Red Sox @ Yankees Game Thread/ 22nd- 25th September

At Least This Matters

It’s Red Sox-Yankees in September with history on the line. Despite everything else, this is fun.
By Dan Secatore@DanSecatore Sep 23, 2022, 12:09pm EDT 0 Comments


As a baseball fan, the only thing you can really ask for is that the front office puts in a good faith effort at competing, and your team plays meaningful games in September. Demand anything more than that and you enter the territory of the hopelessly entitled, populated by the likes of Duke, Manchester United, and Laker fans (and, according to just about everybody who calls it a traffic circle instead of a rotary, us).

Generally speaking, we’ve been blessed in this regard, getting to watch meaningful games not only in September, but in October and beyond. And it’s a blessing, too, that we get to play so many of these games against the Yankees. I wouldn’t have said that during the first two decades of my life, when years of jealously, overflowing frustration, and a sincerely-held belief that cosmic forces we’re conspiring against my favorite baseball team led me to wish for nothing more than to see New York’s American League baseball club finish the season 0-162, go bankrupt, and then be forced to dissolve as a corporate entity after a federal investigation revealed that the entire operation was a front for an illegal weapons smuggling scheme. But, praise be to Mark Bellhorn, that stage of my life has passed. Now I understand how lucky we are as fans to have this rivalry. When Red Sox-Yankees matters, there’s nothing more fun in American sports.

Last night, in September, with the leaves just starting to turn and the night air finally cold enough to wonder whether it was time to put the heat on again, the Red Sox played a game that mattered. It was broadcast on network television. It trended on Twitter. Visiting in-laws who didn’t much care about either team, or about baseball in general, kept checking in as I watched because they knew it mattered.

It did not matter in the way that most of us would have hoped. The Yankees already know they’ll be in the postseason in a couple of weeks; the Red Sox already know where they’ll be going on vacation in a couple of weeks. But it mattered on the field, in a way that’s arguably more fundamental to what the entire idea of sports and human beings trying to excel at them is all about in the first place. One very good baseball player was trying to do the single hardest and most important thing that anyone can do on a baseball field. Nine players arrayed on the field around him were trying to stop him from doing that. For one night, they did.

It was fun, is what I’m saying. Two veteran pitchers steadily worked through two dangerous line-ups. Two opposing stars locked in a batting title race tried to one-up each other in the batter’s box. One precocious rookie just figuring out how to navigate the big leagues laced a key homer at one of the game’s most important moments. It was fun to watch. And when we spend so much time in the weeds arguing about roster construction, and payroll, and financial flexibility, we can forget just how fun it can be.

If you believe, as I do, that the Red Sox front office has not put in a good effort to compete since 2019, but rather, has put in a somewhat cynical effort to compete only as much as they are able to do so while preserving a certain level of profit generation – and that they’re doing so more or less in a system of soft collusion with 29 other owners who have all decided that none of them should really be expected to eat into their profits at all – then this should not be read as excusing them. In fact, for as much fun as last night’s game was, it was also tinged with a certain melancholy in light of the fact that the game didn’t matter in the standings, too.

But I love baseball. And I think it’s important to not let the actions of baseball owners taint that love. A part of me thinks that, in continuing to enjoy the game on a fundamental level, I’m rebelling against a cynical financial system by showing the ownership class that the game remains far bigger than they are. It’s possible that this makes absolutely no sense. After all, it’s our emotional addiction to the game that allows them to so cynically profit in the first place. But whatever. It’s a meaningful Red Sox-Yankees game in September. If I’m so far gone that I can’t enjoy that, then there’s nothing about baseball I’ll ever enjoy again.

Game 150: Red Sox at Yankees lineups and notes
By Andrew Mahoney Globe Staff,Updated September 23, 2022, 1 hour ago

The Aaron Judge Watch continues, as the Yankees slugger is still at 60 home runs with 13 games remaining after going 0 for 2 with three walks Thursday, a game the Yankees won, 5-4, in 10 innings.

The series continues Friday night, with Rich Hill on the mound. Judge is 2 for 4 with no homers against the crafty lefty.
Related: In pursuit of history, Aaron Judge’s walk on the wild side starts quietly
Lineups

RED SOX (72-77):


1. Enrique Hernandez (R) 2B
2. Rafael Devers (L) 3B
3. Tommy Pham (R) LF
4. Alex Verdugo (L) RF
5. J.D. Martinez (R) DH
6. Triston Casas (L) 1B
7. Rob Refsnyder (R) CF
8. Reese McGuire (L) C
9. Yu Chang (R) SS


Pitching: LHP Rich Hill (7-7, 4.70 ERA)

YANKEES (91-58):


1. Aaron Judge (R) CF
2. Giancarlo Stanton (R) DH
3. Gleyber Torres (R) 2B
4. Josh Donaldson (R) 3B
5. Oswaldo Cabrera (S) RF
6. Jose Trevino (R) C
7. Isiah Kiner-Falefa (R) SS
8. Marwin Gonzalez (S) 1B
9. Aaron Hicks (S) LF


Pitching: RHP Gerrit Cole (12-7, 3.41 ERA)

Time: 7:05 p.m.

