Yankees avoid four-game sweep by Red Sox as Jazz Chisholm Jr., Trent Grisham hit two homers each
Jazz Chisholm Jr. of the New York Yankees follows through on his second-inning home run against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium on Sunday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Humiliated during the first three games of their series with the Red Sox, the Yankees salvaged a sliver of dignity in Sunday night’s series finale.
The Yankees battered Boston pitching for four home runs — two apiece by Trent Grisham and Jazz Chisholm Jr. — and got a solid start from Carlos Rodon and 3 1/3 scoreless innings from their relievers as they beat Boston, 7-2, before 44,640 at the Stadium.
The Red Sox had won eight straight games between the two teams and lead the season series 8-2 with three games remaining.
The Yankees (70-60) moved within 5 1/2 games of AL East leader Toronto (76-55) and hold the second wild card, a half-game behind Boston (71-60) and a half-game ahead of Seattle (70-61).
Grisham, who hit solo shots in the third and fifth innings, has 25 home runs and four multi-homer games this season. His previous career high was 17. Chisholm, who hit two-run blasts in the second and eighth innings, tied his career high with 24 home runs and has three multi-homer games this season. His first homer was the 100th of his career.
Giancarlo Stanton doubled and singled as the Yankees outhit Boston 7-5.
Carlos Rodon left the game with a 5-0 lead in the sixth, but after he allowed his third walk of the inning with two outs, Luke Weaver allowed two inherited runners to score on pinch hitter Nathaniel Lowe's bloop single to right-center. Weaver, Devin Williams and Camilo Doval held Boston scoreless the rest of the way, striking out seven in 3 1/3 innings.
Doval, who has struggled since being acquired from the Giants before the July 31 MLB trade deadline, allowed a leadoff single by Lowe and a one-out double by Ceddanne Rafaela in the ninth but struck out Carlos Narvaez and got Msataka Yoshida to ground out.
Rodon (14-7, 3.24 ERA) finished with a solid final line, as he was charged with two runs and allowed only one hit in 5 2/3 innings. But he walked five,
The Yankees made one major shift for the series finale, sitting down shortstop Anthony Volpe and starting Jose Caballero. Volpe’s slash line since Aug. 2 was .121/.171/.242 entering play Friday, he was in a 1-for-28 slump and he’d made miscues in the field in Friday and Saturday’s losses. On Friday he threw to the wrong base in the ninth inning, giving Boston an extra out (it didn’t cash in), and on Saturday he made his AL-leading 17th error on a throw.
Manager Aaron Boone said Volpe “has “scuffled a bit over the last week [or] 10 days” and that Caballero — acquired from the Rays at the trade deadline and baseball’s top base-stealer with 40 — is a solid alternative. He did not commit to returning Volpe to the starting lineup on Monday when the Yankees open a three-game series against the Nationals at the Stadium.
The end of Rodon's 103-pitch effort was unsightly. After he sailed through the first five innings on 66 pitches, the Red Sox battled him for walks in three long at-bats in the sixth. Romy Gonzalez drew an 11-pitch pass with one out, Alex Bregman followed with an eight-pitch walk and Trevor Story drew a two-out, nine-pitch pass. According to statistician Katie Sharp, Rodon has issued an MLB-high 24 walks since the All-Star break.
Rodon had thrown 37 pitches in the sixth when he was removed with the bases loaded, and he shared his displeasure at how the strike zone was called by plate umpire Charlie Ramos. After allowing Lowe's two-run single, Weaver struck out Jarren Duran to end the inning.
Up 3-0 after the first homers by Grisham and Chisholm, the Yankees made it 4-0 in the fourth when Stanton doubled, took third on Chisholm's groundout and scored on Caballero’s sacrifice fly to deep centerfield.
Notes & quotes: Reliever Fernando Cruz, out since late June with an oblique strain, is likely to come off the injured list on Monday when the Yankees open a series against the Nationals. Cruz has appeared in 32 games this season and has a 3.00 ERA with 54 strikeouts in 33 innings.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
More Yankees headlines
