Things looked bad in the top of the first inning when Jacoby Ellsbury led the game off with a single to center. Price recovered to get both Gary Sanchez and Aaron Judge to strike out but Matt Holliday singled. Starlin Castro grounded into a force to end the inning. The Sox mustered nothing against Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka in the bottom of the first inning. Mr. Mookie Betts grounded out to short to start before Andrew Benintendi struck out. Dustin Pedroia grounded out to third to end the inning.
Price had a much easier top of the second inning as Didi Gregorious flied out to right to begin. Clint Frazier looked at strike three and Garrtt Cooper flied out to right to end the inning. Tanaka cruised in the bottom of the second inning as Mitch Moreland grounded out to second to start. Hanley Ramirez grounded out to third and Jackie Bradley Jr struck out to end the inning.
Ronald Torreyes singled to open the top of the third inning but was erased on the force by Ellsbury. Sanchez grounded out and Judge lined out to end the inning. The Sox struck first in the bottom of the third inning although Brock Holt grounded out to start. Christian Vazquez singled but Tzu-Wei Lin flied out. Mr. Mookie finally ended the long drought with a 2 run bomb into the Monster Seats to give the Sox a 2-0 lead. Benny The Kid grounded out to short to end the inning.
Pitching with the lead, Price began to dominate in the top of the fourth inning. Holliday grounded out to short as did Castro. Gregorius struck out to end the inning. Pedroia looked to get things started with a single to open the bottom of the fourth but Moreland banged into a double play. Ramirez struck out to end the inning.
Price whiffed Frazier to begin the top of the fifth inning but Cooper doubled to left. Torreyes struck out and Ellsbury grounded out to end the inning. JBJ doubled to begin the bottom of the fifth but Holt whiffed. JBJ moved to third on the ground out by Vazquez but Lin struck out to end the inning.
Price was unhittable in the top of the 6th inning as Sanchez lined out to left to start. Judge looked at strike three and JBJ made an amazing catch to rob Holliday of a home run to end the inning.
Moved by JBJ's effort, the Sox added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth inning. Mr. Mookie lined one off of Tanaka and Castro threw it away, allowing Mookie to reach second. Benny The Kid grounded out to second but Betts moved to third. Pedroia slammed a single to score Betts to increase the lead. Moreland singled to put Tanaka on the ropes but he let himself off by striking out Ramirez and JBJ to end the inning. The Sox were now up 3-0.
More than enough cushion for Price although the Yankees made it interesting when Castro led off with a single. Gregorius flied out to left but Frazier singled. Price got out of the jam by getting Cooper to fly out to center and Torreyes to fly out to left to end the inning. Tanaka returned for the bottom of the seventh and struck out Holt to start. Vazquez flied out to right and Lin struck out to end the inning.
Price returned for the top of the eighth inning and snared a line drive by Ellsbury to start. Sanchez singled but Judge flied out to a running JBJ for the second out. Holliday whiffed to end the inning. That was 8 shut-out innings by Price when the team badly needed it.
Mr. Mookie got the bottom of the eighth started with an infield single. Mookie was erased on the force by Benny The Kid and Pedroia flied out to center. That was it for Tanaka as Chasen Shreve struck out Moreland to end the inning. Price had won the pitcher's duel.
Craig "The Buzzard" Kimbrel got the ball to close the game out in the top of the ninth inning. Castro struck out but Gregorius doubled. Frazier flied out to center and Brett Gardner pinch hit, only to walk. Chase Headley pinch hit for Torreyes and Kimbrel blew him away to end the game. The Sox had won it 3-0.
Hero of the Night is David Price. His 8 shut-out innings were huge considering the lack of offense shown by the Sox. It was a huge effort by Price.
The Good:
Mookie Betts was 3 for 4 with 2 runs scored and a 2 run home run.
Dustin Pedroia was 2 for 4 with an rbi.
Jackie Bradley Jr was 1 for 3 with a great catch to boot.
Christian Vazquez was 1 for 3 with a run scored.
Craig Kimbrel earned his 24th save with a scoreless ninth.
The Bad:
Andrew Benintendi was 0 for 4 with a strikeout.
Hanley Ramirez was 0 for 3 with 2 strikeouts.
Brock Holt was 0 for 3 with 2 strikeouts.
Tzu-Wei Lin was 0 for 3 with 2 strikeouts.
The Ugly:
Mitch Moreland was just 1 for 4.
Final Thoughts:
That was a little better but still frightening how the Sox can't hit these days. Even though the Sox won, they still only scored 3 runs. For those scoring at home, in the last 3 games the Red Sox have scored a combined 4 runs in 34 innings. Still, a win is a win and Price was outstanding. For all the criticism he's taken, he stepped up big tonight. Kimbrel also made the Yankees look silly and apart from Doug Fister, the pitching has been solid this week. The offense though, different story. Let's take a look at the stats......April 26 - 1 run in 9 innings. April 27 - 0 runs in 9 innings. June 6 - 5 runs in 9 innings. June 7 - 0 runs in 9 innings. June 8 - 1 run in 9 innings. July 15 - 5 runs in 9 innings. July 17 - 1 run in 16 innings. This afternoon - 0 runs in 9 innings. Tonight - 3 runs in 9 innings. That's 9 games, 88 innings and just 16 runs. When was the last time a contending Red Sox team was dominated like this? Even when the Yankees would win the season series 10-15 years ago there would be slugfests mixed in with close losses. These games are either grinders or not even close. This also isn't the Manny Alexander/Craig Grebeck Red Sox teams either, this is 2008 AL MVP Dustin Pedroia, last year's MVP runner up Mookie Betts and last year's Cy Young winner Rick Porcello that can't catch a break. The win propelled the Sox to 52-41, 4 games ahead of the Yankees for first place in the AL East. Tomorrow night the Toronto Blue Jays come to town for a four game set. Eduardo Rodriguez gets the start opposite Marcus Stroman a 7:10 PM at Fenway Park.
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