking a shutout into the sixth before tiring, and the Red Sox stopped their 11-game losing streak in the Bronx with their first win at Yankee Stadium since June 2, 2019.
“We haven’t had that much success since 2019 against this club here,” Devers said though a translator, “so it’s extremely important to be able to get these wins.”
After going their first 57 games without facing the Red Sox, the Yankees started a stretch of 14 games against Boston in their next 43. New York and Boston had not met for the first time this late in a full season since 1996, when their first game was July 1.
A season-high sellout crowd of 18,040, boosted by an easing of coronavirus restrictions, booed as the Yankees grounded into a pair of double plays that raised their major league-leading total to 54. New York lost for the eighth time in 11 games.
Gary Sánchez was jeered for a four-strikeout night that dropped his batting average to .198. He contributed to an 0 for 15 by the bottom four in New York’s batting order that included Rougned Odor (.182), Clint Frazier (.179) and Brett Gardner (.192).
Yankees hitters struck out 15 times, their sixth time over eight games in double digits and 29th time this season. Even the public-address system gave up early, starting Frank Sinatra’s rendition of “New York, New York” prematurely when Sánchez fouled off a 1-2 pitch with two outs in the ninth. Sánchez fouled three more pitches, then struck out.
Xander Bogaerts scored twice for Boston and had four hits in five at-bats after an 0-for-24 slide.
Eovaldi allowed two runs – one earned – and eight hits in six innings.
“With our struggles that we had last year, it’s kind of not a surprise to me now,” Eovaldi said. “But it’s a new year. We come in, we’ve got a chip on our shoulders.”
Hirokazu Sawamura struck out five around a walk over two innings, and Matt Barnes finished for his 13th save in 14 chances.
Judge hit his 14th homer in the sixth, a drive into the right-field short porch, and the Yankees got an unearned run when Odor’s two-out, two-on grounder clipped off González’s glove and ricocheted off a cheekbone, and the first baseman picked up the ball and threw wildly past first for an error. Frazier hit an inning-ending flyout.
King (0-3), replacing injured Corey Kluber in New York’s rotation, gave up four runs and six hits in 5 1/3 innings. He left a fastball on an 0-2 count over the plate at the letters to Devers, who drove the ball into the right field second deck. Devers has 15 homers and 46 RBI this season.
González, like Devers, came up with a two-out hit in the sixth and doubled again in the eighth.
K CORNER
King struck out Hunter Renfroe, González and Christian Vázquez on nine pitches in the fourth inning, becoming the seventh Yankees pitcher to strike out the side consecutively with the minimum pitches.
The feat has been said to have been accomplished 95 times. The others to do it for the Yankees were Al Downing (vs. Indians, Aug. 11, 1967), Ron Guidry (White Sox, Aug. 7, 1984), A.J. Burnett (Marlins, June 20, 2009), Iván Nova (Mets, May 29, 2013), Brandon McCarthy (Rays, Sept. 17, 2004) and Dellin Betances (Tigers, Aug. 2, 2017).
King followed in the fifth with his second four-pitch inning this season.
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