BOSTON — Xander Bogaerts and Kyle Schwarber each homered, Nathan Eovaldi tossed 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball and the Boston Red Sox beat the rival New York Yankees (6-2) in the American League (AL) wild card game on Tuesday night.
Boston will face AL East champion Tampa Bay in a best-of-five AL Division Series starting Thursday in St. Petersburg, FL.
Bogaerts hit a two-run blast in the first inning and Schwarber smacked a solo shot in the third. Eovaldi (1-0) allowed four hits, struck out eight and did not walk a batter. Alex Verdugo added an RBI double and a two-run single for the Red Sox.
Anthony Rizzo hit a solo home run in the sixth and Giancarlo Stanton hit one in the ninth for New York. Yankees starter Gerrit Cole (0-1) — who entered with a 5.06 ERA in six career starts at Fenway Park — allowed three runs on four hits, with three strikeouts, in two-plus innings.
It was the first meeting between the Red Sox and Yankees in the current wild card game format. The teams played a one-game playoff in Boston for the AL East crown in 1978 when Yankees shortstop Bucky Dent — who was in attendance on Tuesday — hit his now-famous three-run homer over the Green Monster to win it.
In the first inning on Tuesday, Stanton teased a solo blast with a towering fly ball to left field that bounced high off the Green Monster and ended up as a single. — Reuters
