This is what a winning lineup looks like.
After the excitement and emotion of last night's game, tonight's turned out to be quite a snooze-fest. First, Derek Jeter decided to sit out this game--he'll DH tomorrow and Sunday. Then, Joe Girardi decided to give all of the regulars the night off. All of them. The entire lineup featured backups and prospects, with the exception of Chris Young, who has been getting a lot of playing time. Boston's lineup was much the same, and the Yankees ended up being able to take advantage of it to squeak out the win.
Boston got on the board first in the second inning after Allen Craig singled, then advanced to second due to a fielding error by Chris Young. Bryan Brentz got the RBI with a line drive to left. The Yankees tied things up in the third inning, after Perez reached on a passed ball, then Francisco Cervelli hit an RBI single off the left field wall. They went on to take the lead after John Ryan Murphy grounded into a force out and was able to advance on a throwing error by Mookie Betts. That error also allowed Cervelli to score. Yay, defense.
The Red Sox threatened in the fifth inning, but Antoan Richardson made a nice play to catch a deep fly ball hit by Brentz back at the bullpen wall. Although he failed to catch two balls popped into in foul territory tonight, Cervelli sort of redeemed himself by finally catching one this inning. The Yankees added on their final run of the night in the following inning, after Murphy hit a leadoff double, Austin Romine singled, and Zelous Wheeler hit a sac fly.
In his final appearance of the season, Chris Capuano pitched well, notching five strikeouts and only allowing four hits. Shawn Kelley relieved Capuano with two outs in the 7th inning and gave up a home run to Rusney Castillo on the very first pitch. Not good. Adam Warren, on the other hand, pitched a 1-2-3 8th inning with two strikeouts. With a 3-2 lead in the ninth inning, David Robertson was able to bounce back after last night's terrible outing with two Ks to earn the save.
Newest Yankee, Eury Perez, got his first hit in the majors today, a single. He followed that with his first stolen base. Perez is the 58th player to appear for the Yankees this season (Remember him for the Sporcle quiz that is bound to happen at some point).
Masahiro Tanaka will take the mound for one last time this season tomorrow at 1:05 pm EST against Joe Kelly. You don't want to miss that, nor do you want to miss Jeter's second to last game as a Yankee.