Yankees pick up 13 hits in Game 2 to earn doubleheader split with Red Sox

After the unpleasantness of the afternoon — a Game 1 loss to the Red Sox that featured ugliness across the board — the Yankees rebounded Saturday night.

They earned a split of their day-night doubleheader with their fiercest AL East rival, taking a 9-2 victory in front of 44,260 at the Stadium.

The Yankees (77-59), who dropped a 6-0 decision in a hard-on-the-eyes first game, lead the Red Sox (74-62) by three games for the American League’s top wild-card spot. The winner of Sunday’s game will have a 7-6 edge in the season series and a tiebreaker advantage. The Yankees, who have alternated wins and losses in their last nine games, trail the AL East-leading Rays by 4 ½ games.

After laying an egg in the first game, accumulating all of four hits and dropping to 12-for-89 with two runs scored in a three-game span, the Yankees erupted in Game 2, outhitting the Red Sox 13-6. Luis Garcia Jr. had three hits and Ben Rice had three RBIs.

“A lot of contributions up and down [the lineup],” Aaron Boone said. “Good night for us to salvage one of these two today.”

The most critical inning was the third, when the Yankees scored three runs, getting an RBI single from Rice, an RBI on a forceout by Garcia and a sacrifice fly from Jazz Chisholm Jr.

Max Fried, activated from the injured list to make the Game 2 start but on a pitch count of 60 to 65, allowed one run, three hits and a walk in 3 2⁄3 innings. He threw 63 pitches (39 strikes).

Nick Sogard’s leadoff homer in the third gave the Red Sox a 1-0 lead, but Jose Caballero sparked the three-run bottom half with a leadoff single.

Trailing 3-1, the Red Sox failed to score in the sixth after getting the first two runners on base because Paul Blackburn, quietly having one of the best seasons of any AL reliever, came in and quickly dispatched the next three hitters.

Boston did get within 4-2 in the eighth, but an RBI single by Amed Rosario and two-run singles by Austin Wells and Rice in the bottom of the inning made it 9-2. The five-run inning made it unnecessary to go to closer David Bednar, taxed in recent weeks like the rest of the Yankees’ late-inning relievers.

The solid top-to-bottom performance from the roster in Game 2 kept the Yankees’ overall ineptitude in Game 1 — especially in the top of the fifth — from being the storyline of the day.

With the Yankees trailing 1-0 on Wilyer Abreu’s two-out homer in the first inning, Carlos Rodon retired Caleb Durbin to start the fifth. Adley Rutschman singled and Andruw Monasterio hit a liner right at Rosario. The second baseman made the catch but threw wildly to first trying to double off Rutschman, putting him in scoring position.

“I think a good throw gets us a double play there,” Rosario said through his interpreter.

Instead, Rodon, who had been throwing reasonably well, did not make it out of the inning. He allowed an infield single by Sogard that put runners at the corners, and with Eli White at the plate, he threw a 2-and-2 slider up and away.

The ball glanced off Ali Sanchez’s glove and Rutschman took off for home. He arrived at the same time Rodon did and barely beat the tag to make it 2-0.

An irate Rodon yelled “No!” upon seeing the safe call by plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt on the passed ball, although he later acknowledged that Rutschman was safe.

He then walked White and, with his 88th and final pitch, hit Jahmai Jones to load the bases.

Yerry De Los Santos got out of the jam, but with the Yankees again struggling to hit a Red Sox lefty starter — on Saturday afternoon, it was Jake Bennett — the 2-0 lead seemed much bigger.

“I knew a slider was coming,” Sanchez said of possibly being crossed up on the passed ball. “It was just a misfire, but I should catch that ball.”

The top of the fifth came on the heels of an inning in which the Yankees ran themselves out of tying the score at 1-1.

Rosario reached on a one-out error and advanced to second on Rutschman’s passed ball. Heliot Ramos then hit a drive to center and Ceddanne Rafaela got twisted around, allowing the ball to drop on the warning track for a double.

After necessarily straggling between second and third to see if the ball would be caught, Rosario inexplicably and unnecessarily retreated almost entirely back to second to tag up. That proved costly as he was thrown out at the plate after an aggressive send by third-base coach Luis Rojas.

“I need to put myself in a better position to score,” Rosario said. “If I’m in a better position, I can definitely score there.”

Aaron Boone did not blame Rojas. “[Rosario] got himself stuck in a position where his momentum wasn’t good, and with one out, we gotta be in a better position to score more seamlessly there,” he said. “It took two perfect throws. That’s a tough one in the moment.”

Boston added four runs in the ninth against Ryan Yarbrough to put the game out of reach.

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.