TV, radio: Apple TV+, WEEI-FM 93.7

Red Sox vs. Cole: Abraham Almonte 1-1, Christian Arroyo 1-5, Xander Bogaerts 7-34, Triston Casas 1-1, Yu Chang 1-3, Bobby Dalbec 0-7, Rafael Devers 7-28, Kiké Hernández 5-14, J.D. Martinez 8-34, Reese McGuire 1-11, Tommy Pham 9-24, Rob Refsnyder 0-4, Alex Verdugo 6-25


Yankees vs. Hill: Harrison Bader 0-6, Josh Donaldson 0-3, Marwin Gonzalez 0-4, Aaron Hicks 2-4, Kyle Higashioka 1-2, Aaron Judge 2-4, Isiah Kiner-Falefa 2-5, Anthony Rizzo 2-8, Giancarlo Stanton 2-11, Gleyber Torres 0-5, Jose Trevino 1-4

Stat of the day: Judge is hitting .459 (34-for-74) with 11 homers and 19 RBIs during his 21-game on-base streak, raising his average from .293 to an AL-best .316.

Batting title chase: Bogaerts went 0-for-5 Thursday to lower his average to .314 and fall two points behind Judge. He is 7-for-34 (.206) lifetime vs. Cole and is 4-for-21 (.190) against him since the righthander joined the Yankees following the 2019 season.

Notes: Hill is 1-2 with a 6.62 ERA in his past four starts and is 4-2 with a 3.52 ERA in 14 career appearances (six starts) against the Yankees and has won his past four starts against them. … Cole is 7-3 with a 4.28 ERA in 14 career starts against the Red Sox, including 2-0 with a 5.48 ERA in four starts this year.

Song of the Day: Stone Temple Pilots - Trippin' On A Hole In A Paper Heart

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVPzWkdhwrw

Red Sox’s Alex Cora: Aaron Judge’s future is going to be ‘bright and very green’

Published: Sep. 23, 2022, 5:57 p.m.

Aaron Judge

Yankees' Aaron Judge runs toward the dugout during the first inning against the Red Sox on Thursday. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)AP
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NEW!
By

Christopher Smith | csmith@masslive.com

NEW YORK — Aaron Judge has belted 60 homers and is one away from tying Roger Maris for the Yankees’ single-season record.

The focus has centered on Judge’s home run pursuit but the Yankees also are chasing a championship. They clinched a postseason spot here Thursday.

Then there’s also Judge’s pending free agent this coming offseason. There’s no shortage of storylines here in New York.

“I think he’s a great ambassador of the game,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said about Judge before Friday’s game. “Obviously, they (the Yankees) have other things to do this season. They have their goals and all that. But I think obviously the future is going to be bright and very green.”
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Judge is going to get paid big money this offseason after he turned down a seven-year, $213.5-million offer on Opening Day.

“I’ve seen a lot of things this year with him that’s a lot different from previous years,” Cora said. “There’s a lot of conversations in between innings with other players on the field. He’s doing that a lot. And just details like that. It seems like he’s enjoying this atmosphere more than ever. He’s having a lot of fun out there. Of course. If I had 60 homers, I’d be having fun, too.”

Cora pointed out how Judge joked with Gleyber Torres when the Yankees used Torres as a fourth outfielder down the right field line Thursday.

“He’s making fun of him and the people are going nuts,” Cora said. “I think he has embraced the season since day one. He’s been really good. That’s the way I see it. It seems like he’s a good kid. I’ve never had the chance to talk to him. Just from afar, it seems like he’s a very respectful kid that understands what it takes to play on this stage. It’s not easy. And he goes out there, he runs hard all the time to first, he plays good defense and he hits homers.”

Judge was asked earlier this month if he would consider signing with Boston in the offseason.

“Oooh. We’ll talk about that at the end of the year,” he said.

I always find it interesting that hurricanes from the south can bypass NYC and still hit Canada.  Anyway, good luck.

See, now we have the real question.  YES has today's game.  Does anyone want YES to share its rights with Apple TV, ESPN, or the regular free channels?  The obvious answer is 'of course not'.  I'm not sure why the writers (and the village idiot Leticia James) don't realize that this is a capitalist country.

Apple+ paid good money for last night's game hoping that it would be a pre-playoff showdown between last year's playoff teams.  It didn't work out that way, Apple+ lost its gamble and some expected revenue, but got lucky with Judge.

YES also paid good money.  They got unlucky last night that they didn't have the game, but got really lucky they have the rest of the games.  This is the way capitalism works.  You pay your money based on your best analysis, and you live with the results.  There is no sharing in baseball (Ton Hanks).