Last night the Yankees welcomed the Red Sox for the first game of their final series of the season. On the mound for Boston was Cooper Criswell and for New York, it was Nestor Cortes. Both pitchers had very solid nights in what ended up being a very low-scoring game. Each let up just one earned run, with Criswell striking out four and Cortes nine.
The Yankee’s first run came on a solo shot from Gleyber Torres in the top of the first inning. Boston’s lone run was a homer off the bat of Danny Jansen in the top of the fifth inning.
After a bullpen battle from the fifth to ninth inning, the game went into extra innings. In the bottom of the 10th, the Yanks subbed out Torres for the speedy Jon Berti as their ghost runner. Juan Soto snuck a single passed a Red Sox infielder, scoring Berti and giving NY the win 2-1.
When asked how he went about his final plate appearance Soto said, “I try to sit in one spot on the plate, definitely try to drive the ball to the middle…whenever I go to two strikes, I change my approach, I try to pull the ball a little bit, I try to make sure it gets over…but definitely find the hole.”
He continued, telling reporters he was very pleased with his first walk-off in pinstripes, “The crowd, my teammates and everybody, I mean, those guys they were running hard on me,” he said. “I just did not know where to go…it was a fun way to finish the game”
The Yanks now take a two-game lead over the Orioles for the AL East lead, while the Red Sox are now 4.5 games back of the final wildcard spot with 15 games to go. Game two of this series will start tonight at 7:05 p.m. on Apple TV+.
