Carlos Rodón was cruising.
By means of 4.2 innings on Sunday night time, the Yankees left-hander had held the Boston Purple Sox scoreless and restricted them to solely two baserunners.
Rodón, within the midst of an prolonged run of dominance, appeared properly on his approach to one other gem.
However the recreation shortly unraveled.
Rodón surrendered a pair of expensive residence runs within the Yankees’ 11-7 loss within the Bronx because the rival Purple Sox powered their approach to a sequence victory.
Kristian Campbell’s two-run homer tied the rating within the fifth inning, whereas Carlos Narvaez’s three-run shot within the sixth proved to be the game-winner. Each blasts got here on four-seam fastballs that Rodón left up within the zone.
These had been two of the 5 residence runs clubbed by the Purple Sox, giving them sufficient offense to outlive a pair of homers by Aaron Decide.
Purple Sox rookie Hunter Dobbins, in the meantime, picked up the win after declaring he’d relatively retire than play for the Yankees.
Dobbins regarded like he may very well be in for a protracted night time when Decide drilled a two-run residence run on the right-hander’s sixth pitch of the sport, giving the Yankees a 2-0 lead. However Dobbins settled in, and the rating remained the identical via 4 innings.
Boston’s solely hit within the first 4 frames was a third-inning infield single by Ceddanne Rafaela.
However with two outs within the fifth, Rodón walked Rafaela, then served up the homer to Campbell — simply contained in the right-field foul pole — that knotted the rating 2-2.
The Yankees retook the lead within the backside of the fifth when DJ LeMahieu shot a solo residence run into the right-field porch towards Dobbins.
However Rodón plunked Rafael Devers to start the sixth, then walked Rob Refsnyder earlier than Narvaez’s 372-foot residence run gave Boston a 5-3 lead. Narvaez spent 9 seasons within the Yankees’ system — and made his MLB debut with them final yr — earlier than being traded to Boston within the offseason.
That ended the night time for Rodón (8-4), who took the loss after giving up 5 runs on 5 hits and three walks in 5+ innings. Rodón totaled solely eight earned runs in his earlier 9 begins, a stretch by which he went 7-0 with a 1.27 ERA.
Dobbins (3-1) allowed three runs in 5 innings in his first-ever look towards the Yankees.
The son of a diehard Purple Sox fan, Dobbins added some juice to the rivalry when he advised the Boston Herald earlier than Sunday’s begin, “If the Yankees were the last team to give me a contract, I’d retire.”
Jazz Chisholm Jr. stated he appreciated the “spiciness” that trash discuss can carry to baseball, whereas Aaron Boone laughed off the 25-year-old Dobbins’ feedback and stated, “He’s young.”
In the end, although, Sunday’s recreation was all about offense.
Boston’s Abraham Toro and Trevor Story struck back-to-back homers towards Jonathan Loáisiga within the eighth, and Devers added one other solo shot off Brent Headrick within the ninth.
Decide hit his second homer — one other two-run bomb — towards reliever Robert Inventory within the backside of the ninth. Decide now has 23 residence runs.
It was the fourth multi-homer recreation of the season for Decide, who now has 43 in his profession. That tied him with Lou Gehrig for the third-most multi-homer video games in Yankees historical past.
After successful Friday night time’s sequence opener, the Yankees misplaced back-to-back video games towards the Purple Sox, who totaled 21 runs and 16 hits within the ultimate two video games.
The fourth-place Purple Sox (32-35) now path the division-leading Yankees (39-25) by 8.5 video games within the American League East.
The Yankees and Purple Sox are set to fulfill once more subsequent weekend for a three-game sequence at Fenway Park.
Earlier than then, the Yankees will journey to Kansas Metropolis for a three-game set towards the Royals, which begins Tuesday night time. Max Fried (8-1, 1.78 ERA) is slated to start out the sequence opener for the Yankees, whereas rookie left-hander Noah Cameron (2-1, 0.85 ERA) is scheduled to pitch for Kansas Metropolis.
